Why Emanuel does not indicate that the person with the name is divine: Emanuel means god is with us (as in we will not need to worry about the outcome of our endeavors since god is with us). Christians claim that Emanuel indicates the quality of divinity for Jesus since the Gospel according to Matthew asserts the connexion with Isaiah. Ironically enough, Isaiah has almost the same meaning as Emanuel. For Isaiah in the Hebrew is better transliterated as Yeshayahu which means salvation of Yahweh. Does that mean that Isaiah is Yahweh and therefore divine? No, because it was common in the ancient Near East for people to adopt theophoric names, e.g., Ramses (of Ra) and Seti (of Seth) in the Egyptian pantheon, Hadad (an ephitet of Baal) in the Canaanite pantheon, etc.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 22:20:32 +0000
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