Note 41 — Chapter IV · DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS.

This view of John’s narrative is further confirmed by his citation of Old Testament passages, as fulfilled in this event. In the stroke of the spear he sees the fulfilment of Zech. xii. 10 (better translated by John than by the LXX.), where Jehovah says to the Israelites ‏וְהִבִּיטוּ אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר דָּקָרוּ‎ they shall look on him whom they have pierced, in the sense, that they will one day return to him whom they had so grievously offended.41 The word ‏דָּקַר‎, to pierce, understood literally, expresses an act which appears more capable of being directed against a man than against Jehovah: this interpretation is supported by the variation in the reading ‏אֵלָיו‎; and it must have been confirmed by the succeeding context, which proceeds in the third person thus: and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. Hence the Rabbins interpreted this passage of the Messiah ben Joseph, who would be pierced by the sword in battle,42 and the Christians might refer it, as they did so many passages in Psalms of lamentation, to their Messiah, at first understanding the piercing either figuratively or as implying the nailing of the hands (and feet) in crucifixion (comp. Rev. i. 7); until at last some one, who desired a more decisive proof of death than crucifixion in itself afforded, interpreted it as a special piercing with the spear.