Okay . . . Is it license or is it just uneducated freedom? Am I crossing some linguistic line?

I don’t know the original languages of the Scriptures. All I have is my handy-dandy online bible and the brief definitions and explanations provided by its Hebrew and Greek lexicons. So, while I might talk about the original languages, I’m really just passing on what these helps say about the words that grab my attention. I’m no expert — I don’t even show up on the radar of biblical languages expertise. But that doesn’t stop me from being intrigued by the nuances that can be found in the original.

Nor does it stop me from doing things with the original languages that I’m pretty sure you can’t do. Like combining Old Testament and New Testament words, mashing together Hebrew and Greek. Like I said, is it license or is it just uneducated freedom? I’m thinking it’s a bit of both. But here goes.

This morning, I encounter a last flare of Christmas awe as I read in Matthew’s gospel and process again the account of Jesus’ birth. And the mash up term I end up with after some noodling? Jehovah Gennao.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

(Matthew 1:20-21 ESV)

That which is conceived in her . . . That’s what I’m chewing on (did I mention with awe?) this morning.

If the technology had been available 2,000 years ago, would our nativity scenes today center around an ultrasound image rather than a baby in a manger? We hover in wonder over the imagined scene of the God who created all things becoming flesh and humbly, helplessly laying in a crib of straw as a baby. But before the Son of God was a baby, He was that which is conceived in her.

I read those words and they unexpectedly hit me — Jesus is that which is conceived in her. And so, I reach for my blue colored pencil and shade them as an insight into God the Son. And the wonder of another implication of Immanuel, God with Us, crashes over me like a wave.

And then this is where my uneducated freedom kicks in. As if, Immanuel, isn’t enough of a term for me, I start looking up words to come up with another way of describing the wonder of the “And the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). A phrase modeled after the more well-known, and more accurate, “Jehovah designations” such as: Jehovah-Jireh (The Lord Will Provide), Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord That Heals), Jehovah-Nissi (The Lord My Banner), Jehovah-Shalom (The Lord Is Peace), Jehovah-Raah (The Lord My Shepherd), Jehovah-Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness), and Jehovah-Shammah (The Lord Is There).

Jehovah, “I AM”. Is it at all appropriate to think in terms of the “I AM” as that which is conceived — I’m thinking it must be. The Greek word for “conceived” is gennao, which means “to be born” or “to be begotten”, so couldn’t I say (I guess I am) that Jesus, in a sense, might be thought of as Jehovah Gennao (The Lord to be Born)?

Jehovah Gennao. . . what an almost unimaginable lowly place for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to occupy. What humility was entered into by the Second Person of the Triune God in order to “save His people from their sins.” To coin a well-known seasonal phrase, “What love came down at Christmas!”

Maybe it’s crossing some linguistic line, but there’s something about meditating on Jehovah Gennao (The Lord Conceived) that red lines my awe-o-meter.

Jaw-dropping! Breathtaking! Fall on your knees!

What amazing grace! To God be all glory!