The Source of the Story of Emmanuel

Chapter III

Section IV

The Texts that were attributed directly to the Old Testament in the Gospels

In this section we will examine the texts of the Old Testament that were attributed directly to it, and the Gospels authors said that they have not been fulfilled, and achieved only in Jesus and his time and his generation, to find out what is the truth and the reality of them, and if the Gospels authors have told the truth or not.

1 - The Source of the Story of Immanuel

Matthew 1:20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."

Matthew 1:22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:

Matthew 1:23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

The church considers this text one of the clearest texts in the Old Testament that talked about Jesus or prophesied about him, and all books which were written since the fourth century, where the churches settled as they are now, have mentioned this text or the prophecy, but if we look at the text carefully, we find that it shows the approach of the Gospels authors in writing, which we had already talked about it earlier. So, he begins talking about the angel of the Lord, and how he appeared to Joseph the son of David in an attempt to convince the readers that the baby, or Jesus, is the son of David who was mentioned in the Old Testament, although Joseph is not his father! Therefore what is the importance of Joseph to this story if he is son of David or not, if he has nothing to do with the process of the birth of Jesus? Yet he (Matthew) should write the genealogy of Mary and makes David one of her fathers, because she is the mother of Jesus in terms of flesh, instead of the genealogy of Joseph, which has not been done by Matthew and the others!

And then talks about Mary who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and will bring forth a son, who shall be called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, and indicates to the texts of the Old Testament which have spoken about a man who will appear in the future among the children of Israel, and save them from their sins and the persecution that they are exposed to, then he says all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us".

So what is the relationship between Immanuel and Jesus the savior of the Jews from their sins?!

The angel of the Lord says, as Matthew wrote, that Mary will give birth to a son who shall be called Jesus, so why he quoted the text that talks about a child his name is Immanuel?!

What is the relationship between the name of Jesus the savior and Immanuel?

Here, we read the answer from Matthew by saying that the meaning of the name Immanuel is God with us, as well as that the text speaks about a virgin shall conceive, and this is what happened with Mary.

In this answer we read how Matthew and other authors have used the Old Testament texts to formulate the stories of the Gospels, because the word (or term or name) Emmanuel or God with us, in the text does not indicate to special attributes for Jesus or other people to say that the text talks about him or prophesy about him, because there are dozens of texts in the Old Testament say that the Lord is with so and so, and no one said that this name has certain attributes that makes them gods, and should be worshiped with the Lord or beside Him, including the following texts:

Jeremiah 30:10 ‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob’, says the LORD, ‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And no one shall make him afraid.

Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with you’, says the LORD, ‘to save you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished’.

Isaiah 41:8 "But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend.

Isaiah 41:9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand’.

Isaiah 41:11 "Behold, all those who were incensed against you Shall be ashamed and disgraced; They shall be as nothing, And those who strive with you shall perish.

Isaiah 41:12 You shall seek them and not find them — Those who contended with you. Those who war against you Shall be as nothing, As a nonexistent thing.

Isaiah 41:13 For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you’.

Ezekiel 34:30 "Thus they shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people," says the Lord GOD’."

Ezekiel 34:31 "You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God," says the Lord GOD.

Jeremiah 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

Jeremiah 1:6 Then said I: "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth."

Jeremiah 1:7 But the LORD said to me: "Do not say, ‘I am a youth’, For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Jeremiah 1:8 Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you," says the LORD.

Jeremiah 1:19 They will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you," says the LORD, "to deliver you."

Zechariah 10:5 They shall be like mighty men, Who tread down their enemies In the mire of the streets in the battle. They shall fight because the LORD is with them, And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.

Genesis 26:28 But they said, "We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,

Genesis 31:5 and said to them, "I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

Genesis 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

Genesis 39:23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

Genesis 48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.

Exodus 3:12 So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

Deuteronomy 20:1 "When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 31:8 "And the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

Deuteronomy 31:23 Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, "Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you."

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:17 "Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the LORD your God be with you, as He was with Moses.

Joshua 1:18 "Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, in all that you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage."

2 Samuel 5:10 So David went on and became great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.

2 Samuel 7:3 Then Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you."

1 Chronicles 28:20 And David said to his son Solomon, "Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God — my God — will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 1:1 Now Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and exalted him exceedingly.

In these texts the Lord says that He is with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Jeremiah and other prophets of the Children of Israel, and with the house of Judah and the children of Israel generally, so why did Matthew chose this text which talks about a child named Emanuel to talk about the birth of Jesus, who was called Jesus by the angel of the Lord as Matthew and Luke wrote in their Gospels?!

Here some of the good people of the followers of the churches may begin to say that this text talks of a virgin who shall conceive and give birth, and this viewpoint deserves attention, for this we should examine the quoted text and reread it again to be sure if it has been fulfilled according to the words of the angel of the Lord to Joseph, as Matthew wrote, or it has been achieved before hundreds of years of the writing of the Gospels, which is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah as in the following text:

Isaiah 7:1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.

Isaiah 7:2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, "Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim." So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

Isaiah 7:3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field,

Isaiah 7:4 "and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah.

Isaiah 7:5 ‘Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying,

Isaiah 7:6 "Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel" —

Isaiah 7:7 ‘thus says the Lord GOD: "It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass.

Isaiah 7:8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people.

Isaiah 7:9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established."‘"

Isaiah 7:10 Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

Isaiah 7:11 "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above."

Isaiah 7:12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!"

Isaiah 7:13 Then he said, "Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?

Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:15 "Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.

Isaiah 7:16 "For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.

Isaiah 7:17 "The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house — days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah."

Isaiah 7:18 And it shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

Isaiah 7:19 They will come, and all of them will rest In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks, And on all thorns and in all pastures.

Isaiah 7:20 In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, And will also remove the beard.

Isaiah 7:21 It shall be in that day That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep;

Isaiah 7:22 So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give, That he will eat curds; For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land.

Isaiah 7:23 It shall happen in that day, That wherever there could be a thousand vines Worth a thousand shekels of silver, It will be for briers and thorns.

Isaiah 7:24 With arrows and bows men will come there, Because all the land will become briers and thorns.

Isaiah 7:25 And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe, You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; But it will become a range for oxen And a place for sheep to roam.

This is the text that contains the paragraph cited by Matthew about the birth of Jesus, and if we read the text carefully, we find that it speaks about the time of alliance between Rezin king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel against Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah to invade his kingdom and divided it among themselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over them, which made Ahaz and his people afraid of this alliance because they cannot confront it, so the prophecy came to him through Isaiah from the LORD saying, that he should not afraid of this alliance, because within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, so that it will not be a people, but it seems that Ahaz did not take this prophecy seriously!

Therefore the LORD spoke with Ahaz again and asked him to ask a sign, but Ahaz said that he will not ask, and will not put the Lord to the test, and here says Isaiah that the Lord Himself will give them a sign as a proof of the truth and the reality of the words of the Lord that He will break Ephraim within sixty-five years, so that it will not be a people, and the sign is that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel. So the sign of virgin in this text was a proof to fulfill the promise of the Lord to break Ephraim within sixty-five years, and this has nothing to do with Jesus by no means, and if we continue reading the text will find that it talks about the land of Ephraim and Aram which shall be forsaken before Immanuel grows up and eats Curds and honey and knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, and then talks about the invasion of the king of Assyria to Ephraim and taking them captives to his country; and the status of the land's natural at that time, and all these things happened before Jesus a few centuries, and there is no way to achieve them or to fulfill them in Jesus' time, because the Holy Land at that time was under the Roman Rule, and Assyria ended before Jesus' time!

Moreover, the next chapter of this text shows that these things talk about the time of the Children of Israel during the reign of Ahaz, which is as follows:

Isaiah 8:1 Moreover the LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

Isaiah 8:2 "And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."

Isaiah 8:3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz;

Isaiah 8:4 "for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother’, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria."

Isaiah 8:5 The LORD also spoke to me again, saying:

Isaiah 8:6 "Inasmuch as these people refused The waters of Shiloah that flow softly, And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son;

Isaiah 8:7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them The waters of the River, strong and mighty — The king of Assyria and all his glory; He will go up over all his channels And go over all his banks.

Isaiah 8:8 He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.

Isaiah 8:9 "Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces; Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

Isaiah 8:10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; Speak the word, but it will not stand, For God is with us."

Isaiah 8:11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

Isaiah 8:12 "Do not say, ‘A conspiracy’, Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

Isaiah 8:13 The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread.

Isaiah 8:14 He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 8:15 And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken."

Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples.

Isaiah 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.

Isaiah 8:18 Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the LORD of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion.

Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Isaiah 8:21 They will pass through it hard pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

Isaiah 8:22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

In this text Isaiah completes his words to the children of Israel and what will happen to them when the king of Assyria invades their land, and we read the paragraph that he was speaking with Immanuel directly by saying "He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel", and this shows that Immanuel was born at that time, otherwise he will not speak to him directly.

Hence, the bottom line is that the quotation "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us" by Matthew is not real and unreliable, both in terms of the name Immanuel, because they did not call him Immanuel but Jesus!

Or of historical perspective, because this text is a sign that the Lord will break Ephraim within sixty-five years, so that it will not be a people.

Furthermore, that Jesus did not save the children of Israel, whether from Roman Rule, or from their sins, because they bore more sins, for they crucified him, and this of course, according to the Gospels, therefore our law in this book "do not accept the lying and false" applies to this story!