Boys · Hebrew · Both Testaments · classic · 8th century BC (Isaiah) / Birth of Jesus (Matthew)
Emmanuel
/eh-MAN-yoo-el/
עִמָּנוּאֵל
"God is with us"
Isaiah 7:14
RoleProphetic/messianic title applied to Jesus
Etymology
From 'im' (with), 'anu' (us), and 'El' (God). Three syllables that contain the entire gospel: God. With. Us. Isaiah gave the prophecy; Matthew applied it to Jesus.
Who they were
Emmanuel is a name that exists as a promise before it exists as a person. Isaiah spoke it during a political crisis around 735 BC, when Judah faced invasion from Syria and Israel. King Ahaz refused to ask God for a sign, so God gave one anyway: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.' The immediate context may have referred to a child born in Ahaz's time, but Matthew saw its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus. He quotes the verse and translates the name for his Greek readers: 'God with us.' The staggering claim of Christianity is contained in this name — not God above us, watching from a distance, but God with us, born into the mess, sleeping in a feeding trough, walking the same dust. The name appears again at the very end of Matthew's Gospel, when the risen Jesus says, 'And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' The book opens with Emmanuel and closes with its fulfilment. As a given name it carries a theological weight that few others can match.
Character qualities
- The ultimate statement of divine presence
Key verse
Matthew 1:23
Where they appear
Themes
Variants & related forms
Immanuel · Emanuel · Manuel · Manny
Read their story
Emmanuel's story begins in Isaiah.
The full passage is at Isaiah 7:14. Any modern translation will do — the NLT and NIV are the most readable; the ESV and NKJV stay close to the wording the church has used for centuries.
Find a Bible to read it in →