Emmanuel

18/3/2012

S: Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and she shall give birth to a son. And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means: God is with us.

O: The Angel Gabriel had appeared to Mary to tell her she would bear the Messiah. Now he appears to Joseph, to reassure him that she hasn't been sleeping around on him and that she was telling him the truth about the virgin conception.

The Masoretic text, from which the Protestant old Testament is translated, was taken from the tradition of the Jews who did not believe in Jesus. In that text, this quotation from Isaiah 7:14,. says "young woman" instead of "virgin". So, did Matthew misquote the Bible?

Not at all: the Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by the Greco-Roman world of the time, says "virgin". (Greek was the "English" of that time -- the language "everyone" knew, the language of international communication.) The Masoretic text was preserved from the Palestinian branch of Jewish scriptural transmission, while the Septuagint was translated from the Alexandrian branch of Jewish scriptural transmission. This translation was done before Jesus' time. Later, the Jews who did not believe in Jesus did a new translation of the Old Testament into Greek, based on the Palestinian branch of Jewish scriptural transmission. This translation was motivated by the fact that the Septuagint was so widely used by Christians to support Christian teachings.

In any case, the small differences between the various scriptural transmission lines don't really change much. The general thrust of scriptural doctrine remains the same. God is with us, as the name "Emmanuel" points out. God has provided a Saviour to save us and bring us back to Him.

A: God is with us, so let us trust in Him.

P: Father, thank You for providing Jesus to save us! In Jesus' name, amen.

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Note: this is using the SOAP method. For more information, see this page (not written by me.)