Passage

Matthew 1.21

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21, NASB95)

Matthew 1:21 is the angelic name-giving that names both the child and the mission in one sentence. The name Yeshua (a shortened Yehoshua) means "YHWH saves," and the verse's for-clause spells out the etymology theologically: He is called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. The verse is one of the cleanest scriptural anchors for divine-name Christology (the salvation reserved to YHWH is here predicated of the child) and for substitutionary soteriology in one breath.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"19. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 20. He when he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."

"21. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins."

"22. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us." (Matthew 1:19-23, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"19. Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. 20. But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."

"21. She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.""

"22. Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23. "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel"; which is, being interpreted, "God with us."" (Matthew 1:19-23, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"19. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."

"21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

"22. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23. 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 1:19-23, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"19. and Joseph her husband being righteous, and not willing to make her an example, did wish privately to send her away. 20. And on his thinking of these things, lo, a messenger of the Lord in a dream appeared to him, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, thou mayest not fear to receive Mary thy wife, for that which in her was begotten [is] of the Holy Spirit,"

"21. and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.'"

"22. And all this hath come to pass, that it may be fulfilled that was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23. 'Lo, the virgin shall conceive, and she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,' which is, being interpreted 'With us [he is] God.'" (Matthew 1:19-23, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the angel of the Lord, in a dream to Joseph
Audience: Joseph immediately; Matthew's Jewish-Christian readers via narrative
Location: Nazareth (Joseph and Mary's home, before the Bethlehem journey)
Time period: events c. 6 to 4 BC; Matthew composed c. AD 60 to 80

Theological reading

The angel does not merely announce a birth; he transmits a divine name-decree, and in Hebrew naming conventions the name expresses the bearer's mission. Yeshua is the contracted form of [[H3091 - Yehoshua|Yehoshua]], "YHWH saves," from the verbal root [[H3467 - yasha|yasha]] (to save, to deliver). The etymological cargo is unmistakable: the act named salvation from sin is the act YHWH performs, and the verse predicates that act of the child Mary will bear. The angel does not say "He will save His people because YHWH sends Him"; the angel says He Himself will save them.

This puts Matthew 1:21 alongside John 1:1, Colossians 2:9, and Philippians 2:6-11 as a foundational divine-name Christology passage. The pairing with Matthew 1:23's Immanuel (God with us) two verses later seals the point: the child is named both "YHWH saves" and "God with us," and the narrator (1:22) flags this as deliberate prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah 7.14.

Soteriologically, the for-clause names the object of salvation specifically as sin, not as Roman oppression, not as ritual impurity, not as economic injustice. The first-century Jewish messianic expectation that the messiah would deliver Israel from political bondage is corrected at the angelic name-giving stage: this Messiah's deliverance targets sin itself. The whole soteriological arc of Matthew (the Sermon, the parables, the cross, Matthew 26.27-28's blood "shed for many for forgiveness of sins") flows from this opening verse.

Apologetically, the verse is one of the cleanest examples of why "Jesus never claimed to be God" misses badly: His name was given by angelic decree before birth, and that name predicates a divine act of Him. The Christology is structural to the text from page one.

Key words

G2424 - Iesous, Iesous - the Greek transliteration of Yeshua / Yehoshua
H3091 - Yehoshua - the Hebrew form behind the name
H3467 - yasha - the Hebrew root "to save"; YHWH-saves is the etymology
G4982 - sozo, sozo - the Greek "to save"; what He will do
G0266 - hamartia, hamartia - sin; what He will save His people from
G3686 - onoma, onoma - name; in Semitic frame the name names the mission

Theological themes

Divine-name Christology. Saving-from-sin is a YHWH-prerogative; the angel predicates it of the child.
Substitutionary soteriology in seed. "Save His people from their sins" sets the trajectory completed at the cross.
Prophetic fulfillment. Matthew's narrator immediately ties the name-giving to Isaiah 7.14 (Immanuel) in v. 23.
Theological etymology. Biblical names carry mission; Yehoshua names what He does.
People-of-God reframing. "His people" widens through the Gospel from ethnic Israel to all whom He saves (Matthew 28.18-19).

Cross-references

Matthew 1.23 - the immediate companion: Immanuel, "God with us"
Isaiah 7.14 - the OT prophecy Matthew flags as fulfilled
Luke 1.31 - Gabriel's parallel name-giving to Mary
Acts 4.12 - "there is no other name under heaven... by which we must be saved"
Philippians 2.9-11 - the name above every name; every knee bows at Yeshua
Matthew 26.27-28 - the blood "shed for many for forgiveness of sins" completes the 1:21 trajectory

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.