Emmanuel: Virgin birth; Christ and Jesus named

This same Christ who, as Word of God, was with the Father, was to take flesh, become human, and undergo the condition of human birth; he was to be born of a Virgin and live among human beings, his incarnation being the work of the Father of all. Isaiah announces it thus: ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call him Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey; before he knows or distinguishes evil, he chooses the good; for before the child knows good or evil, he refuses the evil to choose the good.’ (Isa 7:14-16; Mt 1:22-23)

That he must be born of a Virgin, Isaiah affirms; that he must be truly human, he hints by saying that he will eat, and by calling him ‘child,’ rather than by the name alone — for ‘God with us,’ or Emmanuel, might mislead if taken without the humanity.

The newborn has a double name: in Hebrew Messiah means Christ, that is, the Anointed; Jesus means Savior; and these two names will express the works he must accomplish. He is called Christ because through him the Father anointed and ordered all things, and because at his coming as man he was anointed by the Spirit of God his Father. (Acts 10:38) He himself says of himself through Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me to preach to the poor.’ (Isa 61:1; Lk 4:18)

And he is Savior, because he is the cause of salvation for those whom in his own time he delivered from every kind of evil and from death, and because he is the giver of the goods to come and of eternal salvation for those who, coming after him, believe in him. (Mt 1:21; Heb 5:9)