Immanuel

Hebrew: עִמָּנוּאֵל (Immanu'el, H6005), literally "with us [is] God" or "God [is] with us" Greek: Ἐμμανουήλ (Emmanouēl, G1694), Greek transliteration of the Hebrew OT origin: Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." NT application: Matthew 1:23 cites Isaiah 7:14 as fulfilled in Jesus's conception. "They shall call his name Immanuel, which is, being interpreted, 'God with us.'"

The Isaiah 7:14 prophecy in original context

Isaiah delivered the prophecy to King Ahaz of Judah (~735 BCE) during the Syro-Ephraimite war. Israel + Syria were threatening Judah; Yahweh offered Ahaz a sign of deliverance. Ahaz refused; Isaiah said the Lord himself would give a sign:

"Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken." Isaiah 7:14-16

The original near-context prophecy concerned a child born within Ahaz's near future as a timer for Syria/Israel's defeat. Whether this was a contemporary child (Isaiah's son Maher-shalal-hash-baz at Isaiah 8:1-4? Hezekiah's birth?), distinct from the long-range Messianic fulfillment, is a major exegetical question.

Three views on Isaiah 7:14 vs Matthew 1:23

1. Double fulfillment (mainstream Reformed + Anglican + many evangelical), Isaiah 7:14 has both a near-term referent (probably Isaiah's son or a similar contemporary child) AND a long-term Messianic referent in Jesus. Matthew's citation is not a violation of original meaning but a fuller-sense (sensus plenior) application. The Hebrew עַלְמָה (almah) at Isaiah 7:14 means "young woman" (sometimes virgin, sometimes simply marriageable); the LXX renders it παρθένος ("virgin"), which Matthew quotes. Both meanings can be in play across the two horizons.

2. Direct Messianic fulfillment only (some evangelical + dispensational), Isaiah 7:14 looks directly to Christ's virgin birth; no near-term referent. Reads almah as specifically virgin; reads "He shall eat butter and honey" … "before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good" as the child Jesus.

3. Near-term-only with NT typological reuse (some critical scholarship + most Jewish exegesis), Isaiah 7:14 referred entirely to an 8th-c. BCE child; Matthew applies it typologically/midrashically without claiming original-context Messianic content. The "virgin" reading depends on the LXX choice that goes beyond Hebrew almah.

The double-fulfillment view is the one most represented in the older public-domain Christian reference works. That is a fact about those works rather than a verdict, and the alternatives above are recorded here alongside it, with none adopted as the answer.

NT theological framing

Whatever the exegetical theory, Matthew's claim is theologically unambiguous: in Jesus, God has come to dwell with humanity. The title becomes a programmatic theme:

Matthew's gospel is bracketed by "God with us", entering at conception, abiding through resurrection-onward.