Is Isaiah 9:6 About a Divine Messiah?
Are we understanding this well-known prophecy correctly?
One of the most well-known prophecies about the birth of a divine Messiah is Isaiah 9:6.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The purpose of the prophecy is to warn the house of David (Isaiah 7:1–2) 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.1 But does Isaiah 9:6 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) Isaiah 9:6 is never quoted in the New Testament.2
1. Are the verbs in verse 6 in the past tense?
The Complete Jewish Bible’s translation of Isaiah 9:6 (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, “the prince of peace.”3
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.
Were the events described in Isaiah 9:6 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.4 While it is true that Isaiah 9:6 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] 9:1–7 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: ‘Look forward to it, it is certain, he has already done it!’ 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.5
In Hebrew, the perfect verb is often used in prophetic language to speak of the future. For example, in Isaiah 5:13, the prophet states, “Therefore, My people shall go into exile because of lack of knowledge . . . ” (The Complete Jewish Bible), and in Isaiah 11:9, “They 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 seabed” (The Complete Jewish Bible). Interestingly, The Complete Jewish Bible translates these verses as future because they recognize they are predictions, but the phrases “shall go into exile [גָּלָ֥ה]” and “shall be full [מָלְאָ֣ה]” are perfect verbs. Although, the verbs in Isaiah 9:6 [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 Bible’s translation of Isaiah 9:6 [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.6 This understanding, however, is contrary to centuries of Jewish tradition such as Targum Isaiah (c. 150 BC–AD 350),7 Talmud, b Sanhedrin, 94a (c. AD 450–550),8 Deuteronomy Rabbah 1:20 (c. AD 900),9 and Abraham Ibn Ezra (AD 1089–1167)10 who all understood the names as referring to the child.
The Complete Jewish Bible’s translation of Isaiah 9:6 [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 קרא [to call] in the qal stem followed by שם [name] + pronominal suffix + proper name, the proper name is ALWAYS the object and NEVER the subject of the clause (Genesis 11:9, 16:11, 19:37–38, 25:25–26, 30, 26:21–22, 27:36, 29:32–35, 30:6, 8, 18, 31:48, 35:8, 18, 38:29–30, 50:11; Exodus 2:10, 15:23, 17:15; Judges 1:26, 15:19; Isaiah 7:14, 8:3; Hosea 1:4, 6, 9; Ruth 4:17; 1 Chronicles 4:9, 7:16).11
The fact that the child is called God is consistent with the Old Testament talking about a divine Messiah.
The phrase “and he will be called” (וַיִּקְרָא) is commonly used without a subject (an indefinite personal subject). For example, Genesis 25:26 states, “so they named [וַיִּקְרָ֥א] him Jacob.” The context also shows that the names belong to the child. In Isaiah 7 and 8, it is the child whose name is significant; he is the recipient of the names (Isaiah 7:14, 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. In Isaiah 9:6, the child is called “mighty God” (אֵ֣ל גִּבּ֔וֹר, ʾēl gibbôr) indicating the deity of the child (cf. 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, 24:7–10, 45:6–7, 110:1, 5; Jeremiah 23:6; Daniel 7:14; Micah 5:2).12
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 because God used Hezekiah to cleanse the temple, restore the holy days and feasts, and supernaturally rescued him from the Assyrians (2 Chronicles 29–32). However, this reading overlooks the way that Isaiah 9:6–7 describes the child and his rule, as they cannot be said of Hezekiah. Hezekiah does not measure up to the names (i.e., mighty God) given to the child in Isaiah 9:6–7. His reign did not establish justice and righteousness (Isaiah 11:2–5), and the description of the days of the Messiah do not fit with his reign (Isaiah 2:2–4, 11:3–9). In Isaiah 39, we see that Hezekiah failed by showing his treasure to the envoy from Babylon, and as a result, God 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 child’s 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 9:9–10; cf. 1 Chronicles 17:11–14). Therefore, Isaiah 9:6 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.13 But is it true that the authors of the New Testament never quote Isaiah 9:6?
The fact is Isaiah 9 and the surrounding chapters are quoted or alluded to in the gospel of Matthew (cf. Luke 1:32–34, 79). In Matthew 1:23, Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 about a virgin born child who would be “God with us.”14 Matthew 4:14–16 quotes from Isaiah 9:1–2. 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. Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22). It is in the context of Isaiah 9:1–2 that the coming of a child called “mighty God” is predicted (Isaiah 9:6). Matthew clearly understood the child of Isaiah 9:6 to be Jesus (cf. Matthew 1:23).
In Isaiah 9, the people of Israel have plunged themselves into darkness because they refused to believe the Word of God. Yet, God 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 where God will bring his light into the world. God’s answer to the world’s darkness was a child: a child who was not only human but divine. A child, the prince of peace, who would grow up, commit no sin, but through his sacrificial death, he would bear the sins of many, so that they could be counted righteous and have peace with God (Isaiah 53:3–5, 9, 11–12).
