Quotes & Notes on:
Matthew 1:21
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John Wesley's Notes:
Jesus-That is, a Saviour. It is the same name with Joshua (who was a
type of him) which properly signifies, The Lord, Salvation.
His people-Israel. And all the Israel of God.
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
* she. Ge 17:19; 18:10; Jg 13:3; 2Ki 4:16,17; Lu 1:13,35,36
* thou. Lu 1:31; 2:21
* JESUS. that is, Saviour. Heb. for. Ps 130:7,8; Isa 12:1; 45:21,22; Jer
23:6; 33:16; Eze 36:25-29 Da 9:24; Zec 9:9; Joh 1:29; Ac 3:26; 4:12;
5:31; 13:23,38,39 Eph 5:25-27; Col 1:20-23; Tit 2:14; Heb 7:25; 1Jo 1:7;
2:1; 3:5 Re 1:5; 7:14
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Adam Clarke's Commentary:
JESUS] The same as Joshua,
 Yehoshua,
from  yasha,
he saved, delivered, put in a state of safety. See on Ex 13:9; Nu 13:16,
and in the preface to Joshua.
He shall save his people from their sins.] This shall be his great
business in the world: the great errand on which he is come, viz. to
make an atonement for, and to destroy, sin: deliverance from all the
power, guilt, and pollution of sin, is the privilege of every believer
in Christ Jesus. Less than this is not spoken of in the Gospel; and less
than this would be unbecoming the Gospel. The perfection of the Gospel
system is not that it makes allowances for sin, but that it makes an
atonement for it: not that it tolerates sin, but that it destroys it. In
Mt 1:1, he is called Jesus Christ, on which Dr. Lightfoot properly
remarks, "That the name of Jesus, so often added to the name of Christ
in the New Testament, is not only that Christ might be thereby pointed
out as the Saviour, but also that Jesus might be pointed out as the true
Christ or Messiah, against the unbelief of the Jews." This observation
will be of great use in numberless places of the New Testament. See Ac
2:36; 8:35; 1Co 16:22; 1Jo 2:22; 1Jo 4:15, &c.
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Family Bible Notes:
Jesus is the same name as Joshua, or, as it is written by some of the
later Hebrew writers, Jeshua. It signifies the salvation of Jehovah.
Save; deliver from the pollution, power, guilt, condemnation, and
punishment of sin.
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1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
Christ is born of the same virgin who never knew a man: and
is named Jesus by God himself through the angel. Save, and this shows us the meaning of the name Jesus.
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People's New Testament Commentary:
Thou shalt call his name Jesus. That is, Savior. The Hebrew form is
Joshua; the full meaning is Jehovah's salvation.
Shall save his people. Not the Jewish nation, as Joseph probably
supposed, but all who accept and follow him.
From their sins. Not a temporal salvation, but from the curse of sin,
condemnation and banishment from God's favor and heaven.
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Robertson's Word Pictures:
Thou shalt call his name Jesus (Kalesies to onoma autou Iêsoun).
The rabbis named six whose names were given before birth: "Isaac,
Ishmael, Moses, Solomon, Josiah, and the name of the Messiah, whom may
the Holy One, blessed be His name, bring in our day." The angel puts it
up to Joseph as the putative father to name the child. "Jesus is the
same as Joshua, a contraction of Jehoshuah (Nu 13:16; 1Ch 7:27),
signifying in Hebrew, 'Jehovah is helper,' or 'Help of Jehovah'"
(Broadus). So Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua (Heb 4:8). He is another
Joshua to lead the true people of God into the Promised Land. The name
itself was common enough as Josephus shows. Jehovah is Salvation as seen
in Joshua for the Hebrews and in Jesus for all believers. "The meaning
of the name, therefore, finds expression in the title Saviour applied to
our Lord (Lu 1:47; 2:11; Joh 4:42)" (Vincent). He will save (sôsei) his
people from their sins and so be their Saviour (Sôtêr). He will be
prophet, priest, and king, but "Saviour" sums it all up in one word. The
explanation is carried out in the promise, "for he is the one who
(autos) will save (sôsei with a play on the name Jesus) his people from
their sins." Paul will later explain that by the covenant people, the
children of promise, God means the spiritual Israel, all who believe
whether Jews or Gentiles. This wonderful word touches the very heart of
the mission and message of the Messiah. Jesus himself will show that the
kingdom of heaven includes all those and only those who have the reign
of God in their hearts and lives. From their sins (apo tôn hamartiôn
autôn). Both sins of omission and of commission. The substantive (hamartia)
is from the verb (hamartanein) and means missing the mark as with an
arrow. How often the best of us fall short and fail to score. Jesus will
save us away from (apo) as well as out of (ex) our sins. They will be
cast into oblivion and he will cover them up out of sight.
Albert Barnes' Commentary:
His name JESUS. The name Jesus is the same as Saviour. It is
derived from the verb signifying to save. In Hebrew it is the same as
Joshua. In two places in the New Testament it is used where it means
Joshua, the leader of the News into Canaan, and in our translation the
name Joshua should have been retained, Ac 7:45; Heb 4:8. It was a very
common name among the Jews.
He shall save. This expresses the same as the name, and on this account
the name was given to him. He saves men by having died to redeem them;
by giving the Spirit to renew them, (Joh 16:7; 8:1-59) by his power in
enabling them to overcome their spiritual enemies, in de- fending them
from danger, in guiding them in the path of duty, in sustaining them in
trials and in death; and he will raise them up at the last day, and
exalt them to a world of purity and love.
His people. Those whom the Father has given to him. The Jews were called
the people of God, because he had chosen them to himself, and regarded
them as his peculiar and beloved people, separate from all the nations
of the earth. Christians are called the people of Christ, because it was
the purpose of the Father to give them to him, (Isa 53:11; Joh 6:37) and
because in due time he came to redeem them to himself, Tit 2:14; 1Pe
1:2.
From their sins. This is the great business of Jesus in coming and
dying. It is not to save men IN their sins, but FROM their sins. Sinners
could not be happy in heaven. It would be a place of wretchedness to the
guilty. The design of Jesus was, therefore, to save from sin;
1. by dying to make an atonement, (Tit 2:14); and,
2. by renewing the heart, and purifying the soul, and preparing his
people for a pure and holy heaven. And from this we may learn,
(1.) that Jesus had a design in coming into the world--he came to save
his people--and that design will surely be accomplished. It is
impossible that in any part of it he should fail.
(2.) We have no evidence that we are his people, unless we are saved
from the power and dominion of sin. A mere profession of being his
people will not answer. Unless we give up our sins; unless we renounce
the pride, pomp, and pleasure of the world, and all our lusts and
crimes, we have no evidence that we are the children of God. It is
impossible that we should be Christians if we indulge in sin, and live
in the practice of any known iniquity.
(3.) That all professing Christians should feel that there is no
salvation unless it is from sin, and that they can never be admitted to
a holy heaven hereafter, unless they are made pure, by the blood of
Jesus, here.
{1} "JESUS" or, "saviour"
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Jamieson-Faussett Brown:
And she shall bring forth a son--Observe, it is not said, "she shall
bear thee a son," as was said to Zacharias of his wife Elizabeth (Lu
1:13).
and thou--as his legal father.
shalt call his name JESUS--from the Hebrew meaning "Jehovah the Saviour";
in Greek JESUS--to the awakened and anxious sinner sweetest and most
fragrant of all names, expressing so melodiously and briefly His whole
saving office and work!
for he shall save--The "He" is here emphatic--He it is that shall save;
He personally, and by personal acts (as WEBSTER and WILKINSON express
it).
his people--the lost sheep of the house of Israel, in the first
instance; for they were the only people He then had. But, on the
breaking down of the middle wall of partition, the saved people embraced
the "redeemed unto God by His blood out of every kindred and people and
tongue and nation."
from their sins--in the most comprehensive sense of salvation from sin
(Re 1:5; Eph 5:25-27).
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Spurgeon Commentary:
The Lord of glory is born the Son of man, and is named by God’s
command, and by man’s mouth, JESUS the Savior. He is what he is called.
HE saves us from the punishment and the guilt of sin, and then from the
ill effect and evil power of sin. This he does for “his people”, even
for all who believe in him. It is his nature to do this, as we see in
the fact that his very name is JESUS — Savior. We still call him by that
name, for he still saves us.
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William Burkitt's Notes:
Observe here, 1. A prediction of our Savior's birth; the virgin shall
bring forth a son.
2. A precept for the imposition of his name; Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, that is, a Savior.
3. The reason why that name was given him; because he should save his
people, not temporarily, as Joshua did the Israelites from their
enemies, but spiritually and externally from their sins; not in their
sins but from them; that is, from the guilt and punishment, from the
power and dominion, of them.
Observe, 4. The peculiar subjects of this privilege; his people: He
shall save his people from their sins.
Learn, 1. That sin is the evil of evils; or that sin considered in
itself, is comparatively the greatest and worst of evils.
2. That the great end of Christ's coming into the world, was to be a
Savior from this evil.
3. That Christ's own people do want and stand in need of a Savior as
well as others; if he does not save them from their sins, they must die
in and for their sins, as well as others.
Therefore he saves them from sin in three ways;
1. By obtaining pardon for sin, and in reconciling us to God. 2. By
weakening the reigning power of sin, and implanting a new principle of
holiness in the heart. 3. By perfecting and accomplishing all these
happy beginnings at the end of this life in heaven.
Dr. Hammond's Pract. Catech.
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Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:
(No comment on this verse)
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The Fourfold Gospel:
She shall bring forth a son. The angel does not say "shall bear thee a
son," as he said to Zacharias (Lu 1:13).
And thou shalt call his name JESUS. Joseph was to take the position of a
legal father to the child and name it. The name means "Salvation of
Jehovah" or "Jehovah is the Saviour." Would we could all bear our names,
such as Christian, pastor, magistrate, father, mother, child, etc., as
Jesus bore that wonderful and responsible name of Saviour.
For it is he that shall save his people from their sins. Thus from
before his very birth-hour the nature of Christ's salvation is fully set
forth. He came to save from the guilt of sin by having shed his blood,
his may be remitted or washed clean. He saves from the power of sin by
bestowing the gift of the Spirit, who regenerates, comforts, and
strengthens, and ultimately he saves from the punishment of sin by
giving us a resurrection from the dead, and an abundant entrance into
the home of glory. That is no salvation at all which fails to free us
from this triple bondage of sin.
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