Page 103 - Demo

99means “God-is-with-us.” There are hundreds of Hebrew names, which are composed of “el” and another noun, which forms either the first or the last syllable of such compound nouns. Neither Isaiah, nor King Ahaz, nor any Jew, ever thought that the newly born infant would be himself “Godwith-us.” They never thought anything else but that his name only would be as such. But the text expressly says that it was Ahaz (who seems to have known the maiden with child), that would give the boy that name. Ahaz was in danger, his enemies were pressing hard against Jerusalem, and this promise was made to him by showing him a sign, namely, a pregnant maiden, and not a Virgin Mary, that would come into the world more than seven hundred years later! This simple prediction of a child that would be born during the reign of Ahaz was equally misunderstood by the writer of the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. i. 23).The name “Jesus (pbuh) ” was given by the Angel Gabriel (Matt. i. 21), and he was never called “Emmanuel.” Is it not scandalous to take this name as an argument and proof of the Christian doctrine of the “Incarnation”?The other strange interpretation of a prophetic prediction is from Zachariah (pbuh) (ix. 9), which is misquoted and utterly misunderstood by the writer ofthe first Gospel (xxi. 5). The Prophet Zachariah (pbuh) says: “Rejoice much, O daughter of Sion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King is coming unto thee; righteous and with salvation is he; meek and mounted upon as ass; and upon a colt, son of a she-ass.”In this poetical passage the poet simply wishes to describe the male ass -upon which the King is seated- by saying that it was a young ass, and this colt, too, is described as the son of a female ass. It was only one male colt or young donkey. Now Matthew quotes this passage in the following way:-