Emmanuel or Jesus?

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Sean.McKenzie

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In Mt. 1:23 the angel gabriel says
Angel Gabriel:
““Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us)”
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However in Mt. 1:25
but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.
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So why did she not name Jesus Emmanuel?
 
Hi Sean,
I was not sure about this either, although I thought Emmanuel was a title of some sort. I ‘googled’ it, and basically, when you say “Jesus our Emmanuel”, it means “God with us.”

Peace be with you. 🙂
 
There are dozens of “names” for Christ predicted throughout the Old Testament (i.e. “he shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, and prince of peace”, etc). These are all legitimate ways of addressing Jesus, and are thus His “names”. There is no contradiction therefore in the New Testament between Emmanuel and Jesus. His name is indeed called Emmanuel by His followers, as well as Jesus.
 
Thank you for your responses,
First: My intention was not nor is, to point out an alleged contradiction.
Second: i am still in speculation, because yes, their are refrences that say he shall be called wonderful, counselor, prince of peace, etc. however these are titles, in the RSV-CE it says his name shall be called Emmanuel. not just he shall be called Emmanuel.
i know it seems a little hazy. I believe there are differences in titles relating to Jesus’ human nature, he is also called but not named, Wisdom.
 
I was under the impression that both names have similar meanings. Joshua(Jesus) means GOd is salvation and Emmanuel means God is with us.
 
The Latin Vulgate uses the term *nomen. *I don’t speak Latin (unfortunately), but from what I can glean from online sources, this word can mean “name” or “call”. So it can be accurately translated “He shall be called Emmanuel”. If anyone else knows Latin, maybe you can make sense of the full passage:

Ecce virgo in utero habebit et pariet filium et vocabunt nomen eius Emmanuhel quod est interpretatum Nobiscum Deus.
 
Dr. Colossus:
There are dozens of “names” for Christ predicted throughout the Old Testament (i.e. “he shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, and prince of peace”, etc). These are all legitimate ways of addressing Jesus, and are thus His “names”.
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Just don’t call Him late for Supper.
 
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Sean.McKenzie:
In Mt. 1:23 the angel gabriel says
However in Mt. 1:25
So why did she not name Jesus Emmanuel?
Click to expand...
Because the Immanuel -prophecy was not directly about Jesus.

What seems to have happened is, that a prophecy which was probably intended to refer to a Jewish prince (which is what the passage in Isaiah 7 suggests, if one takes all of it together: it does mention Assyrians, and Assyria had been defunct for 600 years by the time Jesus was born ) was re-applied to Jesus, in the realisation that it was in some ways even more appropriate to Him.

So it would apply to Jesus by a sort of Spirit-led re-interpretation of the OT text. (Re-interpretation is often to be seen in the OT itself - and in the New.)

As Jesus is indeed “Immanu-El”, “God with us”, the epithet would be exceedingly appropriate. It is for Him an epithet - not a personal name. So, no contradiction.

As for “His name shall be called…” - The ancient Semites - not the Israelites only, at all - thought of the name as disclosing the character of the person or thing named. To call some one’s name Emmanu-El, is the same as saying that that person is what he or she is called. This idea is very prominent in ancient ideas about creation: to call something by its name, is to bring it into existence, to make it operative.

See where Adam names the animals in Genesis 2 🙂 ##
 
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