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Mat_1:21. Τέξεται δέ ] and she will bear. “Non additur tibi, ut additur de Zacharia, Luk_1:13,” Bengel.
Καλέσεις … Ἰησοῦν ] literally: thou wilt call His name “Jesus.” Comp. LXX. Gen_17:19; 1Sa_1:20; Mat_1:23; Mat_1:25; Luk_1:13; Luk_1:31; Luk_2:21. Exactly so in Hebrew: ÷øà àÆúÎùÑÀîåÉ . The Greeks, however, would say: καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτὸν (or also αὐτῷ ) Ἰησοῦν ; Matthiae, p. 935 [E. T., Kenrick, p. 675 ff.]; Heindorf, ad Plat. Phaedr. p. 238 A.
καλέσεις ] the future serves in classical writers to denote the softened idea of the imperative. Bernhardy, p. 378; Kühner, II. 1, p. 149. In the LXX. and in the N. T. it is especially used of divine injunctions, and denotes thereby the imperative sense apodeictically, because it supposes the undoubted certainty of the result; comp. Winer, p. 296 [E. T. 396 f.]. So also here, where a divine command is issued. When Fritzsche would here retain the proper conception of the future, it becomes a mere prediction, less appropriate in the connection; for it is less in keeping with the design of the angelic annunciation, according to which the bestowal and interpretation of the name Jesus is referred to a divine causality, and consequently the genus of the name itself must, most naturally, appear as commanded.
αὐτός ] He and no other.
τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ] The people of Israel: because for these first, and then also for the heathen, was the Messiah and His work intended, Joh_4:22; Rom_1:16; Gal_3:14. As certainly, moreover, as the manner and fashion in which the promised one was to accomplish the salvation, and by means of His redemptive work has accomplished it, is to be conceived as being present to the eye of God at the sending of this news, as certainly must Joseph be conceived as regarding it only in its national definiteness, consequently as referring to the theocratic liberation and prosperity of the people (comp. Luk_1:68 ff.), along with which, however, the religious and moral renewal also was regarded as necessary; which renewal must have presupposed the antecedent forgiveness of sin (Luk_1:77). ἁμαρτιῶν , therefore, is to be taken, not as punishment of sin, but, as always, simply as sins.
αὐτοῦ , not to be written αὑτοῦ (for the angel speaks of Him as a third person, and without any antithesis): His people, for they belong to the Messiah, comp. Joh_1:11; on the plural αὐτῶν , see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 114 [E. T. 130].