Greek word · G1694
Ἐμμανουήλ
emmanouēl
Immanuel
Hebrew ʿimmānû ʾēl, a sentence with no verb: “With us (is) God.” Saying that God is “with” someone is a recurring biblical promise.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Matthew 1:23
- Range of meaning
Hebrew ʿimmānû ʾēl, a sentence with no verb: “With us (is) God.” Saying that God is “with” someone is a recurring biblical promise. It usually comes in danger, war or a mission, and it means God's active help and protection (Genesis 26:3; Joshua 1:5; Judges 6:12; Psalm 46:7, 11, “The LORD of hosts is with us”).
- Against the English
“God with us” is accurate. Modern readers often hear it only as a warm feeling of closeness. In Isaiah it is a cry of confidence in the middle of an invasion (Isaiah 8:10: “Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing… for God is with us,” kî ʿimmānû ʾēl). YLT's “With us [he is] God” keeps the shape of the Hebrew sentence.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In Isaiah 7–8, Immanuel appears at 7:14, at 8:8 (“the breadth of your land, O Immanuel”) and at 8:10. The name is used in the Hebrew Bible only there. Matthew frames his whole Gospel with the idea: here at 1:23, at 18:20 (“there am I among them”) and at the last line, 28:20 (“I am with you always”).
Where it appears
Matthew · 1
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Matthew 1:23 Ἐμμανουήλ, Immanuel,
“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).
Here: A Greek spelling of the Hebrew ʿimmānû ʾēl, a name that is a whole sentence: “With us is God.” It comes from Isaiah 7:14 and 8:8, 10.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.