IMMANUEL AND JESUS: NAME, PROPHECY, AND THEOLOGICAL TENSION IN BIBLICAL TRADITION

Abstract

The relationship between the name Immanuel in Isaiah 7:14 and the name Jesus in Matthew 
1:21–23 discloses a persistent hermeneutical tension in biblical tradition. Isaiah presents a 
child who is to be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us,” within a defined historical crisis, 
while Matthew narrates a birth in which the child is named Jesus, a name grounded in the 
motif of salvation, “YHWH saves.” Jewish interpreters have long regarded the divergence as 
decisive against Christian claims of fulfilment, because prophetic naming functions as a sign 
whose integrity should not be displaced. Christian interpretation has typically responded by 
distinguishing between personal name and theological title, or by appealing to typological 
fulfilment as a legitimate rereading of Israel’s Scriptures. This article investigates the 
historical context of Isaiah 7, interrogates the linguistic complexities arising from Matthew’s 
citation practice, and analyses the theological strategies employed to preserve coherence 
within Christian tradition. It argues, however, that the tension between the Isaianic context 
and its Matthean appropriation remains unresolved at the level of historical exegesis. It further 
considers how African biblical scholarship, shaped by both critical responsibility and 
contextual imagination, can engage the text with intellectual integrity and pastoral realism. 
The study concludes that doctrinal synthesis may achieve coherence within faith communities, 
yet scholarly clarity requires admitting the distance between Isaianic sign and Matthean 
proclamation rather than dissolving it by rhetorical harmonisation. 

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