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Prophecy

“They will look to the one whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10)

Le Coup de lance (“The Lance Thrust”, around 1620, KMSKA, Antwerp), artist’s impression from the workshop of Rubens: the soldier pierces Jesus’s side (John 19:34), which John links to Zech 12:10.
Artist’s impression Le Coup de lance (“The Lance Thrust”, around 1620, KMSKA, Antwerp), artist’s impression from the workshop of Rubens: the soldier pierces Jesus’s side (John 19:34), which John links to Zech 12:10. — Anthony van Dyck according to the KMSKA (Antwerp) catalogue entry (painting long attributed to Rubens), Wikimedia Commons · Domaine public

● Written before, according to historians

Written c. 520–480 BC according to tradition; c. 400–180 BC according to historians. Event: 30–33 AD.

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. The prophet Zechariah (around 520–480 BC according to tradition, in the 4th–3rd centuries BC according to many scholars) announces that the inhabitants of Jerusalem “will look to the one whom they have pierced” and will mourn for him.

What happened. Only the Gospel of John tells that a soldier pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with a spear, in AD 30 or 33, and it immediately quotes this verse. Jerusalem's turning and the great mourning did not happen: the New Testament itself places them at a future coming.

What is still debated. the spear thrust is reported only by John, who builds his account around the verse, and Jewish tradition reads the text as Israel's mourning for its own dead.

Why it is striking

A figure pierced and then mourned by a whole city is rare in the Hebrew Bible. Christians read in it the spear thrust into Jesus’s side, which only John reports; the conversion of Jerusalem that is announced is still to come, according to the New Testament itself.

Main objection (in French for now)

Le coup de lance n’est rapporté que par Jean, qui cite immédiatement Za 12:10 et un autre texte (« aucun de ses os ne sera brisé », Jn 19:36) : le récit est explicitement construit pour montrer l’accomplissement.

The text (World English Bible)

I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn.

Zech 12:10

Sources