For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Hey, at least our mistake was foretold!
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Many names in the Hebrew OT are praises to or comments about God Himself. Unfortunately, Most Hebrew names which are comprised of two or more words lack verbs, prepositions, etc. These were understood by those who lived at that time, but modern translators must fill in these words as they see fit.
The
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:
[1] “The Mighty God
is planning grace;
[2] 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 [1]“
quick to the plunder; [2]
swift to the spoil” -
NIV footnote) but the very introduction to this Messianic name at Is. 9:6 is itself a parallelism: [1]“
For unto us a child is born; [2]
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. But, of course, most trinitarian translators insist on only the KJV version of Is. 9:6 and ignore anything else.