22. Jehovah-Jesus, the Pierced One

From: Jesus Is Jehovah

Narrator: Ivona Gentwo

• 2 min. read • grade level: 6

When our Lord shall appear for the deliverance of Israel in the coming day, we read of Him as the pierced Jehovah. This statement is quoted by John in the New Testament and applied to our Lord.

“In that day shall the LORD [Jehovah] defend . . . Jerusalem; . . . and I will pour upon the house of David . . . 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” (Zech. 12:8-10).

“One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water...For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled . . . They shall look on Him whom they pierced” (John 19:34-37).

No doubt is left to us as to the identification:

Jesus is Jehovah.

1. We are aware that many later translations have rendered Zechariah 12:10, “And they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced,” but we believe this to be a mistake. On this point we quote from the able expositor, William Kelly.

“There is really no serious doubt that the true reading is the latter (‘to Me’), not the former (‘to Him’). . . . It was, in fact, originally nothing but a marginal correction, due to the desire partly of eliminating so strong a testimony to the deity or Jehovah title of the Lord Jesus”; et. seq. pp. 422-424 (W. Kelly, An Exposition of the Gospel of John, F. E. Race, London, 1898).

Also see the author’s further note on the same point in his Lectures Introductory to the Study of the Minor Prophets, G. Morrish, London, pp. 483-484. Also see Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary on Old and New Testament, in loco.