What Does Matthew 1:25 Mean?
And he did not know her until she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.THE KEY
The child’s name is more than a label: Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) carries יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, “deliverance”), naming a nature that moves from constriction toward wholeness.
THE MEANING
The verse presents a birth without Joseph’s sexual union with Mary before the child arrives, and a name that carries deliverance as nature. For the reader now, “until” marks only the span this sentence names; it does not by itself tell what follows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that “Jesus” is only a label gives way to a name that carries the nature of deliverance.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομ-
onom-
The Greek base for name or designation.
The Greek noun ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) belongs to the same family as words for naming and designation. Its force here comes from the identity carried by Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”), the Greek form of יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, “deliverance”).
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or designate.
ὀνομάζω
This naming verb shares the ὀνομ- (onom-) base, linking the name given to the act of naming.
onomasia: Naming or designation.
ὀνομασία
This word shares the ὀνομ- (onom-) base and shows the family includes the act or manner of naming.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁע
yashaʿ
To deliver or rescue, bringing someone out of constriction toward room to live.
“Jesus” in this verse is Yeshua. The Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, “deliverance”) belongs to יָשַׁע (yashaʿ, “deliver”). Its family names both deliverance and the deliverer, so the name carries movement out of constriction toward spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance or rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun shares the י־שׁ־ע (y-sh-ʿ) root and names the deliverance carried by the child’s name.
moshia: Deliverer or rescuer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This word shares the י־שׁ־ע (y-sh-ʿ) root and names the one who brings deliverance.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s names disclose the nature or work carried by the one named.
And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, fixing his gaze on him, said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, the rock.THE THREAD
And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.Matthew 1:21 repeats the naming and makes its deliverance meaning explicit. The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) carries יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, “deliverance”), from יָשַׁע (yashaʿ, “deliver”); the name is the nature made plain.
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