Pretty serious stuff today, almost there, almost through Advent. The first reading is from our man Isaiah. “[T]he Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” And then the Gospel of St. Matthew. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.'”<\/p>\n
But then I’ve always wondered: why did they name him Jesus instead of Emmanuel?<\/p>\n
The Catholic Encyclopedia is not a big help at the entry for Emmanuel<\/a>.<\/p>\n The various views advanced as to the identity of the child cannot be fully explained and discussed here; the following observations must suffice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n They go on to note that the child is not merely a metaphorical child and other such things. Bigger help maybe is over at the entry for Jesus, Origin of the Name of Jesus Christ<\/a>.<\/p>\n The word Jesus<\/em> is the Latin form of the Greek Iesous<\/em>, which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew<\/a> Jeshua<\/em>, or Joshua, or again Jehoshua<\/em>, meaning “Jehovah is salvation<\/a>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So is that it? God is with us<\/span> is pretty close to Jehovah is salvation<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pretty serious stuff today, almost there, almost through Advent. The first reading is from our man Isaiah. “[T]he Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” And then the Gospel of St. Matthew. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had … Continue reading Fourth Sunday of Advent<\/span>