Troublesome Topic: THE STRATEGIC USE OF NAMES IN MATTHEW 1

The Greek phrase is “holding in her womb.” It does not say what is being held in the womb, but there is only one possibility. It appears that Mary left to visit Elizabeth right away, or as the text says, “with haste.” So it is safe to assume that Joseph did not know about her condition until after she returned from her trip. The looseness of the clothing they wore would have hidden an enlarged belly for some time, but eventually Mary had to tell Joseph and her parents the “news.”

This Greek word comes from two words, “in” and “passionately, or spirited” and refers specifically to the thought process of the mind, and pictures impassioned cogitation, or spirited inner debate. Actually the English word “debate” does not appear as part of the definition of this word, but inner debate with high emotion is exactly what it is. The choices of “ponder” or “consider” are proper choices, but they fail to communicate the emotion involved in this mental process.

The name Joseph means “increasing” but it didn’t seem to him at that moment like he was “increasing.” Everything seemed to be falling apart. He was at the bottom of the barrel and someone had just nailed the lid down tight. And yet, the angel calls him by name.

Here is the angel’s message in modern lingo: “Hey Joseph, that crazy story Mary told you about an angel and how the Holy Spirit got her pregnant, well, it’s true! Believe the unbelievable. In fact, do more than just believe it, take action that will stake your reputation, and possibly your future livelihood, on something absolutely crazy. Marry her. Stick your neck out, be willing to suffer much ridicule and name-calling simply because a messenger from God told you to.”

The typical way to say this would be, “bear you a son,” but that does not apply here since Joseph was not the biological father. Therefore the word “you” is omitted. To the Jews this omission would have screamed for their attention; it was to them a powerful way to highlight the fact that this was no ordinary birth, and no ordinary child.

Usually parents named the child according to some event surrounding his birth; it could be the mother or the father that decided on the name. Here is a second occurrence of divine intervention when God told a couple what to name their child, such intervention regarding the naming of a child is rare in Scripture. Because of the circumstances surrounding his birth, the human tendency would have been to name him “trouble, disgrace, or rejected,” but God wanted to make very clear the life-purpose of this one He had sent from heaven.

Here the nature of the salvation intended by God is clearly stated. It is far bigger than freeing the Jews from their Roman oppressor, only to fall to another oppressive regime at some point down the road. This was a much bigger plan, a more personal plan, a more eternal plan.

Both the Greek and  Hebrew words in view here had a wide range of meaning, but the emphasis was “a young woman of marriageable age.” It could be used of “a sister, a maiden in general, a virgin, or a young wife.” It was the relative age that was in view, and nothing more. However, in the story of Joseph and Mary, it is made very clear to us that Mary was not yet married, and they had not yet “come together” sexually. The genius of this word choice in Isaiah is that it could, and did, refer to both Isaiah’s wife, and Mary.

Besides meaning that God cares enough about us to make Himself available to us and be close to us, accept us and love us, it also points to the union of God and man in one body—Jesus. This title predicted that Jesus would be the God-man.

Why did it have to be translated? No confusion could be allowed about this name, so he spelled it out clearly, just in case some non-Jew would read this account.

This was their way of saying that he did not have sexual intercourse with her until after Jesus was born. Even though it was now his legal right, and even though he couldn’t get her more pregnant than she already was, he chose to respect and honor what God was doing. He did not want to interfere or appear to have interfered in any way.

This name is the Aramaic version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which has the same meaning, “savior” or “YHVH saves.”