I am a Gentile believer that Jesus is the messiah however I have a question regarding the prophecy in Zechariah 12:10. I sometimes like to read the JPS version and I found out that the prophecy is different in the JPS version then the others. Zechariah 12:10 (King James Version)
10And 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 whom they have pierced, 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 firstborn.
And here is the JPS version And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through; 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
The JPS could still refer to Yeshua but it dose not have G-d being the one that is pierced. My question is which one is the right translation? I once regarded this prophecy as one of the strongest, now I regard Isaiah 53 the strongest.
Shalom
they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through;
They will look on me, the one they have pierced
I think it quite interesting that the aleph-tav is missing in both translations.
It says in Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning created the aleph-tav G-d the heavens and the earth..."
In Zechariah 12:10 it says "they shall look upon me the aleph-tav one whom they have thrust through.
aleph-tav was a familiar expression like the first and the last, the beginning and the end, or in English we'd say the A to Z or in the Greek alpha and omega (which G-d often used to refer to him self).
You have to remember the scribes and lawyers and priests how copied and studied and poured over the scriptures for thousands of years would not mis the slightest yot... unless it pointed to Yeshua. Then it's omission and reinterpretation or interpolation or whatever... ANYTHING to avoid facing the facts that their own Bible points to the Messiah Yeshua haNotsri.
Note the basis of the authority of this kind of teaching / deception was in already place in the days of Yeshua:
John 9:
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.
17 Finally they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
In view of the plain empirical evidence that Messiah had come, they drew back on traditions of men and their "authority" as priests which in doing so elevated their positions and traditions above the holy scriptures that indicated Messiah would open the eyes of those born blind.
I would think thrust or pierced can mean the same.
#1 I agree with Sugarman, one could not be thrust through, unless he was first pierced.
#2 Which in his (God's) times he shall shew, [who is] the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom [be] honour and power everlasting. Amen.
God will reveal Christ as he did after the ressurection (Acts 10:36-43), to the world. We will behold with our eyes he whom God has annointed and appointed as hier of all things, Christ Jesus. One of the main reasons Christ was given to the world, was to draw attention to God and to proclaim to the world through Israel that God is the one we should look to for salvation. But, like the bronze serpent was given to Israel to look at, so was Christ given to us to look at. Not that the serpent saved, but God saved. Not that Christ saved, but God, through Christ Jesus.
Shalom,
Christopher