The 165th claimed prophecy on the list is based on a mistranslation. In Hebrew the pertinent phrase in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:14 which reads in Hebrew: "וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּ אֵל" / v'kara't sh'mo Immanu'él. The last words are: עִמָּנוּ אֵל / Immanu' el. Matthew 1 mistranslates it. עִמָּנוּ אֵל / Immanu' el does not mean "G-d with us." It means "G-d IS with us." In context the prophet Isaiah is telling King Ahaz (700 years before Jesus) that G-d was with them in the wars they were fighting. In 735 BCE Syria (ruled by Rezin) and the northern kingdom of Israel (ruled by Pekah) were trying to invade Judah and overthrow King Ahaz. Needless to say King Ahaz was terrified, but the prophet Isaiah assured him that he did not need to worry -- because G-d was with Ahaz and the people of Judah. Ahaz had plenty to worry about -- 120,000 people were killed in one day! In Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:4 G-d tells Isaiah to go to the King and tell him "you shall say to him (King Ahaz), "Feel secure and calm yourself, do not fear, and let your heart not be faint..." Why shouldn't Ahaz worry? Why should he feel secure and calm? Because, as the prophet Isaiah tells the king, "G-d is with us." It is not "G-d with us" Isaiah is telling the king that G-d will keep him safe and his enemies will be defeated. This mistranslation in Matthew ignores the context and mistranslates the passage. It does not mean that G-d became a human and lived among the people. One could argue that even that is a mistranslation because the word translated as G-d in this passage is אל / el. אל / el can be a name for G-d, but it means a mighty or powerful one but it is actually a word meaning "mighty" or "power." When used to speak of G-d it speaks of His power and His might (as in אֱלֹהִים / elohim: mighty judge). . . but the אל / el term is used 238 times in the T'nach as a separate word and many, many more as parts of other words (אֱלֹהִים / elohim occurs about 2600 times). Thus וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּ אֵל could quite accurately could be translated as "Power is with us" or "Might is with us" as correctly as "G-d is with us." Let's translate וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּ אֵל / v'kara't sh'mo Immanu'él into English. "She will name him (call his name) G-d / Might / Power is with us." She will name him. . . Did Mary name Jesus "עִמָּנוּ אֵל / Immanu' el"? No. Mary did not name her baby Immanu'él. Ergo this passage is not about Jesus. To further complicate matters Matthew says THEY will call him Immanuel. Not She. They. Whoever "they" might be this is not a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy which clearly says SHE (the mother) will name him Immanuel. This is worth emphasizing:
This may seem unimportant -- but it turns Matthew's "fulfillment" into a false claim of prophetic fulfillment. Another deathknell to this as a prophecy about Jesus is the fact that "Mary" in the Christian bible does not name the baby at all! Read Matthew 1:21 -- the angel tells Joseph that he (Joseph) will name the child (and the name is not ) "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”" Matthew 1:21. Again, let's read Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:14 in context and learn a few things as we have done with previous passages. וְקָרָאת / v'kara't (the first word) begins with a vav (וְ / v). This is an "inverting vav" and it changes the tense of the word from past into future. The word this prefix is attached to is קָרָאת / kara't, which is the 2nd person feminine (past tense if there were no inverting vav). This word translates as: "you [feminine noun] named (called)." Nouns in Hebrew are either masculine or feminine. The noun קָרָאת / kara't is feminine -- so we know that neither Isaiah or King Ahaz (the two men speaking) would name the baby as they are not women. Normally men name children, so this prophecy (the name of the child being given by the woman) is unusual, but not unprecedented. This is not the only passage in the T'nach where this language is used. In B'reshit / Genesis 16:11 an angel says to Hagar (mother of Ishmael) וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ יִשְׁמָעֵאל / v'kara't sh'mo yishma'el, "you [fem.] will name him Ishma'el". יִשְׁמָעֵאל / Ishma'el means "G-d will listen." Funny that the Christian bible and missionaries insist that one name with "el" must be speaking of Jesus (עִמָּנוּ אֵל / Immanu' el), but so many Hebrew names have "el" in them (including Ishma'el) and those names are NOT considered prophetic about Jesus. Consider יוֹאֵל / Yoel (Joel) or דָּנִיֵּאל / Daniel which are merely two more (there are many, many more). Some missionaries may insist that this is a prophecy about Jesus even though he was not named עִמָּנוּ אֵל / Immanu' el with the claim that Christians refer to Jesus as Immanuel (Emmanuel is wrong -- a very bad transliteration). . . However, while in English, "calling" a person something can be different from his or her name, it is not true in Hebrew. In Hebrew וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ v'kara't sh'mo as found in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:14 and B'reshit / Genesis 16:11 literally means the name given to a child at a formal naming ceremony. It is a name, not a "reference." Why is the naming of a baby a formal process in Judaism? Our sages tell us that a name follows us throughout our lives -- it defines us, our character and unique qualities. At the beginning of life we give a name, and at the end of life a "good name" is all we take with us. See Talmud, Brachot 7b). The Arizal (Isaac (ben Solomon) Luria Ashkenazi, 16th century) wrote in Sha’ar HaGilgulim 24b that even the numerical value of a name can indicate the individual’s character and destiny. So "calling" Jesus "Immanuel" does not fulfill the prophecy of Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:14:
Read Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7, all of it. The prophecy is for King Ahaz who was alive at the time. The image for this blog is a seal from the 8th century BCE which reads "Belonging to Ahaz [son of] Yotham, King of Yehudah (Judah)." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:1 begins with the words: "And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz. . ." So this prophecy took place 700 - 800 years before Jesus. The prophecy was during the days of King Ahaz and FOR King Ahaz. HaShem gave a prophecy to King Ahaz (through the prophet Isaiah), saying, "Ask for yourself (Ahaz) a sign from HaShem, your G-d" Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:1 - 11. Ahaz says he does not want a sign, but Isaiah states that he will be given one whether he wants to hear it or not. The prophecy (sign) has nothing to do with the messiah or virgin births. The sign is for the king alive at the time: not for hundreds of years in the future when Jsus supposedly was born. How then could Jesus' birth be a "dual" version of this very clear prophecy that happened in the days of King Ahaz? There is no such thing as dual prophecy -- it was a concept the church invented, but it is not biblical. . . How can the Christian bible claim a "dual prophecy" about Jesus in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7 from a sentence that starts "it came to pass in the days of Ahaz"????? The real crux of the prophecy is not the child's birth or even the child's name. The prohecy is stating that before the unborn child is very old something important will happen that will impact the then living king, Ahaz. Isaiah tells the king that before the child is old enough to "reject bad and choose good" (in other words, by the time this unborn child is old enough to know right from wrong) ". . . the land whose two kings you (King Ahaz) dread, shall be abandoned." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:16. This is the prophecy. If you actually study the history of Ahaz (the King Isaiah made the prophecy FOR), you'll learn that the two kings Ahaz' feared were those of Rezin and Pekah. Israel had been invaded by Assyria. Ahaz was king of Judah, at this crisis refused to co-operate with the kings of Israel and Syria in opposition to the Assyrians. He was attacked and defeated by Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Samaria (M'lachim Beit / II Kings 16:5; Divrei Hayamim Beith / II Chronicles 28:5, 6). THIS is what Ahaz was worried about (the two kings attacking him) and THIS is what Isaiah's prophecy was about -- the two kings -- whose names were Rezin and Pekah. Not virgin births. Read of M'lachim Beit / II Kings 16:5 and you'll see that Isaiah's prophecy in 7 is fulfilled: "Then Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war, and they besieged Ahaz, but could not wage war [with him]. . ." The two kings King Ahaz feared were Pekah and Rezin. In M'lachim Beit / II Kings 16:5 Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled: the two kings he feared are destroyed. King Ahaz (the king to whom Isaiah gives the prophecy in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7 sided with Assyria, fighting with Tiglathpileser against Israel and Syria. Ahaz and the Assyrians won (as Isaiah 7 prophesied). Rezin and Pekah were conquered and many of the people carried captive to Assyria (M'lachim Beit / II Kings 15:29; 16:5 -9, D'vrei Hayamim Alef / I Chronicles 5:26). Soon after this Shalmaneser subdued the kingdom of Israel. Samaria was taken and destroyed (BCE 722). Throughout Ahaz reign, the kingdom of Judah was unmolested by the Assyrian power, just as Isaiah prophesied in The prophecy had nothing to do with virgins having babies, and very little to do with the baby itself. Where is anything that even is similar to the story of Jsus? What two kings did Jesus dread? When was Jesus an earthly King who fought a war? What land of those two kings was abandoned in Jsus' supposed lifetime? How could anything about Jesus BE a sign for King Ahaz who lived 700 years before Jesus was born? As with most proof texts of missionaries the claims disappear when the passages are read in context and properly translated. The next claim (#166) is also tied to the name עִמָּנוּ אֵל / Immanu' el, but before we move on note that this claim (# 165) is not just about a name but that Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:14 is somehow prophesying that Immanu' el is "to be" G-d with us. Nowhere in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7:14 is anything like this stated. The passage merely reads "she will name him Immanu' el."
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