“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”.
Isaiah 9:6
This specific passage of Isaiah is likely one of the most well known in the Bible by Christians.
Many Christians believe that it tells of the birth of the Messiah, the Anointed one, that he would be a Son of whom’s God’s government would be handed to. He would be known as a great teacher, and a prince of peace.
Of course, some Christian scholars, both those who beleive it is a Messianic prophecy and those who don’t, beleive that this verse may be translated inaccurately, and that the rendition as seen in modern Jewish Bibles, may be the more accurate, in which the passage calls God the Father all of the said titles, but one, Prince of Peace, which alone is applied to the son of the verse. Meanwhile, the oldest form of this passage from the Greek Septuigent, make no mention of God or gods at all.
- “For a child has been born to us, a son given to us, and the authority is upon his shoulder, and the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, ‘the prince of peace'”. – Isaiah 9:5 (The Complete Tanach Version)
- “That a child was born to us, a son was given to us, whose beginning came upon his shoulder, and his name is called Angel/Messenger of Great Counsel; for I will bring peace upon the rulers and health to him.” – Isaiah 9:5 (Swete Greek Septuagint)
However, if this passage is indeed a Messianic prophecy, and all the titles do apply to Yeshua we can certainly say that Yeshua indeed has proven to be the king of God’s government, a prince of peace and a great counsellor or teacher…
However, there are two other statements in this passage which may be more tricky for some people to understand, and has been interpreted in various ways by various Christians in support of various belief systems and Christologies, namely, Yeshua as being called “everlasting father” and “mighty god”.
For Christians who believe Yeshua is God, on the surface this would appear to merely be a statement that the promised Messiah would be God himself. However, for specific types of Yeshua-God Christologies, this verse poses a problem…
We are to understand, whether one believes in Yeshua to be the Almighty God Himself or not, that the Father and Son are two different persons or beings. However, Isaiah 9:6 states that “the Son” would be called the “Father”. For Modalists, this scripture poses no problem, for they believe the Father ‘is’ the Son. However, clearly for either Arianism, Unitarianism, or Trinitarianism, this cannot be referring to Yeshua being called God the Father. So how is it to be understood from such perspectives if the Christology of Modalism is to be false?
The Fathers of the Old Testament
To begin to understand, we must first understand that there are many kinds of “fathers” in the Bible.
There is first and foremost our Heavenly Father, Yah the Almighty God. After this however, we have the Biblical patriarchs; the forefather of Mankind, Adam, the forefather of Israel, Abraham, and of course fleshly fathers of family units.
- “Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, ‘As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations'”. – Genesis 17:3-4
- “What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has discovered?”. – Romans 4:1
- “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers”. – 2 Timothy 1:3
- “The God of our fathers raised up Yeshua, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree”. – Acts 5:30
- “May YHWH, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over and bless you as He has promised“. – Deuteronomy 1:11
- “And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living“. – Genesis 3:20
- “In that day, I will call to My servant (Eliakim son of Helkiah), and I’ll put your garments on him… Yes, I will give him your crown. Your duties, I’ll put in his hands. And then he’ll become like a father to those in Judah and Jerusalem“. – Isaiah 22:20-21
Yeshua the “Covenantal Father”
If we are to understand that Yeshua is not to be God the Father, then he is to be some “other kind” of father. Seeing our options are either fleshly fathers, or forefathers, the Son then is to somehow be one of these.
As we are not told Yeshua had fleshly children, this means that he must be some kind of spiritual father, yet not being the Heavenly Father.
Many may be surprised to learn that the scriptures of the New Testament do in fact give us the answers of what kind of father Yeshua is in this regard and what it means. As we see above in the types of Old Testament Fathers, Abraham was called “a father of many nations” by means of the Covenant God made with him for Israel, yet, Israel was only ‘one’ nation, and thus it holds much deeper meaning for us today.
We are to grasp, that the Old Covenant was a “shadow of things to come” and to be fulfilled in Yeshua the Anointed (Colossians 2:17). Hence, Yeshua as our “everlasting father” is to be both our “Adamic father”, replacing our fleshly forefather Adam, and also being our “Abrahamic father”:
- “But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me”. – Hosea 6:7
- “Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come“. – Romans 5:14
- “For as indeed in Adam all die, so also in [the] Anointed [One] all will be made alive“. – 1 Corinthians 15:22
- “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Yeshua [the] Anointed! So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men”. – Romans 5:17-18
- “…Yeshua the mediator of a new covenant…”. – Hebrews 12:24
- “He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in [the] Anointed Yeshua, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit… The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is [the] Anointed [One].… It was administered through angels by a mediator… And if you belong to [the] Anointed [One], then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”. – Galatians 3:14-16, 19, 29
We see Yeshua has replaced Adam, in that through his righteous death, and our adoption into God’s family by faith in Yeshua, we inherit the fate and salvation of Yeshua into the New Creation, as opposed to inheriting the fate and death of Adam.
Additionally, Yeshua is the greater fulfilment of Abraham in that he is the mediator of the New Covenant, just as the forefather and patriarch Abraham was the initial mediator of the Old Covenant. As Abraham had children with his wife Sarah giving way to the nation of Israel who are born into the Old Law, so is the New Spiritual Israel born which grants blessings to mankind as its adopted children, by means of Yeshua’s marriage to his “spiritual Bride”, which produces the offspring of the New Kingdom of the New Heavens and New Earth:
- “Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, as did the prophets. Who do you claim to be?” Yeshua answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. The One who glorifies me is my Father, of whom you say ‘He is our God“. – John 8:53-54
- “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband… ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb‘”. – Revelation 21:2, 9
- “For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies“. – Romans 8:20-23
We see in scripture, that the “to be bride” is the Congregation of Yeshua, and especially those of which the Father choses for the highest privilege of rulership to be Yeshua’s Bride sitting at his right and left (Matthew 20:23).
The relationship between Yeshua and the Congregation is directly compared to Sarah’s relationship with Abraham, as well as married Christian couples in general, thus fleshly human marriage itself is a symbol of greater spiritual realities in this respect.
Yeshua cherishes the Congregation as a husband his bride, and the wife looks to the husband as her “lord” in traditional Jewish marriages, as do we as Christians under our Lord Yeshua:
- “Submit to one another out of reverence for [the] Anointed [One]. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as [the] Anointed is the head of the Congregation, His body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the Congregation submits to [the] Anointed, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything… Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as [the] Anointed does the Congregation. For we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about [the] Anointed [One] and the Congregation” – Ephesians 5:21-24, 29-32
- “For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. And you are her children if you do what is right and refuse to give way to fear“. – 1 Peter 3:5-6
Hence, Yeshua and the Congregation are akin to a “groom and bride” to be, which will result in “children”, making Yeshua the everlasting father of the New Covenant and New Nation of Spiritual Israel, just as Adam was the father of the children of the human race and of the first Edenic Covenant that he broke, and as Abraham was the father of Israel and the Old Covenant, which again, as Adam, Israel broke. But the New Covenant of Yeshua is eternal and unbreakable, making Yeshua the “everlasting father” in comparison to the Covenantal fathers who came before.
Yet, whilst Yeshua is now the “father” of these Covenants and mankind in the Adamic and Abrahamic sense, he is also “our brother” when it comes to the worship of our Heavenly Father, Yah, just as it was with Adam and Abraham, they were fleshly fathers yet spiritual brothers. Lord Yeshua, Abraham, and ourselves, are all together “sons of God”, Yah being the “ultimate eternal Father” over all, including Yeshua himself.
- “In reply the King will say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”. – Matthew 25:40
- “You are all, in fact, sons of God through your faith in [the] Anointed Yeshua“. – Galatians 3:26
- “…I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” – John 20:17
There is in addition, historical evidence for this in ancient Jewish writings, as the “Word”, or “Memra” in Jewish tradition, was always understood to be an “agent of God”, who would come down and “be as a father” to God’s people:
“In the Targum the Memra (Word/Logos) figures constantly as the manifestation of the divinepower, or as God’s messenger in place of God Himself, wherever the predicate is not in conformity with the dignity or the spirituality of the Deity…
The Memra is “the witness; it will be to Israel like a father and “will rejoice over them to do them good“. “In the Memra the redemption will be found”. “The holy Word” was the subject of the hymns of Job ”. – Memra, Jewish Encyclopedia
Conclusion
In conclusion, if Isaiah 9:6 is applying all of its titles to Yeshua, we can see that it would mean Yeshua is the “everlasting Covenantal father”, the greater Adam, the greater Abraham.
He is not “God the Father”, but is the “Son”, making him our brother, as we all together worship the One true God, the Heavenly Father.
Proselyte of Yah 