5 - Did Saint Matthew make a mistake when he translated the book of Isaiah?

The Gospel of Saint Matthew is both the book that now reveals that Jesus was born from a relationship between Mary and her father-in-law and the one that many centuries ago led the religious authorities to assume that Jesus was born of a virgin. This helps us understand the mistake that Saint Matthew made in translating ‘young woman’ into ‘virgin’. Whereas in the past many Bible scholars assumed that this error was due to the fact that Saint Matthew had little knowledge of Hebrew –in his day the majority of Jews spoke Aramaic or Greek–, the fact that we have revealed the enigma in his gospel helps us understand that he made this mistake on purpose. Why? Because referring to a prophecy from the Old Testament about a virgin, which apparently fulfilled itself in Jesus, helped to conceal the secret regarding Jesus’ true father.

Saint Matthew also had another reason for referring to a virgin. He proselytized for a new religion and in his day many people were familiar with the idea of a god who is born of a virgin. This was, for instance, the case of the Persians and the Egyptians. The suggestion that Jesus was born of a virgin made it easier for all those people to accept Christianity.

It is of course very important that we realize that at no point does Saint Matthew explicitly state that Jesus was born of a virgin. He only insinuates this by referring to an Old Testament text which allows us discover that this is indeed only an insinuation.

The revelation of the enigma in Saint Matthew helps us to realize that Christianity was created as a Trojan horse to win over the Gentiles.

According to legend, when the Greeks realized that Troy was very difficult to conquer by force, they decided to use cunning. After building a huge wooden horse that was hollow inside, in which several soldiers hid themselves, the Greeks retreated. The next day the Trojans assumed that the Greeks had left after having realized how strong their city’s defenses were. Upon arriving at the Greek camp they found a wooden horse set on a wheeled platform. Assuming that it was some kind of idol, they took it into the city as a trophy. That night, after the Trojans had celebrated their victory, the Greek soldiers crept out of the horse and opened the city gates for the rest of their fellow troops.

Just as the Old Testament was created to enlighten the Jews, the New Testament –we do not use this term to refer only to its written version– was created to enlighten all other nations. Therefore, this enlightenment which first reached a single man –the person who created the mystery on which the Old Testament is based– was later passed on to a community and, eventually, to the whole world. In order to attract them to the New Testament –Christianity–, the gospels were based on a mystery containing many references to pagan ideas. Being familiar with those ideas made it relatively easy for Pagans to accept this new religion.

Since the mystery of the Old Testament has to do with the idea that mankind once lived in harmony, in order to attract the Pagans to monotheism Jesus based the new mystery, that of the New Testament, on the figure of the Messiah, the person who would make it possible to restore this  harmony. Whereas in order to attract the Jews to Christianity the New Testament referred to the fact that several prophecies of the Old Testament came true in the figure of Jesus Christ, in order to attract the Pagans it mentioned several miracles.

The revelation of the enigma in the Gospel of Saint Matthew teaches us that the prophecy that Matthew refers to is not that of a child being born of a virgin, but that of a child who will be called Immanuel.

Many Bible scholars think that it makes no sense to refer to a prophecy in Isaiah about a child called Immanuel in order to show that it came true in a child called Jesus. However, immediately assuming that Saint Matthew contradicts himself shows that one has little humility. Since we cannot expect Saint Matthew to shoot himself in the foot, it is logical to assume that these names have something in common.

We should not ignore the importance that Judaism attaches to names. Saint Matthew explains that Immanuel means ‘God-is-with-us’. We can therefore assume that ‘Jesus’ means something similar, as it is Saint Matthew who creates this supposed contradiction. And when we study the origin of ‘Jesus’, we learn that it is a new version of Josiah (Josiah marks the deportation to Babylon and is separated 14 generations from Christ) and derives from Joshua, meaning ‘Yahweh is salvation’, which is really the same as ‘God-is-with-us’.