Grace wrote (#44):
Isa 9:6:
"For unto us A CHILD is born, unto us A SON is given: and the govern-
ment shall be upon HIS shoulder: and HIS Name Shall Be Called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Now, why would God's Inspired Word, Call The SON
"The Mighty God, The everlasting Father"?
….………………………………….
Many trinitarians will tell you that, since the name “Jesus” (probably “Yehoshua” in Hebrew)
means “Jehovah is Salvation” (or “Jehovah Saves”), then Jesus
is Jehovah.
If that were true, then all the other people in the Bible whose names had that same meaning (which includes all those named “Jesus,” “Joshua,” “Jeshuah,” and “Isaiah”) are also Jehovah!
Notice that 4 men in scripture were called “Jehu” (“Jehovah is He” -
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible; Strong’s Concordance; Young’s Concordance; and Gesenius), etc. These men are also
obviously not Jehovah Himself!
It is certain that many (if not most) of the personal names of God’s people had meanings which were meant to honor God, not to glorify the person who bore that personal name.
Many (but not all) trinitarians will tell you that Is. 9:6 proves that Jesus is God.
Is. 9:6 says –
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and
His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” -
NASB.
All Christians, I believe, accept this son as being the Christ. Some will tell you that since the
meaning of this symbolic name includes the words “Mighty God, Eternal Father,” then Jesus
is the Mighty God and the Eternal Father”
But there are at least two other ways this personal name has been interpreted by reputable Bible scholars.
(1) The titles within the name (e.g., “mighty god”) are intended in their secondary, subordinate senses.
(2) the titles within the name are meant to praise God the Father, not the Messiah.
First, there is the possibility that the words (or titles) found in the literal meaning of the name apply directly to the Messiah all right but in a subordinate sense. In other words, Christ
is “a mighty god” in the same sense that God’s angels were called “gods” and the judges of Israel were called “gods” by God himself (also by Jesus - John 10:34, 35).
At any rate, even most trinitarians do not confuse the two separate persons of the Father and the Son. They do not say the Son
is the Father. They say the Father and the Son are two separate individual persons who are equally “God”!
Jesus was never called by the title “Father,” and he didn’t want anyone to take the title “Father” (in a spiritual sense, of course) other than his Father, Jehovah, in heaven. (Matt. 23:9) The relationship between Jesus and men (some men, at least) isn’t described as Father and sons but
brothers. (Ro. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-18)
Therefore, since we obviously cannot take “Eternal Father” in the literal sense to mean that Jesus
is the Eternal
Father, we cannot take the rest of that same name (esp. ‘Mighty God’) in its literal highest sense and say that Jesus
is Mighty God, etc., either.
And
second, another way competent Bible scholars have interpreted the meaning of this
name at Is. 9:6 is with the understanding that it (as with many, if not most, of the other Israelites’ personal names) does not apply directly to the Messiah (as we have already seen above) but is, instead, a statement praising the Father, Jehovah God.
Personal names in the ancient Hebrew and Greek are often somewhat cryptic to us today. The English Bible translator must fill in the missing minor words (especially in names composed of two or more Hebrew words) such as “my,” “is,” “of,” etc. in whatever way he thinks best in order to make sense for us today in English. In fact, even the
KJV has added all the uses of "the" in its translation.
For instance, two of the best-known Bible concordances
(Young’s and
Strong’s) and a popular trinitarian Bible dictionary
(Today’s Dictionary of the Bible) differ on the
exact meaning of many Biblical personal names because of those “minor” words which must be added to bring out the intended meaning.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, for example, says the name “Elimelech” means “God
of (
the) King.”
Young’s Analytical Concordance says it means “God
is King.”
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible says it means “ God
his King” - p. 206, Bethany House Publ., 1982.
Those missing minor words that the translator must supply at his own discretion can often make a vital difference! - For example, the footnote for Gen. 17:5 in
The NIV Study Bible: The name ‘Abram’ “means ‘Exalted Father,’ probably
in reference to God (i.e., ‘[
God is the] Exalted Father’).” - bracketed information is in the original.
But perhaps most instructive of all is the name given to the prophet’s child in Isaiah 8:3 shortly before his giving the name found in Is. 9:6.
Is. 8:3
Maher-shalal-hash-baz: Literally, “spoil speeds prey hastes” or “swift booty speedy prey.” Translated by various Bible scholars as: “
In making speed
to the spoil
he hasteneth
the prey” - - “swift [
is] booty, speedy [
is] prey” - - “
the spoil speeded,
the prey hasteth” - - “Speeding
for spoil, hastening
for plunder” - - “
There will soon
be looting
and stealing”- - “Speeding
is the spoil, Hastening
is the prey” - - “
The Looting
Will Come Quickly;
the Prey
Will Be Easy” - - “
Take sway the spoils
with speed, quickly
take the prey” - - “Swift
is the booty, speedy
is the prey” - - “Swift
the Spoils
of War and Speedy
Comes the Attacker” - - “
Make haste
to plunder! Hurry
to the spoil!” - - “
Make haste
to the spoil;
fall upon the prey.” - - “
Your enemies will soon
be destroyed.’” -
TLB.
- - “
They hurry
to get what they can.
They run
to pick up what is left.” -
NLV.
And John Gill wrote:
“‘hasten
to seize the prey,
and to take away the spoil.’ Some translate it, ‘
in hasten
ing the prey,
the spoil
er hastens’; perhaps it may be better rendered, ‘hasten
to the spoil, hasten
to the prey.’”
Therefore, the personal name at Is. 9:6 has been honestly translated in the footnote as:
“And his name is called: Wonderful in counsel
IS God the Mighty, the Everlasting Father, the Ruler of Peace” -
The Holy Scriptures, JPS Version (Margolis, ed.)
to show that it is intended to praise the God
of the Messiah who performs great things
through the Messiah.
The Leeser Bible also translates it:
“Wonderful, counsellor
of the mighty God,
of the everlasting Father, the prince of peace”
Also,
An American Translation (by trinitarians Smith & Goodspeed) says:
“Wonderful Counselor
IS God Almighty, Father forever, Prince of Peace.”
From the Is. 9:6 footnote in the trinity-supporting
NET Bible:
".... some have suggested that one to three of the titles that follow ['called']
refer to God, not the king. For example, the traditional punctuation of the Hebrew text suggests the translation, 'and the Extraordinary Strategist, the Mighty God calls his name, "Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."'"
Of course it could also be honestly translated:
“The Wonderful Counselor
and Mighty God
Is the Eternal Father
of the Prince of Peace.”
And the
Tanakh by the JPS, 1985, translates it:
(a) “The Mighty God
is planning grace;
(b) The Eternal Father [
is] a peaceable ruler.”
This latter translation seems particularly appropriate since it is in the form of a parallelism. Not only was the previous symbolic personal name introduced by Isaiah at Is. 8:1 a parallelism (“Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz” means (a)“
quick to the plunder; (b)
swift to the spoil” - NIV footnote) but the very introduction to this Messianic name at Is. 9:6 is itself a parallelism:
(a)“For unto us a child is born; (b) unto us a son is given.” It would, therefore, be appropriate to find that this name, too, was in the form of a parallelism as translated by the
Tanakh above.
So it is clear, even to a few trinitarian scholars, that Is. 9:6 does not necessarily imply that Jesus is Jehovah God. And yet, trinitarians continue to use the KJV translation of it (and very seldom mention the honest alternates for it).
