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The One Pierced
Zechariah 12:10
"They will look at the one they stabbed to death."- The Bible in Living
English, Byington
"They will look at him they have pierced."-Living Bible, Taylor
"They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death."- Todays English
Version
"They will look at the one whom they have pierced".- The Jerusalem Bible
"They shall look on whom they have thrust through."-New American Bible.
"They shall look on him whom they stabbed."-Moffatt
"They shall look at him whom they have stabbed."-American Translation,
Goodspeed
"They shall look upon Him who they have pierced."-Modern language Bible
"When they look on whom they have pierced."-Revised Standard Version
"Their eyes will be turned to the one who was wounded."-Bible in Basic
English
"When they see the one they pierced with a spear."-Contemporary English
Bible
It is claimed by some that Zechariah 12:10 gives proof that Jesus was Yahweh in the flesh, since in Zechariah it is supposedly stated that Yahweh is the one pierced, but John in the New Testament applies this to Jesus. We note that John's inspired rendering of this verse is not "they looked
upon me", but rather "they looked upon him", and John applies it to Jesus,
not Yahweh. -- John 19:37.
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar says (This material was obtained from the NWT
Defense site, which contains some apparent typos.):
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138. The relative Pronoun... (2) Not depending on a governing substantive,
but itself expressing a substantial idea. Clauses introduced in this way may
be called independent relative clauses. This use of ["asher"] is generally
rendered in English by he who, he whom, &c... In Z[echariah] 12:10 also,
instead of the unintelligible ["elai eth asher", "to me whom"], we should
probably read ["el asher", "to him whom], and refer this passage to this
class [of 'independent relative clauses'].== -- pages 444,445,446.
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John plainly shows how Zechariah 12:10 should be understood by quoting it at
John 19:37, where we find the words in our collection of English Bible
versions reads, not "me," but "him," "the man," or, "the One." Yahweh is a
spirit being and never became a man, and "No man has seen [him] at any
time," and thus was not the One pierced through.
The following are the words F .F. Bruce:
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This has been done with Zech. 12:10, which foretells a day of great
mourning in Jerusalem and the surrounding territory when, as the Masoretic
Hebrew text puts it, "they shall look unto me whom they have pierced" (so
R.V.). The passage is quoted once and echoed once in the New Testament, and
in both places the pronoun is not "me" but "him". This is not so significant
in the place where the passage is merely echoed (Rev. I : 7, " and every eye
will see him, every one who pierced him"), for that is not an exact
quotation. Here the predicted looking to the one who was pierced is
interpreted of the Second Advent of Christ. But in John 19:37 the piercing
is interpreted of the piercing of Christ's side with a soldier's lance after
His death on the cross, and here Zech. 12:10 is expressly quoted: "And again
another scripture says, 'They shall look on him whom they have pierced'." It
is a reasonable inference that this is the form in which the Evangelist knew
the passage, and indeed the reading "him' instead of "me" appears in a few
Hebrew manuscripts. The R.S.V. thus has New Testament authority for its
rendering of Zech.12:10 , "And I will pour out on the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that,
when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall moum for him, as on
e mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a
first-born." Why then is the R.S.V. criticized for conforming to the New
Testament here? Because, if the reading "me" be retained, the reference
would be to the speaker, who is God, and in view of the application of the
passage in the New Testament, there are some who see here an anticipation of
the Christian doctrine of our Lord's divine nature. The reading "me" is
certainly quite early, for it appears in the Septuagint (which otherwise
misses the point of the passage); but the New Testament seems to attach no
significance to Zech. 12:10 as providing evidence for the deity of
Christ,.... And, whoever the pierced one is, the fact that he is referred to
elsewhere in the verse in the third person ("they shall mourn for him....and
weep bitterly over him") suggests that he is Yahweh's representative
(probably the anointed king), in whose piercing Yahweh Himself is
pierced. - History of the Bible in English, pages199, 200, Lutterworth
Press, 1979 third edition.
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It is reported that there are 45 Hebrew manuscripts that read *el asher*
instead of "elai eth asher". Bruce refers to a "few" Hebrew manuscripts that read "him" instead of "me."
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Both translation and interpretation of these verses are difficult. It is
possible to read, "they will look to me whom they have pierced," meaning
that David's house and Jerusalem had pierced Yahweh. But piercing
[Heb.daqar] elsewhere in the O.T. always means physical violence and usually
death (e.g., Num. 25:8; 1 Sam 31:4); it does so expressly in 13:3. The
mourning described in vv. 10b-12 is mourning "for him," the one pierced or
stabbed. It seems preferrable to take the MT's object marker before the
relative pronoun as indicating an accusative of respect, allowing one to
translate "concerning the one whom they pierced" (cf. LXX.). - The New Interpreter's Bible, Volume 7,
p.828
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Since Yahweh never has been nor is a man of flesh, nor has Yahweh ever been
physically pierced through, if Zechariah 12:10 is referring to Yahweh as the
one being pierced through, it would have to be as stated by A. E.
Kirkpatrick: "It is Jehovah who has been thrust through in the Person of His
representative." - The Doctrine of the Prophets, page 472.
This same line of thought is what Jesus expressed when he stated: "I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." -- Matthew 25:42.
Thus we see that Zechariah 12:10 does not give evidence that Jesus is Yahweh, as claimed by some believers in the trinity or oneness doctrines.
See also:
http://www.nazarene-friends.org/pubs/trinity/tri-supp6.html
http://users.eggconnect.net/noddy3/Zechariah%201210.htm Zechariah 12:10 (NWT Defense Site)
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