Pretty serious stuff today, almost there, almost through Advent. The first reading is from our man Isaiah. “[T]he Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” And then the Gospel of St. Matthew. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.'”

But then I’ve always wondered: why did they name him Jesus instead of Emmanuel?

The Catholic Encyclopedia is not a big help at the entry for Emmanuel.

The various views advanced as to the identity of the child cannot be fully explained and discussed here; the following observations must suffice.

They go on to note that the child is not merely a metaphorical child and other such things. Bigger help maybe is over at the entry for Jesus, Origin of the Name of Jesus Christ.

The word Jesus is the Latin form of the Greek Iesous, which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew Jeshua, or Joshua, or again Jehoshua, meaning “Jehovah is salvation.”

So is that it? God is with us is pretty close to Jehovah is salvation.