What does Matthew 1:22 mean?

An angel of the Lord has just revealed to Joseph in a dream that his betrothed wife Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit and not another man. This puts to rest Joseph's concerns that she has been unfaithful, and ends his plans to discreetly divorce her (Matthew 1:19). Further, the angel has said the baby is a boy, a son, who "will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

Ancient writing was recorded without capitalization, or punctuation, including quotation marks. For that reason, scholars differ about whether this verse should be included in the quote by the angel. That is, it is possible the angel told Joseph about the connection between Jesus' birth and Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 7:14). The alternative is that these words are stated by Matthew as the narrator, not part of the declaration the angel made to Joseph.

Either way, this statement is part of the Word of God. It will be the first of several mentions of Jesus' role in fulfilling Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. In this case, the prophet was Isaiah and the quote in the following verse (Matthew 1:23) is from Isaiah 7:14.