All fulfillment citations which are not in their own section. Especially any fulfillment citations which are not found in the New Testament.
Also see:
“10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”Zechariah 12:10 (NIV)
The Christian position is that this refers to Jesus.
Summary: The Christians take this verse out of context; it actually refers to Josiah (II Chronicles 35:22-25) and is used to illustrate the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Zechariah's time (Zechariah was the first prohpet after the return of Judah to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile).
Secondly the passage can't be about Jesus because verse 10 and 11 say that the Jews in Jerusalem will mourn him, but they didn't. Again it's about Josiah in II Chronicles 35:22-25.
Finally and most damning, this actually goes against the correct understanding of the passage in the Christian scriptures; John explains the issue quite differently.
1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.Zechariah 12:1-3 (NIV)
Zechariah 12:1-3 establishes the start of a new section which is the prophecy of the Lord concerning Israel. Specifically this is concerning Israel and Judah, which are mentioned by name. (Zechariah was the first prophet after the return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.)
4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them.Zechariah 12:4-8
Continuing from 1-3, the passage emphasizes that God will protect Jerusalem and Judah from their enemies. This interpretation is confirmed by Obadiah 1:18 “The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.” Additional passages discussing the restoration after Babylonian Exile would be Isaiah 60,61,62, 66 and so forth.
9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.Zechariah 12:9-11 (NIV)
There are two important things I would like to raise from looking at this verse in it's original context.
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.Zechariah 12:11-14 (NIV)
Finally we see the people who will weep; everyone in the land of Israel.
This builds a specific picture; if this is about Jesus, the Jewish people are going to mourn for Jesus, as they mourn for a firstborn son. But this didn't happen – the Jewish people rejected Jesus.
Something's not right. What is this they, me and him? In the context of Zechariah 12 we are told that God will defend His people and destroy their enemies:
Christian commentators, in their confusion, equate the “Me” with the “him” of verse 10 and refer both to Jesus. Grammatically, the “Me” and the “him” cannot refer to the same individual. And as a matter of fact this is not the only place where we see this story.
The rabbis of the Talmud saw this suffering personified in the leader of the people, the warrior Messiah, the son of Joseph, who will be slain at this time (B.T. Sukkah 52a). Also see II Chronicles 35:22-25;
22 Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. 23 And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” 24 So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25 Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a rule in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments.2 Chronicles 35:22-25
The entire nation's dead will be mourned, but the mourning over the death of the warrior Messiah symbolizes the collective grief as the people mourn for the fallen of Israel.
Also see Obadiah 1:18 “18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.”
What's even worse is that if you look at the actual hebrew, we see a massive problem with the KJV (and all Tyndale family) translation of this verse. Observe carefully:
| Strong's [#] | Hebrew | Phonetic | KJV | Strong's [e] | Traditional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7307 | rū-aḥ | the spirit | a spirit | a spirit | |
| 2580 | ḥên | of grace | of grace | of grace | |
| 8469 | wə-ṯa-ḥă-nū-nîm, | and supplication | and supplication | and simple prayer | |
| 5027 | h.וְהִבִּ֥יטוּ | wə-hib-bî-ṭū | and they will look | then they will look | so they will look |
| 413 | h.אֵלַ֖י | ’ê-lay | on me | on me | on me |
| 853 | h.אֵ֣ת | ’êṯ | - | and | because |
| 834 | h.אֲשֶׁר־ | ’ă-šer- | whom | whom | [of] whom |
| 1856 | h.דָּקָ֑רוּ | dā-qā-rū; | they have pierced | they pierced | they pierced |
| 5594 | wə-sā-p̄ə-ḏū | and they shall mourn | and Yes they will mourn | and mourn |
The contention is the meaning of Strong's #853, “’êṯ”. Who is right?
1 doesn't make sense because the grammar is clearly faulty.
In 2 this would read “They will look on me. And the one they have pierced, they will mourn him as they mourn a firstborn son,
In 3 this would read “They will look on me because of the one they pierced…”
The author of the Gospel of John realized the untenability of the claim that Zechariah's prophecy referred to Jesus. John, perplexed by Zechariah's prophecy, changed the wording of verse 10 to make it conform to his belief. Thus, he wrote: “They shall look upon him [not “Me” as in the Hebrew text] whom they have pierced” (John 19:37):
37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”John 10:37 (ESV)
The fact that John changed the words of the bible aside, why did he do it? John does not use this passage to refer to Jesus' death on the cross, but to a different event. In Rome, when someone was crucified, their legs were first broken to ensure that they had died before they were taken down:
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”John 10:31-37
Therefore, the normal Christian interpretation that this is about the conversion of the Jews, is incorrect(!!) Instead, Christians have been arguing since Spurgeon's sermon on the bitterness of the cross – May 12th, 1881, that this refers to Jesus' crucifixion and the conversion of the Jews. Yet John uses this verse to refer to Roman soldiers – Jewish people have nothing to do with the story.
Who is right?
In an effort to paint Jesus as the paschal lamb, he has ripped half a verse out of context from Zechariah 12:10, changed the words and the grammar, and concocted a story to show that Jesus could have been a lamb sacrifice ala Exodus 12:46.