They Shall Call His Name Immanuel
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. 20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.” 24 Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; 25 and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.
A righteous man planning a quiet mercy is given a harder assignment — and the child receives two names that between them state the whole book.
Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly.
The sentence defines righteousness before the Sermon on the Mount gets to it. Joseph is called righteous because he looked for the least damaging way to do what the law allowed — betrothal was binding enough to require a divorce, and his right to a public accusation is exactly what he declines. Law-keeping that reaches for the merciful option is what this Gospel will keep calling righteous Matthew 9:13.
But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
The address is deliberate. He is called son of David at the moment he is asked to become the legal father of David's heir, which is precisely what his obedience accomplishes: naming the child is the act that places him in the line the genealogy has just traced.
She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”
The first name is a job description — the Greek form of Joshua, meaning Yahweh saves — and the explanation narrows the expectation sharply. Not from Rome, and not yet from anything an occupied people would have listed first: from their sins.
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”
The second name is quoted from Isaiah Isaiah 7:14 and the book stops to translate it, which it does not do for Jesus. That translation is placed here so that the last sentence of the Gospel can be heard as its answer — I am with you always Matthew 28:20 — and so that the promise to the gathered church in the middle can be heard as the same thing Matthew 18:20.
Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself;
He says nothing in this Gospel, here or anywhere. Every appearance is a dream followed by obedience, reported in the same clipped form — arose, took, went. The first of the five dreams in these two chapters sets the pattern for a man whose entire recorded contribution is doing what he was told, at cost, without a line of dialogue.
settled What this mark means