• This reading of v.*« was suggested In Erpot. Time*, 16W. "The same idea has occurred to others, e.a. Buld. Jfsaiti ovfrtai og fortolkfl, Kjob. ISM; Kitt«l, ' Jesaja' '£x>v. Uatuti).'). htip.
i56
IMMER
IMPOTENT
ing, and who was ' called ' Immanuel because he wiis Iimnanuel.
If liiiiimnuel bo an individual person of this Bijjniliciiiice, tlie question of tlie 'iilmnh perhaps rises in importance. The art. ' the' '«/»i«/t would be easiest e.\phiined if in some prerious prophecy she had been already mentioned. Uut the assump- tion of such prophecies may not bo held admissible. The passage Mic 5' ' until the time that she (or, one) tliat Uavaileth hath brought forth ' alludes to tlie prophecy of Isaiah. The authenticity of the passage has been doubted, tliough, of course, not everything which has been doubted is doubtful. If the pa.ssage belonged to Mic, it would sliow how the prophecy of Is was read perhaps 20 or 30 years after it was spoken. It was held to refer to the Messiah, and to be still awaiting fulfilment ; and, what is of interest in regard to the way prophecy was inter- preted in those days, Isaiah's apparent expecta- tion of the nearness of the Messiah's birth (if 7" be original) was not held of any importance so far as the general meaning of the pro])hecy was concerned. All these things hold good ir the passage be younger than Mic, though we should not in that case liave a contemporary, but a later interpretation of the prophecy of Isaiah.
It is uncertain whether the LXX interpreters found anything mysterious in the passage, for Gr. napBivot, likeLat. virgo, wasusedgenerally for 'girl' or ' youn" woman ' (Gn 24"- ■''). Possibly to evade the technical sense put on the word by the Christians, the three newer Gr. translators (Aq., Theod., and Sj'mm.) adopt the term mavii, a change of which Irena;us takes notice and disapproves. Tliere is some evidence that the idea that the Messiah would be born of a virgin was to some extent prevalent both in Palestine and Alexandria. The idea may have been suggested by the somewhat mysterious lan-
fuage of Is, or by the LXX version, or by both. n general, it was more the actual life of Christ that suggested to NT writers the application to Him of OT passages, than a prevalent method of interpreting the passages. They saw in His life the full religious meaning of the passages, and the question of their original sense or application did not occur to them. As Bleek long ago argTied {Comm. on Ep. to Ileb.), historical interpreters may have to distinguish between the things which NT writers alhrm and corroborate by OT passages, and the proofs or corroborations which they adduce. The tilings they assert we take on their authority, but the kind of confirmations by which they support them, however valid they may have seemed to those to whom they were addressed, and how- ever well tliey sen-ed as evidence then, may not seem of sucli importance now. We believe in the resurrection of Christ because it is testified to by eye-witnesses ; St. Peter's interpretation of Ps 16 is at best only a corroboration of it. And in like manner we believe in the virgin birth because it is affirmed by one ' who had traced tlie course of all things accurately from the first' (Lk P) ; the in- terpretation put on Is 7 (Mt I--'-) occupies but the secondary place of a confirmation of it.
LiTBRATURE. — Besides the Comm. on Is (see particularly the Additional Note of Skinner, i. 60flf.), the following essays amon^ others mav be named : — De Lagarde, Sewitica, lb78 ; Studer, 'ZurTLXtkritik des Jes.,' Jhrb. /. Prol. Theol., 1879; Brcden- kamp, Vaticiiiiuyn quod de Imm. edidit Je^., ISSO; Budde, •Uebejdas siebenteCap. d. Buches Jes.'(in Etudes d^di^es d M r. le Dr. Leemans), 18S5 ; Giesebrecht, J>U Immanuelweissiniung, SEy 18SS ; F. C. Porter, ' A sufigeation receding Isaiah's Im- manuel' in Jl. (if Bib. Lit., 1895. A. 15. DAVIDSON.
IMMER (i?n). — 1. Eponym of a priestly family, 1 Ch 9'2 24", Ezr 2" 10™, Neh 3=» 7-"' U'^ 2. A priest contemp. with Jeremiah, Jer 20'. 3. The flame of a place (?), Ezr 2^»=Neh 7". The text is uncertain (cf. 1 £s 5", and see Addan).
IMMORTALITY.— See EscHATOLoaY.
IMNA (vj?:).— An Asherite chief, 1 Ch 7". See
GlC.NEALOOY.
IMNAH (•!;=•).— 1. The eldest son of Asher, Nn 26" (AV Jinina), I Ch 7*'. 2. A Levite in the time of Hezekiah, 2 Ch 31". See Genealooy.
IMNITES (niO'Ci). — Patronymic from Imnah (No. 1), Nu 26" (AV Jimnites). See Genealooy.
IMPLEAD.— Ac 19^ * The law is open, and there are deputies : let them implead one another,' i.e. ' accuse ' as liV ; Gr. iyKaXew, to summon one to answer a charge, to bring a charge against ; cf. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. s.v. Emnlaidcr, ' to sue, to bring an action against ' ; and Hakluyt, Voyages, i. 117, 'They shall not be bound to come before the justices aforesaid, except any of the same barons doe implead any man, or if any man be impleaded.' J. HASTINGS.
IMPORTABLE, in the sense of ' unendurable,' is used in Pr. Man, ' And thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable.' Tlie Ithciii. NT uses the word in Mt 23* ' For they biiule heavy burdens and importable, and put them upon men 3 shoulders.' Otlier examples are : Elyot, Tlie Govemour, i. 14, ' And all tlioughe Hietro, Moses' father in lawe, counsailed hym to departs his importable labours, in continual jugementes, unto the wise men that were in his company, he nat withstandynge styll retayned the soveraintie by goddis commandement' ; Becon, Worlcs, i. 53, ' He alone shall tread down the wine-press, and take upon his back the great and importable burden of your sins all.' J. HASTINGS.