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means “God-is-with-us.” There are hundreds of Hebrew
names, which are composed of “el” and another noun, which
forms either the first or the last syllable of such compound
nouns. Neither Isaiah, nor King Ahaz, nor any Jew, ever
thought that the newly born infant would be himself “God-
with-us.” They never thought anything else but that his
name only would be as such. But the text expressly says
that it was Ahaz (who seems to have known the maiden
with child), that would give the boy that name. Ahaz was in
danger, his enemies were pressing hard against Jerusalem,
and this promise was made to him by showing him a sign,
namely, a pregnant maiden, and not a Virgin Mary, that
would come into the world more than seven hundred years
later! This simple prediction of a child that would be born
during the reign of Ahaz was equally misunderstood by the
writer of the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. i. 23).The name
“Jesus (pbuh) ” was given by the Angel Gabriel (Matt. i. 21),
and he was never called “Emmanuel.” Is it not scandalous
to take this name as an argument and proof of the Christian
doctrine of the “Incarnation”?

The other strange interpretation of a prophetic
prediction is from Zachariah (pbuh) (ix. 9), which is
misquoted and utterly misunderstood by the writer of the
first Gospel (xxi. 5). The Prophet Zachariah (pbuh) says:
“Rejoice much, O daughter of Sion; shout, O daughter
of Jerusalem; behold, thy King is coming unto thee;
righteous and with salvation is he; meek and mounted
upon as ass; and upon a colt, son of a she-ass.”In this
poetical passage the poet simply wishes to describe the
male ass -upon which the King is seated- by saying
that it was a young ass, and this colt, too, is described
as the son of a female ass. It was only one male colt or
young donkey. Now Matthew quotes this passage in the
following way:-