2. Several interpreters do not indeed deny the reference to the Messiah, but suppose that, in the first instance, the Prophet had in view some occurrence of his own time. They assume that the Prophet, while speaking of a boy of his own time, makes use, under the guidance of divine providence, of expressions, which apply more to Christ, and can, in an improper and inferior sense only, be true of this boy. This opinion was advanced as early as in the time of Jerome, by some anonymous author who, on that account, is severely censured by him: "Some Judaizer from among us asserts that the Prophet had two sons, Shearjashub and Immanuel. Immanuel too was, according to him, born by the prophetess, the wife of the Prophet, and a type of the Saviour, our Lord; so that the former son Shearjashub (which means 'remnant,' or 'converting') designates the Jewish people that have been left and afterwards converted; while the second son Immanuel, 'with us is God,' signifies the calling of the Gentiles after the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." This explanation was defended by, among others Grotius, Richard Simon, and Clericus; and then, in our century, by Olshausen, who says: "The unity of the reference lies in the name Immanuel; the son of Isaiah had the name but Christ the essence. He was the visible God whom the former only represented." In a modified form, this view is held by Lowth, Koppe, and von Meyer, also. According to them, the Prophet is indeed not supposed to speak of a definite boy who was to be born in his time, but yet, to connect the destinies of his land with the name and destinies of a boy whose conception he, at the moment, imagines to be possible. "The most obvious meaning which would present itself to Ahaz," says von Meyer, "was this: If now a girl was to marry, to become pregnant, and to bear a child, she may call him 'God with us,' for God will be with us at his time." But the prophecy is, after all, to have an ultimate reference to Christ. "The prophecy," says Lowth, "is introduced in so solemn a manner; the sign, after Ahaz had refused the call to fix upon any thing from the whole territory of nature according to his own choice, is so emphatically declared to be one selected and given by God himself; the terms of the prophecy are so unique in their kind, and the name of the child is so expressive; they comprehend in them so much more than the circumstances of the birth of an ordinary child require, or could even permit, that we may easily suppose, that in minds, which were already prepared by the expectation of a great Saviour who was to come forth from the house of David, they excited hopes which stretched farther than any with which the present cause could inspire them, especially if it was found that in the succeeding prophecy, published immediately afterwards, this child was, under the name of Immanuel, treated as the Lord and Prince of the land of Judah. Who else could this be than the heir of the throne of David, under which character a great, and even divine person had been promised?" The reasons for the Messianic explanation are very well exhibited in these words of Lowth; but he, as little as any other of these interpreters, has been able to vindicate the assumption of a double sense. When more closely examined, the supposition is a mere makeshift. On the one hand, they could not make up their minds to give up the Messianic explanation, and, along with it, the authority of the Apostle Matthew. But, on the other hand, they were puzzled by the sanctum artificium by which the Prophet, or rather the Holy Spirit speaking through him, represents Christ as being born even before His birth, places Him in the midst of the life of the people, and makes Him accompany the nation through all the stages of its existence. In truth, if the real, or even the nearest fulfilment is sought for in the time of Ahaz, there is no reason whatever for supposing a higher reference to Christ. The עלמה is then one who was a virgin, who had nothing in common with the mother of Jesus, Mary, who remained a virgin even after her pregnancy. The name Immanuel then refers to the help which God is to afford in the present distress.
3. Many interpreters deny every reference to Christ. This interpretation remained for a long time the exclusive property of the Jews, until J. E. Faber (in his remarks on Harmar's observations on the East, i. S. 281), tried to transplant it into the Christian soil.[5] He was followed by the Roman Catholic, Isenbiehl (Neuer Versuch über die Weissagung vom Immanuel, 1778) who, in consequence of it, was deposed from his theological professorship, and thrown into gaol. The principal tenets of his work he had borrowed from the lectures of J. D. Michaelis. In their views about the Almah, who is to bear Immanuel, these interpreters are very much at variance.
(a) The more ancient Jews maintained that the Almah was the wife of Ahaz, and Immanuel, his son Hezekiah. According to the Dialog. c. Tryph. 66, 68, 71, 77, this view prevailed among them as early as the time of Justin. But they were refuted by Jerome, who showed that Hezekiah must, at that time, have already been at least nine years old. Kimchi and Abarbanel then resorted to the hypothesis of a second wife of Ahaz.
(b) According to the view of others, the Almah is some virgin who cannot be definitely determined by us, who was present at the place where the king and Isaiah were speaking to one another, and to whom the Prophet points with his finger. This view was held by Isenbiehl, Steudel (in a Programme, Tübingen, 1815), and others.
(c) According to the view of others, the Almah is not a real but only an ideal virgin. Thus J. D. Michaelis: "At the time when one, who at this moment is still a virgin, can bear," &c. Eichhorn, Paulus, Stähelin, and others. The sign is thus made to consist in a mere poetical figure.
(d) A composition of the two views last mentioned is the view of Umbreit. The virgin is, according to him, an actual virgin whom the Prophet perceived among those surrounding him; but the pregnancy and birth are imaginary merely, and the virgin is to suggest to the Prophet the idea of pregnancy. But this explanation would saddle the Prophet with something indecent. Farther: It is not a birth possible which is spoken of, but an actual birth. From chap. viii. 8, it likewise appears that Immanuel is a real individual, and He one of eminent dignity; and this passage is thus at once in strict opposition to both of the explanations, viz. that of any ordinary virgin, and that of the ideal virgin. It destroys also
(e) The explanation of Meier, who by the virgin understands the people of Judah, and conceives of the pregnancy and birth likewise in a poetical manner. The fact, the acknowledgment of which has led Meier to get up this hypothesis, altogether unfounded, and undeserving of any minute refutation, is this: "The mother is, in the passage before us, called a virgin, and yet is designated as being with child. The words, when understood physically and outwardly, contain a contradiction." But this fact is rather in favour of the Messianic explanation.
(f) Others, farther, conjecture that the wife of the Prophet is meant by the Almah. This view was advanced as early as by Abenezra and Jarchi. By the authority of Gesenius, this view became, for a time, the prevailing one. Against it, the following arguments are decisive; part of them being opposed to the other conjectures also. As עלמה designates "virgin" only, and never a young woman, and, far less, an older woman, it is quite impossible that the wife of the Prophet, the mother of Shearjashub could be so designated, inasmuch as the latter was already old enough to be able to accompany his father. Gesenius could not avoid acknowledging the weight of this argument, and declared himself disposed to assume that the Prophet's former wife had died, and that he had thereupon betrothed himself to a virgin. Olshausen, Maurer, Hendewerk, and others, have followed him in this. But this is a story entirely without foundation. In chap. viii. 13, the wife of the Prophet is called simply "the prophetess." Nor could one well see how the Prophet could expect to be understood, if, by the general expression: "the virgin" he wished to signify his presumptive betrothed. There is an entire absence of every intimation whatsoever of a nearer relation of the Almah to the Prophet; and such an intimation could not by any means be wanting if such a relation really existed. One would, in that case at least, be obliged to suppose, as Plüschke does, that the Prophet took his betrothed with him, and pointed to her with his finger,--a supposition which too plainly exhibits the sign of embarrassment, just as is the case with the remark of Hendewerk: "Only that, in that case, we must also suppose that his second wife was sufficiently known at court even then, when she was his betrothed only, although her relation to Isaiah might be unknown; so that, for this very reason, we could not think of a frustration of the sign on the part of the king." Hitzig remarks: "The supposition of a former wife of the Prophet is altogether destitute of any foundation." He then, however, falls back upon the hypothesis which Gesenius himself admitted to be untenable, that עלמה, "virgin" might not only denote a young woman, but sometimes also an older woman. Not even the semblance of a proof can be advanced in support of this. It is just the juvenile age which forms the fundamental signification of the word. In the wife of the Prophet we can the less think of such a juvenile age, that he himself had already exercised his prophetic office for about twenty years. Hitzig has indeed altogether declined to lead any such proof. A son of the Prophet, as, in general, every subject except the Messiah, is excluded by the circumstance that in chap viii. 8, Canaan is called the land of Immanuel.--Farther,--In all these suppositions, אות is understood in an inadmissible signification. It can here denote a fact only, whereby those who were really susceptible were made decidedly certain of the impending deliverance. This appears clearly enough from the relation of this sign to that which Ahaz had before refused, according to which the difference must not be too great, and must not refer to the substance. To this may be added the solemn tone which induces us to expect something grand and important. A mere poetical image, such as would be before us according to the hypothesis of the ideal virgin, or of the real virgin and the ideal birth, does surely not come up to the demand which in this context must be made in reference to this sign. And if the Prophet had announced so solemnly, and in words so sublime, the birth of his own child, he would have made himself ridiculous. Farther,--How then did the Prophet know that after nine months a child would be born to him, or, if the pregnancy be considered as having already commenced, how did he know that just a son would be born to him? That is a question to which most of these Rationalistic interpreters take good care not to give any reply. Plüschke, indeed, is of opinion that, upon a bold conjecture, the Prophet had ventured this statement. But in that case it might easily have fared with him as in that well known story in Worms, (Eisenmenger, entdecktes Judenthum ii. S. 664 ff.), and his whole authority would have been forfeited if his conjecture had proved false. And this argument holds true in reference to those also who do not share in the Rationalistic view, of Prophetism. Predictions of such a kind may belong to the territory of foretelling, but not to that of Prophecy.
[ [1]] Meyer, Blätter für höhere Wahrheit, iii. S. 101.]