This, then, is the more evident interpretation; or it may simply be that the Messiah was called “god,” just as they say that Moses was called “the god of Pharaoh,” meaning the one who commands him, forbids him, and has been placed in authority over him. Some, however, have distorted the sense of the word, claiming that it means: Allah maʿanā (Allah is with us). One of their own scholars who replied to them said: “Is this the same person who declared, ‘I am the Lord; there is no god besides Me; I give life and I cause death,’ or is he the one who said to God, ‘Truly You alone are the true God, and it is You who sent Jesus the Messiah’?” If the first statement is false, and the second is what the Gospel itself attests, then the Gospel must be accepted and whoever wrote in the Gospel that Immanuel means “Allah maʿanā (Allah is with us)” must be declared mistaken. Rather, the proper interpretation of Immanuel is maʿanā ilāhun (a god is with us), and the Messiah is not uniquely designated by this name. Immanuel is simply a personal name borne by Christians—and by Jews even before the Christians. This is evident in our own day: among the People of the Book there are those whose fathers have named them Immanuel, intending by it sharīf al-qadr (of noble standing). Likewise, most of the Syriac people give their children the name Immanuel.