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Isa 7:14




I sent a message on Isa 7:14 to the list, but the "r" function didn't 
quite work right.  I'm resending that message here.  If this is a 
duplicate, my apologies:

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Well, the problem w/ reading Matthew typologically is that this is
one of the 12 (or so) "formula" quotations in Matthew:  "This happened
to fulfill what was written by the prophet . . . "  I get no intended
typology in any of these.  
 
I certainly agree that Isa 7-9 demands a historical fulfilment.  Perhaps
as many as four sons:  Shearjashub, Imanuel, Mahershalalhashbaz, and
Pele Yoets, El Gibor, Abi Ad, Sar Shalom (9:6) (though of course, whether
4, 3, or 2 is debated).  At any rate, Imanuel seems to be alive and 
well in chapter 8 where the name occurs twice.
 
The problem, I think, is not in what Matthew meant (direct fulfilment),
or in what Isaiah 7-9 meant (a baby in Ahaz's day), but in how we 
feel we must protect our various current theologies about Scripture and
the like.  Since we are the ones who think in "historical-critical"
categories, it is our problem.  But this kind of usage of OT texts in
NT documents was no problem for the author(s) of Matthew, or very likely
its readers.
 
Gary D. Collier
University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology
gcollier@du.edu