ISAIAH
9:6
"For to us a child
is born, to us a son is given; and he will accept the law upon himself
to keep it, and his name will be called the Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, existing forever, the Messiah, in whose days
peace will increase upon us."
According to the Isaiah
Targum, the Messiah is "the Mighty God" of Isa. 9:6. Thus the Messiah bears
divine titles and manifests divine attributes. This is particularly clear
from the Pseudo-Jonathan Targum on Psalms 45 where the "anointed Messiah"
(v. 17) is identified as "the Lord" (v.8) and as "the Memra (voice)
of the Lord" in verse 23.
The name "Memra" (lit.
speech or voice) was one of the ways the intertestamental Jews spoke of
God appearing on earth. Martin McNamara points out in his introduction
to Targum Neofiti:
"The designation for
God most characteristic of all the Targums is "the Memra of the Lord."
This is found 314 times in NF and 636 in Nfmg; in Frag. Tgs. about 99 times;
in Ctg text 97 times in texts published by Kahle; in Onq 178 times and
322 Ps. J. The "Memra of the Lord" is described in the Targums as doing
the same things that the New Testament describes Jesus as the 'Word of
God' doing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targum
A targum (plural:
targumim) is an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) written
or compiled in the Land of Israel or in Babylonia from the Second Temple
period until the early Middle Ages (late first millennium). (Targum is
also the name used for a dialect of Hebrew that was spoken by Jews in Kurdistan.)
As translations, the
targumim largely reflect rabbinic (i.e. midrashic) interpretation of the
Tanakh. This is true both for those targumim that are fairly literal, as
well as for those which contain a great many midrashic expansions.
Aramaic was the dominant
language or lingua franca for hundreds of years in major Jewish communities
in the Land of Israel and Babylonia. In order to facilitate the study
of Tanakh and make its public reading understood, authoritative translations
were required.
From
the Duay-Rheims Bible (first
published in English in 1582)
.
"For a CHILD IS BORN
to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon
his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful,
Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come,
the Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)
The New Testament
portion of the Duay-Rheims Bible was first published in English in A.D.
1582; The Old Testament portion was first published in English in
A.D. 1609.
