Matthew 1:21 likely shows knowledge of the meaning of the Hebrew form of Jesus’ name (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, “Joshua,” “he [Yahweh] saves”), and perhaps the author reflects a reverence for Jesus’ name as theophoric. In Justin Martyr we even have the direct claim that “the name of God Himself, which, He says, was not revealed to Abraham or to Jacob, was Jesus” (Dial. 75). I am strongly inclined to think that Justin here echoes a Christian exegetical tradition that goes back much earlier.

Jesus’ name clearly functioned with such divine significance, for example, in the early Christian ritual/devotional practice of appealing to/invoking him. Indeed, the biblical (OT) formula for worship given to God (to “call upon the name of the Lord”) was appropriated to refer to this practice of invoking Jesus’ name (e.g., Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:9-13). To cite important settings for this practice, we have reference indicating that Jesus’ name was invoked in the initiation ritual of baptism (e.g., Acts 2:38) and in exorcism (Larry W. Hurtado, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins, 117-118).