Please critique

[josephback]

I’m thinking of including the following sentence in a book I’m writing on the Incarnation.

Jesus means “God is Salvation, or “God saves”. By saying Jesus will save His people from their sins, the angel all but tells Mary that her Son is Emmanuel, “God with us”.

The reason I’m doing it is the seeming discrepancy between Isaiah calling the child Emmanuel and the angel’s words to Mary. Does the explanation I give hold water? Thank you.

 

[edward_george]

Without some context and further information on your intentions for this, it’s hard to say. Please, elaborate.

-ACEGC

 

[josephback]

Well the book is called “The Story and Way of Salvation”. It traces the story from Adam and Eve, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and the Prophets; explaining Catholic teaching from a primarily covenant and Bible focused stance (it’s for a general audience). The sentence in question is in Chapter Two, “The Incarnation and Atonement”, and after mentioning Isaiah 7:14 earlier I sought to find an explanation for those who would object to the apparent name difference.I was going to explain the name Jesus as a connection with Joshua the sucessor of Moses(which I believe it is), but that still leaves one to explain(for the literalists) why Isaiah used Emmanuel. I’m not sure its a “Bible scholar” answer and right now the sentence stands pretty much alone as its a rough draft.

I’m open to resources (if you know any) that I could cite to help explain the Jesus - Emmanuel discrepancy.

 

[klm120861]

Emmanuel means “with us is God”. Joshua means “God is with us”. Jesus means the same. So all three names mean the same, just phrased slightly differently with Emmanuel and Jesus/Joshua. The major difference is linguistic. One being Greek, one being Latin, etc. It sound absurd, but looking at meanings of baby names will tell you which name has which origin, but in terms of the meaning of the names, they are all the same. Thus they can be used interchangably about the same person.

On a cultural note, here in the Southwest USA, it is common to find Latino (?) / Hispanic (?) (I’m not sure of the correct perferred designation for those who are family lines come from South of the border) boys named Jesus (pronounced Hay soos).

However, in families from European countries (especially those whose families are of Protestant descent) they would never think of naming their boy Jesus. However, Joshua is very common for boys among that culture.
I hope this helps.
Kris

 

[Petergee]

“Emmanuel” = “God with us” is really a title.

“Jesus” = “God saves” is the name that Mary and Joseph were commanded by God to call Mary’s son.
God didn’t command anybody to use “Emmanuel” as a name by which to address Him.