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Zechariah 12:10 Corruption in the NWT
by Sea Breeze 52 Replies latest watchtower bible
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peacefulpete
Zechariah is a bit awkwardly worded but the contextual meaning is clear. Yahweh has been 'pierced/pained/made to suffer deeply' by his people's sins. Yet he will show great compassion and pour upon them his 'spirit of favor/grace'. The people will subsequently look to him and repent and grieve their past actions, 'as a person grieves a firstborn son' aka deeply and heartfeltly. The simile describing the grief of repentance as the grief over a lost son, and the perceived blasphemous idea of Yahweh experiencing pain, led to some unintended interpretations. Interestingly, the pre-Christian Targum Jonathan (as preserved in a marginal note in Codex Reuchlinianus) already has incorporated the legendary Messiah Ben Joseph/Ephraim into this passage.
"And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of prophecy and prayer; and after this the Messiah, son of Ephraim, will go out to fight with Gog, and Gog will slay him before the gate of Jerusalem. And they [Israel] shall look to me and shall inquire of me why the nations pierced the Messiah, son of Ephraim."
Numerous subsequent references followed this idea. It is hardly then surprising that the Christian writers would do the same. The entire Christ/Jesus template was in place within late 2nd Temple Judaism. The Messiah ben Joseph is to be killed. The Messiah ben David however succeeds in vanquishing Israel's enemies and bringing new blessing. The creative part of Christianity was to identify a single character as both. At the same time the writer of John, by the selective quote is clearly interpreting it with a nuance, he sees the verse as also saying Yahweh was Jesus in a second power sense.
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peacefulpete
As I mentioned, another ancient interpretation was that the 'one who was pierced' was the collective nation of Israel that were killed......Standard Targum Jonathan:
But I will fill the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem with a spirit of pity and compassion; and they shall lament to Me about those who are slain, wailing over them as over a favorite son and showing bitter grief as over a first-born.
I should correct another error. I described the marginal gloss in the Codex Reuchlinianus as pre-Christian. The Targum is Pre-Christian, the marginal note is a later expansion of unknown age before the manuscript's writing. The roots of the Messiah Ben Joseph concept date to late 2nd Temple period but this gloss is not an example of that. Sorry. Rather the Targum understands the slain of Israel collectively as the one pierced. This shows the discomfort on the part of later pious Jews to suggest God feels pain and can be personally affected by the actions of humans. It probably was influenced by 2nd Isaiah's suffering servant.