An interesting question came up in the comments of my last post. It seems to be an important one for Christian readers. It also offers important evidence that the book of Matthew was not originally written in Greek. (one example among the many idiomatic, cultural and other proof). Likely none of the B'rit Hadashah was.

Thanks Hive account@offgridlife!

So I gave it some thought. I know I have read it - yes. It was on my phone. So I made a horribly graphic mess but accurate translation of the verse in Matthew 1:21 from the Hebrew.

• for the fast answer, "and you shall call his name yeshua because yosheah his people"

This kind of naming system does not work in Greek - end of story.

The names throughout the Tanakh meant something. They would say what they were naming the child and why - in this case, "call him Salvation because he will save his people."

The longer answer

... starts with the verb "to deliver" and ends with a full translation of the verse written in the Hebrew version of Matthew.

Here is the raw verb from strongs if you are interested.

It means to save. The word for word translation for Matthew 1:20 is below. This is with no words rearranged, word for word, from Hebrew, without trying to make it palatable in English. I wrote what I read in Hebrew (then the English meaning). This is from a screen shot of my phone where I have the Hebrew Matthew - then I used a browser based editor to add the meanings.

So...

Pardon the huge Hebrew and tiny translation

I am not a graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination. Some of these Hebrew words you will already be able to read if you have been following my lessons.

Thanks for taking the time to read. Your comments are welcome. I have been getting a lot of questions and I answer as many as I can. This one is important to Christians I talk to, so I dedicated a post to it instead of placing my answer in the comments.

Cheers.