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Mat 1:23. Ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται Υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσουσι τὸ ὄνομα Αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ-Behold the virgin shall have in her womb [or conceive], and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.-The LXX. render Isa 7:14, thus-Ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ λήψεται Υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσεις κ.τ.λ.-Behold the virgin shall conceive in her womb a Son, and thou shalt call, etc.-ἰδοὺ, Behold!)-a particle especially adapted for pointing out a Sign.-See Isa 7:14.-ἡ παρθένος, the virgin) In the original Hebrew, the word employed is העלמה;[63] and עלמה denotes a virgin;[64] whether you derive it from עלם,[65] so that it may be one who has escaped the notice of man,[66] who has not been known by man (cf. Mat 1:25, and Luk 1:34), for נעלם (to be hidden, to lie hid, to escape the notice of), and ירע (to know, etc.), are opposed to each other, both in their general signification, as in Lev 5:3-4, and also in this special one: or whether עלמה (the verb cognate with which the Syriac translator has employed to represent ἨΚΜΑΣΕΝ[67] in Rev 14:18), signify ἀκμάια, in the flower of her age. The Hebrew article ה (the), prefixed in the original to the word under consideration (concerning which article cf. Gnomon on ch. Mat 18:17), points out a particular individual visible on the mirror of Divine prescience. For the prophet is speaking of a Sign, and introduces it by the word “Behold,” and then immediately addresses the Virgin herself, with the words, THOU shalt call, etc. Isaiah indicates, in the first instance, some woman who lived at the time, and whose natural fecundity was considered doubtful, who, from a virgin, was to become a mother, and that of a son: she, however, as the sublimity of the prophet’s words clearly show, was a type of that Virgin, who, still a virgin, brought forth the Messiah; so that the force of the Sign was twofold, applying to that which was close at hand, and to that which was far distant in the future.-See Alexander More.[68] The virginity of our Lord’s Mother is not fully proved by the words of the prophet taken alone; but the manifestation of its fulfilment casts a radiance back on the prophecy, and discloses its full meaning.-ΥἹῸΝ, a Son) sc. the Messiah, to whom the land of Israel belongs.-See Isa 8:8.-καλέσουσι, THEY shall call) Both the Hebrew and the LXX. have “Thou shalt call,” i.e., “THOU Virgin-Mother”-“THOU shalt call,” occurs also in Mat 1:21, addressed to Joseph: whence is now substituted “THEY shall call,” i.e., all, thenceforth. The angel says to Mary, in Luk 1:28, The Lord is with THEE. Not one or the other of His parents however, but all who call upon His name, say, “with us.”-Cf. Luk 1:54.-Those words deserve particular attention in which the writers of the New Testament differ from the LXX., or even from the Hebrew.-τὸ ὄνομα, the name) This does not mean the name actually given at circumcision, but yet the true name (cf. Isa 9:5), aye, the proper name too, by which he is called, even by his parents (cf. Isa 8:8), and which is even especially proper to Him, inasmuch as it is synonymous with the name Jesus.-See an example of synonymous names in the note on Mat 1:8. Many of the faithful actually address the Saviour by the name of EMMANUEL, as a proper name, though it would have been less suitable in Jesus to call Himself God-with-us.-ὅ ἐστι μεθερμηνευόμενον, Μεθʼ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός-which is, being interpreted, God with us). This interpretation of a Hebrew name shows, that St Matthew wrote in Greek. Such interpretations subjoined to Hebrew words show that, the writers of the New Testament do not absolutely require that the reader of Holy Scripture should be acquainted with Hebrew. The Son of Sirach also uses the word μεθερμενεῦσαι (to interpret) in his preface. The name God-with-us, in itself, so far as it involves an entire assertion, is not necessarily a Divine name (See Hiller Onomasticon Sacrum, p. 848); and it was, therefore, given also to a boy who was born in the time of Isaiah; and the same is the case with the name Jesus: but in the sense in which each of them applies exclusively to Christ, it signifies Θεάνθρωπος or God-Man. For the union of the Divine and human natures in Christ is the foundation of the union of God with men, nor can any one consider the latter apart from the former, especially when treating of the birth of Christ.
[63] העלמח is עלמה with the article prefixed.-(I. B.)
[64] “The ancient version, which gave a different rendering, did so for party purposes, while the LXX., who could have no such motive, render it virgin in the very passage where it must, to their minds, have occasioned a difficulty.” S. P. TREGELLES.-(I. B.)
[65] עָלַם to hide, to conceal: the Niphal of which is נֶעְלַם-to be hidden, to lie hid.-(I. B.)
[66] “Quæ latuit virum.”-(I. B.)
[67] ἠκμασεν, is fully ripe.-(I. B.)
[68] ALEXANDER MORE (or MORUS) was born A.D. 1616, at Castres, in the south of France, where his father, a Scotchman by birth, was Principal of a Protestant college. He was a man of considerable talents and great attainments. He became professor of Greek at Geneva when only twenty years of age, and successively occupied other professorial chairs there and else where. He died at Paris in 1670.-(I. B.)