Davy wrote:
Here's an example that every Jew should be well familiar with, and have NO EXCUSE to deny that Jesus of Nazareth is God The Savior come in the flesh...
Isa 9:6-7
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. - KJV
And just to make sure we know that is talking about The Son, the Isaiah 9:7 verse shows it's the One Who is given to reign upon the throne of David, which of course per the prophets is only for The Son.
Make no mistake. Jesus The Christ is God
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Jews do not consider this scripture as showing the Messiah to be God. In fact the belief is that he cannot be God!
Isaiah 9:6
The
NASB says at Is. 9:6 –
“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.”
All Christians, I believe, accept this son as being the Christ. Some trinitsrians 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 but in a
subordinate, lesser 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), and Moses was called “a god” by Jehovah himself.
The word “god” as understood by those who used that term simply meant “one who is mighty in some sense” - see
Young’s Concordance. This could include mighty in strength or authority. And the word “Mighty” as found at Is. 9:6 is also applied to the
angels at Ps. 103:20.
............................
And
second, another way competent Bible scholars have interpreted the meaning of this name is with the understanding that it does not apply directly to the Messiah himself.
This is the same way that many, if not most, of the other Israelites’ personal
names (e.g. Abijah, Elijah, Isaiah, Joab, Elihu, etc.) were meant to apply to something or someone other than themselves. Often these personal names are praising or recognizing the Almighty God.
Personal names in the ancient Hebrew and Greek are often somewhat cryptic to us today (as mentioned in my post #3 above). 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.
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 footnote - bolding is mine.
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 has been honestly translated in the footnote for Is. 9:6 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.”
Of course it could also honestly be 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 [
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
trinitarian scholar, that Is. 9:6 was not intended to imply that Jesus is God.