Isaiah 9:6
Many trinitarians will tell you that Is. 9:6 proves that Jesus is God.
Is. 9:6 says –
“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.” -
NASB.
All Christians, I believe, accept this son as being the Christ. Some 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 all right but in a subordinate 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.
Yes, men and angels were called gods
(elohim - Hebrew;
theos - Greek) in a proper, but
subordinate, sense by Jehovah and his inspired Bible writers (see the DEF and BOWGOD studies). Although they were given this elevated title in a proper sense (not
false gods), it was obviously with the clear understanding that it in
no way implied a comparison with the Most High, Only True God. (A bank employee calling his boss, the head of the bank, “the president” would certainly not imply an equality of position, power, etc. with “
The President” [of the USA].)
The word “god” as understood by those who used that term simply meant a “
mighty one” - see
Young’s Concordance. In fact the word “Mighty” as found at Is. 9:6
(Gibbor in the original Hebrew) is also applied to the
angels at Ps. 103:20 (see a modern concordance such as the
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible).
It is interesting that the ancient translation of the Old Testament that Jesus frequently quoted, the Septuagint Version, renders Is. 9:6: “and his [the Messiah’s] name is called the
Angel [ἄγγελος, messenger] of Great Counsel.” (And a footnote in Zondervan’s Edition adds that the Alexandrine text renders it, “Wonderful, Counsellor,
Mighty One, Potentate, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come.”) The very early (ca. 160 A.D.) Christian Justin Martyr quoted Is. 9:6 also as “The
Angel of mighty counsel” - “Dialogue With Trypho,” ch. LXXVI
.
So, just as “Lord” was applied to
anyone in authority: angels, masters over servants, husbands, etc., so, too, could “god” be applied to anyone (good or bad) who was considered a “mighty one.” Of course only
one person could be called the “
Most High God,” or the “
Only True God,” or the “
Almighty God”!
In the same way, “Eternal Father” could mean that the Messiah is one who has been given eternal life and through him God has brought eternal life to many others. (We might make the comparison that the Heavenly Father has brought men to life in this world through their earthly fathers.) This would be intended in a clearly
subordinate sense and not to take anything away from the ultimate honor, glory, worship, etc. due the
Most High God and
Father in heaven - Jehovah.
At any rate, even most trinitarians do not confuse the two separate persons of the Father and the Son. They do not say the Son
is the Father. They say the Father and the Son are two separate individual persons who are equally “God”!
Therefore, since we obviously cannot take “Eternal Father” in the literal sense to mean that Jesus
is the Father, we cannot take the rest of that same name (esp. ‘Mighty God’) in its literal highest sense and say that Jesus
is Mighty God, etc., either.
In addition to the distinct possibility of the use of the secondary subordinate meanings of the titles such as “God/god” as explained by Bible language scholars (see the BOWGOD study), we can see by the actual renderings of some
trinitarian Bible translators at Is. 9:6 that they believe such subordinate meanings were intended by the inspired Bible writer.
Instead of “Mighty God,” Dr. James Moffatt translated this part of Is. 9:6 as “
a divine hero;” Byington has “
Divine Champion;” The
New English Bible has “
In Battle Godlike;” The Catholic
New American Bible (1970 and 1991 revision) renders it “
God-Hero;” and the
REB says “
Mighty Hero.” Even that most-respected of Biblical Hebrew language experts, Gesenius, translated it “
mighty hero” - p. 45, Gesenius’
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon.
Also,
The NIV Study Bible, in a f.n. for Ps 45:6, tells us:
“In this psalm, which praises
the king and especially extols his ‘splendor and majesty’ (v. 3), it is not unthinkable that he was called ‘
god’ as a title of honor [cf.
Isa 9:6].” (Bracketed information included in original footnote.)
In addition, Rotherham has rendered “Eternal Father” as “
father of progress,” and the
New English Bible translates it: “
father of a wide realm.”
The above-mentioned Bible translations by trinitarian scholars which apply the words in the name at Is. 9:6 in a subordinate sense directly to Jesus clearly show that they do not believe this scripture implies an equality with Jehovah the Father.
But, some may ask, if ‘a mighty god’ were intended in this name, why is “God” given a capital ‘G’ in most translations of this name?
The answer is that in English translations of names we often find the major words within a name (or title) are capitalized. This is similar to the way book titles, names of buildings, ships, etc. are written in English. ‘The
Lord of the
Rings,’ ‘The
World
Trade
Center,’ ‘The
Empire
State
Building,’ ‘
Allure of the
Seas’ (cruise ship), etc., are modern examples.
………………………….
And
second, another way competent Bible scholars have interpreted the meaning of this name is with the understanding that it (as with many, if not most, of the other Israelites’ personal names) does not apply directly to the Messiah (as we have already seen with “Elijah,” “Abijah,” etc.) but is, instead, a statement praising the Father, Jehovah God.
Personal names in the ancient Hebrew and Greek are often somewhat cryptic to us today. 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 instance, two of the best-known Bible concordances
(Young’s and
Strong’s) and a popular trinitarian Bible dictionary
(Today’s Dictionary of the Bible) differ on the
exact meaning of many Biblical personal names because of those “minor” words which must be added to bring out the intended meaning.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, for example, says the name “Elimelech” (which is
literally just “God King”) means “God
of (
the) King.”
Young’s Analytical Concordance says it means “God
is King.”
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible says it means “ God
his King” - p. 206, Bethany House Publ., 1982. And an online meaning is given as “
My God
is the King.” -
http://www.kveller.com .
I haven’t found any scholar/translator who says the name of Elimelech should be translated with its
literal meaning of “
God King.” And no scholar
ever translates it to mean that Elimelech himself was "God King."
Those missing minor words that the translator must supply at his own discretion can often make a vital difference! - 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.
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 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 [a]“
quick to the plunder;
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; 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.
