Isaiah 9:6-7

The Christian had better hope not! The child's ascension to power is mentioned in a continuous narrative following right on the heels of the child's birth, leaving no room for an atoning death, a resurrection, and nearly 2,000 years of waiting. If the child is the Messiah, then he cannot be Jesus.

Additionally, as is often the case with passages purported to be Christological, there are mistranslations. The verb forms are all in the past tense! The passage should read, "For a child was born to us [yulad-lanu], a son given to us, and the authority was [vat'hi] upon his shoulder, and his name was called [vay'kra] Wondrous Adviser, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. To him who increases the authority, and for peace without end, on David's throne and on his kingdom, to establish it and to support it with justice and with righteousness; from now and to eternity, the zeal of the L-rd of hosts shall accomplish this." Isaiah is not making a prophecy, but recounting history. Therefore, the subject of the passage cannot be any first-century person or event. That the verbs in Isaiah 9:6-7 are in the past tense is confirmed by the King James Bible itself, as the same verbs are translated elsewhere in the past tense: "And to Seth, to him also there was born [yulad] a son..." (Genesis 4:26); "Their carcasses were [vat'hi] as refuse in the street..." (Isaiah 5:25); "And the L-rd called [vay'kra] unto Moses..." (Leviticus 1:1). Only in Isaiah 9:6-7 are these verbs translated in the future tense.

Furthermore, people or things that serve to represent G-d or are closely associated with G-d are often given divine titles. For instance, Moses was made a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron was his prophet (Exodus 7:1); Jerusalem is called "YHVH [G-d's name] Our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16); and Jacob called one of the altars he built "G-d, the G-d of Israel" (Genesis 33:20). Unless we wish to worship Moses, Jerusalem, and Jacob's altar, we must concede the possibility that the child may simply be a representative of G-d. Many Hebrew names also contain G-d's name; Hezekiah in particular means "mighty G-d".

That the New Testament never quotes this verse indicates that even the New Testament authors didn't take this verse to be a reference to Jesus. This is probably because they didn't seem to believe in Jesus's deity. John 14:28, for instance, ends with Jesus saying, "the Father is greater than I", and Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:3 says, "the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is G-d". If the reader has ever wondered why Jesus often refers to the Father as "my G-d" (e.g. John 20:17), but the Father never refers to Jesus as "my G-d", this is the reason. Jesus does say, "I and my Father are one", in John 10:30, but he also prayed that the disciples would be one, even as he and the Father were one, in John 17:11. The same Greek word, "ein", is used to mean "one" in both verses and indicates a unity of purpose, rather than a oneness of being. Interestingly enough, after Jesus says, "I and the Father are one" and the Pharisees pick up stones to stone him, he quotes Psalm 82:6, where judges who teach G-d's law are called gods. This always puzzled me when I was a Messianic Jew; I now understand that Jesus was not claiming divinity, but rather claiming to represent G-d in the same way that the judges represented Him.

The scene of the preceding verses in Isaiah 9 is the recounting of a great military triumph by Israel over its enemies. Verse 3 in a Jewish translation (corresponds to verse 4 in a Christian Bible) reads: "For, the yoke of his [Israel's] burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of the one who oppressed him have you broken, as on the day of Midian." At the time Isaiah penned this passage, G-d had just delivered King Hezekiah and Jerusalem from a siege laid by the Assyrians under General Sennacherib. The deliverance was accomplished in spectacular fashion: an angel went into the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers while they slept. When Sennacherib awoke to find his army decimated, he and the remaining soldiers fled to Nineveh, where he was assassinated by his own sons (Isaiah 37:36-38). Chapters 36 and 37 of Isaiah recount how Hezekiah stood firm in the face of Sennacherib's vast army and his blasphemous words against the G-d of Israel. When all seemed lost, Hezekiah continued to trust in the L-rd, and for this he was rewarded with a miraculous victory. The phrase "as on the day of Midian" indicates the similarity between the event Isaiah is describing and Gideon's equally miraculous victory over the Midianites (see Judges 7). In that battle, Gideon and 300 other unarmed men attacked the Midianite camp. G-d sent confusion upon the Midianites, so that each one thought that his fellow was one of the attackers; in this manner they slew each other until they were routed.

It is interesting to note that the statement, "The zeal of the L-rd of hosts shall do this", found at the end of Isaiah 9:7, is found in only two other places in the Bible: Isaiah 37:32 and 2 Kings 19:31. Both of these passages discuss the miraculous deliverance wrought by G-d on Hezekiah's behalf. The most logical interpretation of Isaiah 9:6-7 is, in light of all the above, not that the Messiah must be G-d, but that Isaiah is recounting G-d's defense of Jerusalem during the Assyrian siege.

A further point bears mentioning regarding Isaiah 9. Verses 1 and 2 in the King James read, "Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more grievously did afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." This is clearly in the past tense and cannot apply to Jesus. But that did not stop Matthew from thus using it: "And leaving Nazareth, he [Jesus] came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up" (Matthew 4:13-16). The translators of the New American Standard Bible understood the problem with Isaiah 9:1-2 being in the past tense, so they simply changed it. In the NASB, the passage reads, "But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them." By rendering the passage in the future, the translators allow the verse to perhaps apply to Jesus. But they didn't cover their tracks very well; they still have Matthew quoting the passage in the past tense! Matthew 4:13-16 in the NASB reads, "and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was spoken to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, `The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles - the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned'". Matthew certainly had no motivation to put the passage in the past tense, since that precludes its application to Jesus. Matthew's citation of the passage therefore confirms that the passage really is in the past tense, and the NASB translators intentionally mistranslated it.

Isaiah 9:2 is quoted in Matthew 4:14-16, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulon and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." 

Let us look at Isaiah 9:6-7 as translated in the Tanakh Bible written by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Bible/Isaiah9.html, "For a child is born unto us, a son is given unto us; and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name is called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom; That the government may be increased, and of peace there be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it through justice and through righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of HaShem of hosts doth perform this."

Isaiah saw through the darkness of time a child being born unto Israel (national Israel, for the darkness of 8:21-22) who would become a great light unto the people of Zebulun, Nephtali, beyond Jordan, and Galilee of the nations [Gentiles].  It must be noted that the coming of Yeshua to redeem all mankind from sin and eternal death (both Jew and Gentile alike) was predestined by the infinite wisdom of God before the foundation of the world.  "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). 

Whenever the Messiah makes His second appearance, He will not come as a suffering Messiah as at His first appearance (Isaiah 53), but as the Wondrous Advisor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  He will establish David's throne and His Kingdom will have no end.  This is the only future hope for both Israel and the world.

If mankind was to be created with a free-will and the ability to either praise God with his mouth or curse God with his mouth, then God had to provide a plan of redemption for His creation. "But the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be" (James 3:9-10).  Jesus revealed the spirit of the unredeemed man, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart (inner spirit of man) the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34). 

In summary, Yeshua was and is God's plan to buy back mankind's soul and spirit from Satan which was freely relinquished by Adam and Eve at the dawn of creation in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6).  Thus, through God's mercy and Yeshua's love (John 3:16), mankind exercising his own free-will of faith in Yeshua's atonement, is now able to return to obedience and the Father's eternal presence through God's simple predestined plan of salvation [Yeshua].