Matius 1:21-25

1:21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him ¹  Jesus, ²  because he will save his people from their sins.” 1:22 This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: 1:23 “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him ³  Emmanuel,” ⁴  which means ⁵  “God with us.” ⁶  1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord ⁷  told him. He took his wife, 1:25 but did not have marital relations ⁸  with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named ⁹  Jesus.

[1:21]  ¹ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

[1:21]  ² sn The Greek form of the name Ihsous, which was translated into Latin as Jesus, is the same as the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (Yahweh is typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). It was a fairly common name among Jews in 1st century Palestine, as references to a number of people by this name in the LXX and Josephus indicate.

[1:23]  ³ tn Grk “they will call his name.”

[1:23]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 7:14.

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Grk “is translated.”

[1:23]  ⁶ sn An allusion to Isa 8:8, 10 (LXX).

[1:24]  ⁷ tn See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20. Here the translation “the angel of the Lord” is used because the Greek article (ὁ, Jo) which precedes ἄγγελος (angelos) is taken as an anaphoric article (ExSyn 217-19) referring back to the angel mentioned in v. 20.

[1:25]  ⁸ tn Or “did not have sexual relations”; Grk “was not knowing her.” The verb “know” (in both Hebrew and Greek) is a frequent biblical euphemism for sexual relations. However, a translation like “did not have sexual relations with her” is too graphic in light of the popularity and wide use of Matthew’s infancy narrative. Thus the somewhat more subdued but still clear “did not have marital relations” was selected.

[1:25]  ⁹ tn Grk “and he called his name Jesus.” The coordinate clause has been translated as a relative clause in English for stylistic reasons.