Zechariah 12:10 Corruption in the NWT

by Sea Breeze 79 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Sea Breeze

  Here's a Question for those who still support Watchtower on this forum. Why did Watchtower leave out the word "me" in Zech. 12:10 ?

  Zechariah 12:10 reads like this:

  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me (Strong's H853) whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son - Zech. 12:10

  Strong's H853

  אֵת

  Apparently contracted from H226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition...)

  
  

  Since the word "me" is clearly in the original Greek, why did Watchtower leave it out and translate this verse this way? :

  I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of favor and supplication, and they will look to the one whom they pierced, and they will wail over him as they would wail over an only son - Zech. 12: 10 NWT
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  no-zombie

  Sea Breeze,

  while I do understand what you are getting at in your question (the implication being here that that God and Jesus are the same person, which is a kind of proto-Trinity concept) and while I acknowledge that many English translation of this verse does use the word me in this verse, at the same time, and equal number of good Bible translations do not use the word me in that verve, but prefer instead to go with a phrase similar to the one.

  This is because both understandings could be right.

  However as far a I understand, the English translation of the Greek Septuagint (which the gold standard) does use the expression the one. Which would support the position of the NWT.
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  Sea Breeze

  @no-zombie

  Many critics suggest that English translations of the Greek Septuagint might be biased to prevent a messianic interpretation.

  However, the preposition “me” is definitely in the original Hebrew. If you are curious, you can go to http://biblehub.com/interlinear/zechariah/12-10.htm The literal translation of the Hebrew words goes something like this: “they have pierced whom on me and they shall look….”

  I looked up the Septuagint translation of Zechariah 12:10. This is a helpful piece of data because the Septuagint translation was made before the ministry of Jesus. At this point, there was no strong reason for the Jews to have such a biased translation–geared to prevent a messianic interpretation.

  The Septuagint translation has the one who is looked on also being the one who is "mocked" instead of "pierced", but the grammar is clear - "me".
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  no-zombie

  Sea Breeze

  Any translation task is difficult to get right, as there are many linguistic, cultural and historic factor at play. Even dating texts is highly debatable. Its actually recognized as an independent study called paleography ... proving that moving the Bible from one language to another is highly complex and often subjective.

  A number of respected publications that I own, that have helped me come to this understanding, I've listed below for your consideration, namely ...

  Scribes and Scholars: A guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature by Reynolds and Wilson

  Guardians of Letters: Literacy Power and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature by Haines-Eitzen

  The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins by Hurtado

  Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity by Houston

  Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts by Gamble

  Ante-Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life before Constantine by Snyder

  However if you original thought is based up on the whether Zech 12:10 supports the Trinity, my final argument against that view, is based upon the Jewish messianic expectations and identifications. Jews in the first century were expecting a man like King David not God personified. And this view is clearly amplified by all the Christian texts before Constantine, particularly those of the early church up to 200-250CE
  
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  Sea Breeze

  no-zombie, here's my original question:
  
  Why did Watchtower leave out the word "me" in Zech. 12:10 ?
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  Earnest

  It must be the same reason that John left it out when he translated the verse in John 19:37 :

  And again another scripture [Zechariah 12:10] says They will look on the one [ὃν] they have pierced

  John is not quoting from the LXX, so either he is quoting from another Greek translation existing at the time, or he is translating the Hebrew himself. Either way, he clearly accepts this translation as accurate.
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  Vidqun

  Thanks, No-zombie. You have summarized the gist of it.

  Earnest, he probably quoted Greek Theodotion.

  Sea Breeze, the answer to your question is in the footnotes of NWT (1960) on Zech. 12:10. It has to do with a single yodh. Here it is, depending on whether the fonts can be tranferred accurately:

  Gesenius’ Grammar Hebrew, Section 138 (2) e, p. 446: 1 In Zech. 12:10 also, instead of the unintelligible אלי את אשר, [“to me whom”] we should probably read אֶל־אֲשֶׁר, [“to the one whom”] and refer the passage to this class.
  [1] Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch and Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley, 2d English ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910).

  In two Hebrew MSS the written text reads [“to me whom”] and the marginal note [“to the one whom”]:
  ‍וְשָׁפַכְתִּי֩ עַל־בֵּ֨ית דָּוִ֜יד וְעַ֣ל׀ יֹושֵׁ֣ב‌a יְרוּשָׁלִַ֗ם ר֤וּחַ חֵן֙ וְתַ֣חֲנוּנִ֔ים וְהִבִּ֥יטוּ b‌אֵלַ֖י אֵ֣ת‌b אֲשֶׁר־דָּקָ֑רוּ וְסָפְד֣וּ עָלָ֗יו כְּמִסְפֵּד֙ עַל־הַיָּחִ֔יד וְהָמֵ֥ר‌c עָלָ֖יו כְּהָמֵ֥ר עַֽל־הַבְּכֹֽור׃ (full text)
  a prb l c mlt Mss Vrs ‏יֹשְׁבֵי‎
  b–b var lect ; l ‏אֶל־‎ vel ‏אֱלֵי־‎
  K. Elliger, W. Rudolph, and Gérard E. Weil, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, electronic ed. (Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 2003).

  LXX reads “to me for the reason that.” Latin Vg “to me whom.” Syriac “to me for him whom.” Theodotion “to him whom.” That would also be the reason why E. Kautszch translate "to that one whom" in his German translation.

  In addition, they quote John 19:37 as confirmation:

  "And, again, a different scripture says, They will look to the One whom they pierced." (John 19:37 NWT).

  And again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they have pierced." (John 19:37 ESV)
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  Earnest

  Vidqun : Earnest, [John] probably quoted Greek Theodotion.

  Possibly, but Theodotion apparently lived at the end of the second century CE. There was an early revision of the Old Greek among the Dead Sea Scrolls (8HevXII) containing Zechariah, but only fragments which do not include chapter 10. No doubt the whole of this scroll existed in the time of John. Interestingly, this is one of the Greek scrolls containing the tetragrammaton.
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  Vidqun

  Yes, more accurately, one should say he would quote from a Proto-Septuagint text on which Theodotion based his text.
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  Sea Breeze

  @Vidqun
  
  WT has lied so much that I find it hard to read anything from them in support of their views.

  ---

  There are actually two messianic prophecies in Zechariah which prove, unambiguously in my opinion, that the Messiah Jesus is God. The other one is in Zechariah 11:12-13, in which God says that 30 pieces of silver is the price at which God (me in this passage) was priced. In other words, this messianic prophecy is a prophecy about Jesus who is God.

  Then there is Zechariah 12:10, which also unambiguously says that the Messiah/Jesus is God as well.

  The best evidence for the traditional KJV rendering on Zech. 12: 10 comes from the original Hebrew which the Greek Septuagint is a translation of:

  • The Hebrew text of Zechariah 12:10 includes the phrase "אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר־דָּקָרוּ" (elai eth asher-daqaru), which literally translates to "to me whom they have pierced".

  The fact is that the word "me" is in both the LXX and the original Hebrew.

  The LXX has a few other problems as well. For the most part, the influence of the LXX on the NT is not a problem. We all rely on translations of the Bible today, and most of our English translations are quite good. However, translators can make mistakes. And this is seen in the LXX, as there are occasional mistranslations of the Hebrew Bible. For example, the book of Revelation cites the Greek Septuagint (LXX) of Psalm 2:9 three times (Revelation 2:27; 12:5; 19:15), saying that Jesus will “rule” the nations, whereas the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) says Jesus will “break” the nations.