The Advent in Isaiah
Fr. David Curry has compiled his Advent Meditations on “The Advent in Isaiah” into a single pdf document, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
Day: December 19, 2012
The Advent in Isaiah: Part 2
This is the second of a two-part series on “The Advent in Isaiah”. The first part is posted here. Footnotes have been omitted from the following text. A pdf document containing the full text, with footnotes, of both parts can be downloaded here.
The Advent in Isaiah: Part II
Anthony Sparrow’s observation that Isaiah is “the most evangelical of the Prophets” is amply demonstrated in the pageant of readings that belong to the liturgies of Advent and Christmas. It is not just that he points us to the coming of God’s holy Word and Son but that he shapes our understanding of the meaning of Christ’s Incarnation.
Central to that understanding is the role and place of Mary, the Virgin Mother. “In the sixth month,” Luke tells us, “the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the Virgin’s name was Mary.” The story of the Annunciation is inseparable from the Advent and is read during the Advent Ember Days (BCP, p. 101).
Luke’s account of the Annunciation prefaces his narrative of Christ’s birth. It complements Matthew’s infancy narrative about how the “birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise,” noting that Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost “before [she and Joseph] came together,” and concluding parenthetically that “all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew is quoting Isaiah 7. 14 from the Greek Septuagint directly, adding only the interpretation of the name, “Emmanuel”. Luke, too, is echoing Isaiah, changing only that his name shall be called Jesus. In the Christian understanding, Jesus is Emmanuel.
The King James’ translation of Matthew 1. 23, where Matthew quotes from Isaiah, varies a little from that of Isaiah 7.14 and in interesting and instructive ways. The King James translation of Isaiah 7.14 is “behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son”. In Matthew 1.23, it is “behold, a Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son.” In Luke’s account of the Annunciation, Gabriel announces to Mary that “behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son” which is closer to the translation of Isaiah but with the addition of “in thy womb” which is more faithful, in a literal way, to the Greek. The word “womb” is part of the Greek expression for being pregnant, which means, literally, “to have in the womb.” Luke has used the Greek verb “to conceive” in his account and this word, in particular, has carried over into the rich devotional traditions of song and motet in the Latin West, for instance, in the “Ecce virgo concipiet,” set to a great number of different musical settings. These variations bring out something of the special wonder of the Annunciation and the role of Isaiah’s prophecy in shaping that devotional and doctrinal understanding.