One of the most well-known prophecies about the birth of a divine Messiah isย Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
The purpose of the prophecy is to warn the house of David (Isaiah 7:1โ2) that the virgin-born child (Isaiah 7:14) would come into the world after a period of darkness and establish a righteous and eternal kingdom (Isaiah 9:7). The date of the prophecy is around 734 BC.ย But doesย Isaiah 9:6ย prophesy the birth of a future divine Messiah? Critical scholars and Orthodox Jewish Rabbis offer several objections to this interpretation: (1) all the verbs in verse 6 are in the past tense; (2) the divine names belong to God and not the child; (3) the passage refers to Hezekiah and not the Messiah; and (4)ย Isaiah 9:6ย is never quoted in the New Testament.
1. Are the verbs in verse 6 in the past tense?
The Complete Jewish Bibleโs translation ofย Isaiah 9:6ย (9:5 in the Hebrew Scriptures) translates the verbs as completed actions (perfect tense):
For a child has been born to us, a son given to us, and the authority is upon his shoulder, and the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, โthe prince of peace.โ
Were the events described inย Isaiah 9:6ย fulfilled in the days of Isaiah? Are Christians guilty of misleading people by translating perfect tense verbs as if they were future? In Hebrew, the perfect tense is used to express a completed action.ย While it is true thatย Isaiah 9:6ย uses perfect verbs, the context shows why the verbs are used this way. Isaiah saw in a prophetic vision what would happen in the future but spoke about it in the past as though it had already happened. Old Testament scholar Alec Motyer explains:
[Isaiah] 9:1โ7 is couched in past tenses; the future is written as something which has already happened, for it belonged to the prophetic consciousness of men like Isaiah to cast themselves forward in time and then look back on the mighty acts of God, saying to us: โLook forward to it, it is certain, he has already done it!โ Because of this confidence, Isaiah can place the light of 9:1ff. in immediate proximity to the darkness of 8:22, not because it will immediately happen but because it is immediately evident to the eye of faith; those walking in the darkness can see the light ahead and are sustained by hope.
In Hebrew, the perfect verb is often used in prophetic language to speak of the future. For example, inย Isaiah 5:13, the prophet states, โTherefore, My people shall go into exile because of lack of knowledge . . . โ (The Complete Jewish Bible), and inย Isaiah 11:9, โThey shall neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mount, for the land shall be full of knowledge of the Lord as water covers the seabedโ (The Complete Jewish Bible). Interestingly,ย Theย Complete Jewish Bibleย translates these verses as future because they recognize they are predictions, but the phrases โshall go into exile [ืึธึผืึธึฅื]โ and โshall be full [ืึธืึฐืึธึฃื]โ are perfect verbs. Although, the verbs inย Isaiah 9:6ย [9:5] are in the perfect, the promise, in context, looks ahead to the future.
2. Do all the divine names belong to God and not the child?
The Complete Jewish Bibleโs translation ofย Isaiah 9:6ย [9:5] (see above) understands all three names (wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father) to be the subject of the verb, and therefore, they belong to God, who calls the child Prince of Peace.ย This understanding, however, is contrary to centuries of Jewish tradition such asย Targum Isaiahย (c. 150 BCโAD 350),ย Talmud, b Sanhedrin, 94a (c. AD 450โ550),ย Deuteronomy Rabbah 1:20ย (c. AD 900),ย and Abraham Ibn Ezra (AD 1089โ1167)ย who all understood the names as referring to the child.
The Complete Jewish Bibleโs translation ofย Isaiah 9:6ย [9:5] also ignores the rules of Hebrew syntax and the context. Dr. Seth Postell points out that the syntax of the passage supports the idea that all the divine names belong to the child:
In every other instance of the verb ืงืจื [to call] in the qal stem followed by ืฉื [name] + pronominal suffix + proper name, the proper name is ALWAYS the object and NEVER the subject of the clause (Genesis 11:9,ย 16:11,ย 19:37โ38,ย 25:25โ26,ย 30,ย 26:21โ22,ย 27:36,ย 29:32โ35,ย 30:6,ย 8,ย 18,ย 31:48,ย 35:8,ย 18,ย 38:29โ30,ย 50:11;ย Exodus 2:10,ย 15:23,ย 17:15;ย Judges 1:26,ย 15:19;ย Isaiah 7:14,ย 8:3;ย Hosea 1:4,ย 6,ย 9;ย Ruth 4:17;ย 1 Chronicles 4:9,ย 7:16).
The phrase โand he will be calledโ (ืึทืึดึผืงึฐืจึธื) is commonly used without a subject (an indefinite personal subject). For example,ย Genesis 25:26ย states, โso they named [ืึทืึดึผืงึฐืจึธึฅื] him Jacob.โ The context also shows that the names belong to the child. In Isaiah 7ย and 8, it is the child whose name is significant; he is the recipient of the names (Isaiah 7:14,ย 8:3). The context shows that the focus is on the names of children. To argue that the names belong to God and not the child is to go against the syntax and the context. Inย Isaiah 9:6, the child is called โmighty Godโ (ืึตึฃื ืึดึผืึผึืึนืจ,ย สพฤl gibbรดr) indicating the deity of the child (cf.ย Isaiah 10:21). The fact that the child is called God is consistent with the Old Testament talking about a divine Messiah (Psalm 2:7,ย 24:7โ10,ย 45:6โ7,ย 110:1,ย 5;ย Jeremiah 23:6;ย Daniel 7:14;ย Micah 5:2).
3. Is the passage referring to Hezekiah and not the Messiah?
It is understandable why some view the child, a descendant of David, to be referring to Hezekiah. This is becauseย Godย used Hezekiah to cleanse the temple, restore the holy days and feasts, and supernaturally rescued him from the Assyrians (2 Chronicles 29โ32). However, this reading overlooks the way thatย Isaiah 9:6โ7ย describes the child and his rule, as they cannot be said of Hezekiah. Hezekiah does not measure up to the names (i.e., mightyย God) given to the child inย Isaiah 9:6โ7. His reign did not establish justice and righteousness (Isaiah 11:2โ5), and the description of the days of the Messiah do not fit with his reign (Isaiah 2:2โ4,ย 11:3โ9). In Isaiah 39, we see that Hezekiah failed by showing his treasure to the envoy from Babylon, and as a result,ย Godย told him that his sons would end up in exile in Babylon. By virtue of this, all the promises to the house of David were not fulfilled in Hezekiah, but there is no end to this childโs kingdom (Isaiah 9:7). Moreover, even the post-exilic prophets understood that the promise to David had not been fulfilled, as they continue to refer to it (Zechariah 9:9โ10; cf.ย 1 Chronicles 17:11โ14). Therefore,ย Isaiah 9:6ย could not have been fulfilled by Hezekiah.
4. Isaiah 9:6 is never quoted in the New Testament.
The idea that an Old Testament text cannot be a prediction about the Messiah if it is not quoted in the New Testament is simply false. The New Testament does not have to repeat everything in the Old Testament for it to be true.ย But is it true that the authors of the New Testament never quoteย Isaiah 9:6?
The fact is Isaiah 9ย and the surrounding chapters are quoted or alluded to in the gospel of Matthew (cf.ย Luke 1:32โ34,ย 79). Inย Matthew 1:23, Matthew quotesย Isaiah 7:14ย about a virgin born child who would be โGod with us.โย Matthew 4:14โ16ย quotes fromย Isaiah 9:1โ2. By quoting the beginning of Isaiah 9, Matthew wants the reader to understand the entire context of the quote as individual citations often bring with them their larger context (cf.ย Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22). It is in the context ofย Isaiah 9:1โ2ย that the coming of a child called โmightyย Godโ is predicted (Isaiah 9:6). Matthew clearly understood the child ofย Isaiah 9:6ย to beย Jesusย (cf.ย Matthew 1:23).
In Isaiah 9, the people of Israel have plunged themselves into darkness because they refused to believe the Word ofย God. Yet,ย Godย tells them that where there is darkness, he will bring light (Isaiah 9:2). The place where the Assyrian destruction of Israel started (Galilee) is the place whereย Godย will bring his light into the world.ย Godโs answer to the worldโs darkness was a child: a child who was not only human but divine. A child, the prince of peace, who would grow up, commit noย sin, but through his sacrificial death, he would bear the sins of many, so that they could be counted righteous and have peace withย Godย (Isaiah 53:3โ5,ย 9,ย 11โ12).
