John 19:37 - Exposition

And again another Scripture saith . The second of the Old Testament quotations is in several ways important and noteworthy. They shall look on him whom they pierced ( εἰς ὅν ἐξεκέντησαν ). The original passage is ( Zechariah 12:10 ), וּדקָדָּ רשֶׁאֲ־תאֵ ילִאֵ , "They shall look upon me whom they pierced." The evangelist altered the ME into HIM , which, as it stands in the old oracle, and regarded as the language of Jehovah, is sufficiently surprising. The LXX . had felt the difficulty, and translated it ἐπιβλέψονται πρός με ἀνθ ὧν κατωρχήσαντο , i.e. "They shall look towards me, because they have insulted me." Their repentance and misgiving shall be aroused, because in response for those things which they have done contemptuously against me. It is interesting to see that John is more accurate in his Greek translation of this prophetic passage, viz. ὄψονται or ὃν , "They shall look" with love and grace and repentance "on him whom ( ἐξεκέντησαν ) they pierced." This Greek rendering of the Hebrew is followed by Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, and is quoted by Justin Martyr; it is also found in Revelation 1:7 , forming a link of connection between the Gospel and the Apocalypse. Moreover, it is most impressive to find that the awful tragedy does not close even in the hands of this writer without a word of promise and hope. Zechariah 12:8-14 is clearly in the mind of the apostle. The merciful Lord waits for the repentance of Israel, of those who, by instigating Roman power for his destruction, pierced him by their trenchant ingratitude as well as by the Roman spear. It will be fulfilled more completely when every eye shall see him, and the full revelation of his majesty shall smite the whole world with penitence or despair. This remarkable event and its issue, whatever may have been the precise physiological fact, establishes: