Hebrew God with us. Symbolic name with which the prophet Isaiah announces the birth of a child, son of Ahaz, king of Judah, 736-716 BC. C., when this kingdom was threatened by the alliance of Rasón, king of Damascus, and Pecaj, king of Israel. The prophet tells the king to ask Yahweh for a sign, but Ahaz does not. Isaiah, then, despite the king’s refusal, announces that God will give him the sign: “Behold, a maiden is with child and is going to give birth to a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel”, Is 7, 4 ; 8, 8-10. That is to say, God will protect and give salvation to Judah through a king of the lineage of David, and, possibly, it refers to Hezekiah, son and successor of Ahaz, notwithstanding the chronological problems that this implies. But, in the strict sense of the name E., “God with us”, the prophetic symbolism that it contains, Isaiah refers, more than to the immediate historical fact, to the hope of the rest of Israel, faithful to God, the definitive messianic kingdom . This is how this oracle is taken in the NT, which applies it to Jesus, Mt 1, 22-23.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
In Hebrew it means, “God with us”. It is the symbolic reference that the Prophet Isaiah attributes to the Messiah who is to come to save the People.
He expresses it directly in a term in which he alludes to “God will be with us shortly”. He was immediately referring to the Kingdom of Judah, cornered by a pact between Syria and Israel against it. (Is. 7. 14. and 8.8). And he offers himself as a prophetic word spoken to the young king Ahaz who feels threatened and does not want to ask for a sign so as not to tempt God. Isaiah gives it to her referring to “the son of a virgin (soul in Hebrew and parthenos in Greek) or maiden who is going to be fed with milk and honey”. It is proposed as an accurate gesture. Before the child reaches the use of reason Israel destroyed and Judah saved. God’s help is presented as a sure savior.
The Church has always understood this passage from Isaiah in a messianic sense. In this context, we must make the exegesis of the birth of Jesus (Mt. 1.22 and ss) and place the other prophecies linked to the coming of the Messiah (Mic. 5. 1-5).
Educators of the Christian faith cannot do without this prophetic reference, apart from any exegetical theory.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
(v. Incarnation, Messiah)
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
From the Hebrew “`immánú-el”: “God with us”. It is a symbolic name, with which the prophet Elijah baptized the Messiah (Is 7, 14) and given to Jesus by Saint Matthew (Mt 1, 23).
MNE
FERNANDEZ RAMOS, Felipe (Dir.), Dictionary of Jesus of Nazareth, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burbos, 2001
Source: Dictionary of Jesus of Nazareth
(-> Isaiah, Matthew, presence). The Book of Emmanuel (Is 7-11) has developed in a prophetic and messianic way the theme of the final peace, which Is 2,2-4 had presented from the perspective of the mountain of Zion*, understood as the culmination and fulfillment of the history, school and goal of peace for all peoples. That theme receives two main notes here.
(1) The birth of Emmanuel. (war*). The sign of God is the pregnant girl who gives birth in the middle of a city threatened by war. Let’s set the scene: the king is preparing the city’s defenses against the risk of an enemy attack and the prophet Isaiah comes to offer him a sign from God. But the king rejects him and then the prophet insists: “Yahweh will give you a sign on his own: the young woman is pregnant and will give birth to a boy and you will name him Emmanuel, God-with-us” (Is 7,1114 ). This scene took place around the year 733 BC, when the kings of the Syrian-Palestinian fringe went up to fight against Judah, whose king, Ahaz, trembled with fear (cf. Is 7:2). But he is a determined king and that is why he prepares the military defense of the city: he inspects the water supply, prepares for the siege, as almost all the kings of the earth would have done. In front of the king, the prophet Isaiah has been placed, who comes with his son Shear-Yasub, which means “A remnant will return”. He thus assumes that the Jews will be exiled, but that a remnant will be able to return. Certainly, there were then prophets and seers who helped men in war, discovering in it the presence of God. But Isaiah is different, he does not believe in weapons, he does not appeal to violence but to faith, and thus he says to the king and the people: “keep calm, do not be afraid or dismayed” (Is 7,4). Faith is a guarantee of life; lack of faith is a sign and principle of death (Is 7,9). Isaiah knows that peace is not achieved through armed victory, that victory is not achieved with swords and military chariots (cf. Is 2,2-4). That is why he offers the king and all the people a different sign of God’s presence: a pregnant woman, who will give birth to a child and will call him “God with us”. This is the sign of the woman, of the love that becomes a source of life; facing the warrior power of proud men, who are a sign of lack of faith with their wars, God offers the guarantee of his life and love through a woman who gives birth and educates a child for peace, God -with us. This is the sign of the child: of the God who becomes a child in the midst of the struggles of the earth; this is the God who does not dominate, does not fight, does not impose himself and, nevertheless, keeps his word and establishes peace on earth. In a logical way, the evangelical tradition will say that this sign has been fulfilled in Mary and Jesus, the Messiah of peace (cf. Mt 1,18-25). Logically, the prophet does not say, nor can he say, who is the man who begets that Son, who will fulfill messianic functions, as God’s representative and savior, in the midst of a land tortured by war. Modern exegetes have vainly searched for social identity and father for the child: King Ahaz, Isaiah, someone else. But the prophet takes us to a higher level, taking us, beyond the image and figure of the human father, to the original experience of God who appears as the authentic Father of the new humanity. In this way he places us before a God who wants to express his saving power in the midst of a world of death (war of peoples), raising up a savior Child, who is his Son, a threatened Child, in the midst of war . The mother appears simply as an abnah or maiden (later tradition will interpret her as a virgin). In this way, she can present herself as a sign of all humanity (composed of men and women) that welcomes God’s promise and salvation, in the midst of a fragile but hopeful life. The universal God the Father acts through the woman; His son is Emmanuel, God with us, sign of peace on earth.
(2) The names and tasks of the Emmanuel (child*). The text that follows can be interpreted as a commentary on the previous one: “Because a Child has been born to us, a Son has been given to us. He carries the principality on his shoulder, and his name is: Marvelous Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, to expand the Principality with limitless peace, on the throne of David and on his kingdom” (Is 9 ,4-6). This passage collects the myth of the divine Child, presence of God and word of reconciliation, and understands it as a source of peace, in the midst of war. In this Child the deepest Jewish and human hopes are recreated and transformed. These are the names of him, (a) Wise Counselor. The KingChild is the bearer of the Word; he does not yet know how to speak, but appears as a principle of communication, which can open a space for dialogue between all humans. The older ones become unable to communicate. Only the gift and believing word of a child, before political parties and kingdoms are divided, can unite everyone, at the service of universal life, (b) Mighty God (El Gibbor). This Endangered Child, under the risk of war, is the strong one. We are facing a reversal of the warrior signs: the victory of God, whom Israel (with many peoples) presented as Lord of Hosts, is linked to the promise of a Child who triumphs from his weakness, (c) Perpetual Father . This Child is supreme authority, presence of Father God, which is expressed in his small fragility. In front of the older men who seem busy in the war of the peoples, God has to show himself Father in this threatened Child, stronger than all the powers of the world, (d) Prince of Peace. This child is Shalotn, supreme sign of God. Faced with the powers of the world, which are still at odds and that only in their confrontation (due to the logic of war) can this child rise up here, as a source of reconciliation and universal dialogue, perpetual peace. Those names evoke the Paternal Presence of God in the Messianic Son, who is King being weak, in pure humanity, who is the strong being the most fragile, in need of care. These names offer the deepest theophany of Israel, they express the paradoxical presence of God, who is Strong in the Weakness of a Child born in love, according to an experience that the beatitudes of Jesus will assume (Lk 6,21-22). In this way he has inverted the monarchical theodicy: logically, when the Child God (Emmanuel) speaks as a strong Father (Counselor, Prince of Peace) violence will cease, because “he will judge the poor with justice, he will destroy the violent with the rod of his mouth” (Is 11:3-4). He will have no need for external weapons or soldiers, since he will destroy the powers of perversion and they will recreate men “with the breath of his mouth”, offering his peace to the cosmos itself: “Wolf and lamb, panther and The baby goat…!” (cf. Is 11,6).
Cf. L. ALONSO SCHOKEL and JL SICRE, Prophets I, Cristiandad, Madrid 1980, 93-262; JM ASURMENDI, The Syro-Ephrahnite war, Verbo Divino, Estella 1982; Isaiah 1-39, Divine Word, Estella 1994.
PIKAZA, Javier, Dictionary of the Bible. History and Word, Divine Word, Navarra 2007
Source: Dictionary of Bible History and Word
(With Us Is God).
Name first mentioned by the prophet Isaiah (7:14; 8:8) during the reign of Ahaz (761-746 BCE). The only other time the name Emmanuel appears, in Matthew 1:23, is as a title for Christ the Messiah.
In view of the circumstances surrounding the prophecy, Bible commentators have attempted to identify an “Immanuel” of Isaiah’s day who could be said to have served as a sign that “God was with them.” In the eighth century a. EC Peqah and Rezin, the kings of Israel and Syria, were determined to overthrow Ahaz, the king of Judah, in order to place Tabeel’s son on his throne. (Isa 7: 1-6) Jehovah, however, remembered the covenant for a kingdom that he had made with David, the ancestor of Ahaz, and sent his prophet with this comforting message:
“Please listen, O house of David. Jehovah himself will give them a sign: Look! The maiden herself will truly remain…