Verse explainer

What does Matthew 1:23 really mean?

"Emmanuel" was never meant as Jesus's everyday name — it's a title declaring what his arrival means: God personally present among us.

KJV

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

BSB

"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").

The plain meaning

Matthew is quoting Isaiah 7:14 and applying it to the birth of Jesus. The name Emmanuel (Hebrew: Immanu El) means literally "God with us" — and Matthew's point is not that people would address Jesus as Emmanuel in daily life (they called him Jesus, v. 21), but that this is what he would prove to be: the living presence of God among human beings. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note that Emmanuel was never a proper name in the way "Jesus" was; it names a reality, a character, a permanent condition. John 1:14 echoes the same thought — "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The verse is the climax of the angel's announcement: the child's very identity answers the deepest fear of any crisis, including the one facing Ahaz in Isaiah's day — is God still with us? Matthew's answer, placed here at the very opening of his Gospel, is yes, and now irrevocably so.

The common misreading

"They shall call his name Emmanuel" — so why did everyone call him Jesus? This is one of the most common stumbling blocks readers bring to Matthew 1:23, and it's a fair one. The angel in v. 21 says "thou shalt call his name Jesus" — and throughout the Gospels, that is exactly what people call him. So why does v. 23 say "they shall call his name Emmanuel"? The confusion comes from reading "shall call his name" as if it always means a formal, spoken name. It doesn't. In the Hebrew idiom Matthew is quoting, naming someone can mean declaring what they are — their identity or function. Isaiah 9:6 loads four throne-names onto the coming child ("Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God...") that no one used as a literal address either. Matthew Henry and Gill both note this usage: Emmanuel is not a second proper name competing with Jesus; it is a statement of what Jesus is. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown put it plainly: Emmanuel names his character, not his title on a census roll. The point Matthew is making at the very threshold of his Gospel is theological: in this child, God is not distant, not absent, not merely sending a messenger — God is with us, in person, permanently.

What the commentators say

John Gill18th c. · PD

Gill defends "virgin" as the correct rendering, noting that the Hebrew word for "virgin" carries the sense of one hidden from men, and that the genuine sign or wonder in the prophecy lay precisely in the fact that a virgin — not a married woman — would conceive. He also clarifies that "they shall call his name Emmanuel" means he would be that, would be so regarded, rather than that Emmanuel was his everyday spoken name.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown19th c. · PD

JFB stresses that Matthew's text points to "the virgin" — a particular, destined figure — and that Emmanuel was not given as a proper name alongside Jesus. Instead, it announces his abiding character: God manifested in human flesh, the permanent bond of intimate fellowship between God and humanity established from that moment forward.

The word behind it

Ἐμμανουήλ Emmanouel

A transliteration of the Hebrew Immanu El, meaning "God with us." Matthew pauses to translate it for his readers, signaling it is a title of meaning, not a personal name. The gloss reframes the entire birth announcement: the question it answers is not "what will we call him?" but "who is he and what does his presence mean?" — God's own presence taking up residence in human history.

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