Isaiah 9:6 theophoric name?

[Dondonortega]

A non catholic friend argues that isaiah 9:6 is just a theophoric name given to jesus and doesn’t really mean Jesus was God. What can we say?

 

[BartholomewB]

Protestants, too, read this verse as a prophecy of Jesus Christ, both God and man. See p. 550, §3, in the Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures by Thomas Hartwell Horne, first published in 1818. Horne was a priest in the Church of England and an influential Bible scholar.

An introduction to the critical study and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures v.1.

 

[Todd_Easton]

In the Old Testament, not only is the word “god” applied to God but it is also applied to men, such as judges, who acted by God’s authority. (See John 10:34) Thus, the meaning of the word “god” in the verse in Isaiah 9:6 is ambiguous with respect to the divinity of the child prophesied to be born of the virgin; the child could be God or the child could simply be a man who would act by God’s authority.

 

[Hodos]

A non catholic friend argues that isaiah 9:6 is just a theophoric name given to jesus and doesn’t really mean Jesus was God. What can we say?

I would say that if you divest the reading of this scripture from the history that followed it, then this could certainly be true. However, we see the fulfillment of this prophecy in the life of Christ, and we see the further revelation that Christ was indeed God. So for example, John, who refers to Isaiah quite a bit understood this to be a literal fulfillment not just a theophoric name in Christ. We can see this is his prologue to the gospel of John where he even ascribes the creation of all things to the work of the Logos who became flesh and dwelled among us. We also see this in Paul in his epistle to the Colossians where Paul similarly ascribes the creation of all things to Christ. So if you looked at this passage in a vacuum your friend’s criticism could be legitimate, when we see it through the further revelation of Jesus Christ, we see that it was fulfilled quite literally.