John 19:37

Joh_19:37

They shall look on Him whom they have pierced

Looking at the pierced One

The text in relation

I.

TO THE JEWS.

1. In relation to the past. It was the fulfilment of prophecy. Zechariah Zec_12:10) had predicted what they would do. Christ honours Scripture even in His death, and makes even His enemies contribute to its fulfilment.

2. In relation to the present.

(1) Some looked regretfully. They had trusted that He would have redeemed Israel.

(2) Some looked remorsefully. One cannot but believe that there were misgivings in the breasts of other actors in this grim tragedy, than in those of the Centurion and Judas.

(3) But the evidence goes to show that most looked maliciously and murderously, and had no compunctions for their awful crime.

3. In relation to the future.

(1) In the immediate future some looked on Jesus as set forth by Peter evidently crucified, and cried, What shall we do? and were saved (Act_2:1-47.); and many more through the instrumentality of Paul.

(2) In the remote future. All Israel shall be saved, if not as a race, as penitent believers, looking unto Jesus.

II. TO SINNERS GENERALLY. Inasmuch as sin was the moving cause of the Crucifixion, and the Jews were literal actors, not simply as Jews, but as wicked men, so the guilt of that crime rests upon the sinful race of men. Men look on Him whom they have pierced.

1. Now. Where Christ is known at all He is the central, all-commanding figure. All men must look, whether they like it or not.

(1) Some look, and then look away--indifferent to His agonies and to the salvation they procured. Self-righteousness is sufficient, or salvation procured in that way a superfluity. Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by?

(2) Some look and scoff. The Cross is still a stumbling-block or foolishness to infidels, or profane, or hypercritical persons. The offence of the Cross has not ceased.

(3) Some look, and are softened into penitence, encouraged to believe and live.

2. Hereafter. All shall some day look again (Rev_1:7); but the Pierced One will occupy not a Cross but a Throne, and will be seen either as a Judge, saying, Depart ye cursed, or as an everlasting Saviour saying, Come ye blessed. Which will He be to you? You may learn from your present attitude. (J. W. Burn.)

Looking and learning

I. THEY AWAKEN HALLOWED SORROW. Sorrow for sin is the germ of repentance. True repentance flows from the Cross.

II. THEY KINDLE ENLIVENING HOPE. Christ was pierced, not only by man, but for man, and by His stripes we are healed.

III. THEY NERVE US TO SUBMISSION. How patiently Christ submitted.

IV. THEY EXCITE US TO ZEAL. He laid down His life in His Fathers work. Should we not give up our gratifications for Him?

V. THEY RECONCILE US TO DEATH. It is not likely we shall die so painful a death as Christ did. But by death He conquered. Through Him we shall through death obtain a crown. (The Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19:37 “They will look on the one they pierced”: Zechariah 12:10 describes how Israel would look on a prophet or the Messiah and lament their own fatal lack of faith.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 19:37. Ὄψονται, εἰς ὃν ἐξεκέντησαν, they shall look on Him, whom they pierced) εἰς is construed with ὄψονται. Zec 12:10, LXX., καὶ ἐπιβλέψονται πρός με, ἀνθʼ ὧν κατωρχήσαντο. They (the LXX.) read רקד (they danced on, insulted) for דקר (they pierced), although Lampius denies it. The piercing took place on the cross: the seeing or looking on Him, accompanied either with penitential grief or with terror, shall come to pass in other times. Therefore John quotes this passage for the sake of its allusion to the piercing [not for that to the looking].

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced--The quotation is from Zac 12:10; not taken as usual from the Septuagint (the current Greek version), which here is all wrong, but direct from the Hebrew. And there is a remarkable nicety in the choice of the words employed both by the prophet and the Evangelist for "piercing." The word in Zechariah means to thrust through with spear, javelin, sword, or any such weapon. In that sense it is used in all the ten places, besides this, where it is found. How suitable this was to express the action of the Roman soldier, is manifest; and our Evangelist uses the exactly corresponding word, which the Septuagint certainly does not. Very different is the other word for "pierce" in Psa 22:16, "They pierced my hands and my feet." The word there used is one signifying to bore as with an awl or hammer. How striking are these small niceties!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

37. They shall look on him whom they pierced. This passage is violently tortured by those who endeavor to explain it literally as referring to Christ. Nor is this the purpose for which the Evangelist quotes ib but rather to show that Christ is that God who formerly complained, by Zechariah, that the Jews had pierced his heart, (Zechariah 12:10) Now, God speaks there after the manner of men, declaring that He is wounded by the sins of his people, and especially by their obstinate contempt of his word, in the same manner as a mortal man receives a deadly wound, when his heart is pierced; as he says, elsewhere, that his Spirit was deeply grieved, Now, as Christ is God manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16,) John says that in his visible flesh was plainly accomplished what his Divine Majesty had endured from the Jews, so far as it was capable of enduring; not that God can be at all affected by the outrages of men, or that the reproaches which are cast at him from the earth ever reach him, but because by this mode of expression he intended to declare with what enormous sacrilege the wickedness of men is chargeable, when it rises in rebellion against heaven. What was done by the hand of a Roman soldier the ]Evangelist John justly imputes to the Jews; as they are elsewhere said to have crucified the Son of God, (Acts 2:36,) though they did not lay a finger on his body.

A question now arises as to this passage taken from the prophet, Does God promise to the Jews repentance to salvation, or, does he threaten that he will come as an avenger? For my own part, when I closely examine the passage, I think that it includes both; namely, that out of a worthless and unprincipled nation God will gather a remnant for salvation, and that, by his dreadful vengeance, he will show to despisers who it is with whom they have to do; for we know that they were wont to treat the prophets as insolently as if the prophets had told nothing but fables, and had received no commission from God. God declares that they will not pass unpunished, for he will at length maintain his cause.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(37) They shall look on him whom they pierced.—The words, as they occur in the Authorised version, of the prophecy are, “They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced,” but the reading which St. John has followed is that of many MSS., and is adopted by many Rabbinic (as Rashi and Kimchi) and many modern authorities (as Ewald and Geiger). The Greek translation (LXX.) of the prophet avoided the strong word “pierced,” as applied to Jehovah, and substituted for it “insulted.” St. John translates the original Hebrew freely for himself (comp. Rev_1:7), and gives the undoubted meaning of the Hebrew word, translating it by the same Greek word which is used by Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus. He thinks of the prophecy which spoke of Jehovah as pierced by His people, and sees it fulfilled in the Messiah pierced on the cross.

For the fulfilment of the prophecy, comp. Notes on Joh_8:28; Joh_12:32. Jewish Rabbis, and Greek proselytes, and Roman soldiers alike looked, as they stood before the cross, on Him whom they pierced. That scene is typical. He shall draw all men unto Him, and the moral power over the heart of humanity will be the heart of love, which loves and therefore saves him that has pierced it through and through. “God commendeth His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. They shall look] All present, especially the Jews. The whole world was represented there.

pierced] See on Joh_19:34. The word here used occurs nowhere else in N.T. excepting Rev_1:7, and forms a connexion worth noting between the Gospel and the Apocalypse (see on Joh_11:44, Joh_15:20, and Joh_20:16); all the more so because S. John here agrees with the present Masoretic Hebrew text and in every word differs from the Greek of the LXX. The Greek softens down ‘pierced through’ (which seemed a strange expression to use of men’s treatment of Jehovah) into ‘insulted.’ See on Joh_6:45, Joh_12:13; Joh_12:15, where there is further evidence of the Evangelist having independent knowledge of Hebrew, and therefore being a Jew of Palestine.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And again another Scripture saith,.... Zac 12:10 which as the former is referred to on account of the not breaking of his bones, this is cited as fulfilled by the piercing of his side:

they shall look on him whom they pierced; in the Hebrew text it is, "upon me whom they have pierced"; the reason of this difference is, because Christ, who is Jehovah, is there speaking prophetically of himself, here the evangelist cites it as fulfilled in him, that is, that part of it which regards the piercing of him; for that of the Jews looking upon him and mourning is yet to be fulfilled, and will be at the time of their conversion in the latter day, and at the day of judgment. And as the piercing of the Messiah has been literally fulfilled in Jesus, there is reason to believe, though the Jews are to this day hardened against him, that that part of the prophecy which concerns their looking to him, and mourning for him on account of his being pierced by them, will also, in God's own time, be fulfilled. Nor is it any objection to the application of this prophecy to our Lord Jesus, that not the Jews, but the Roman soldiers pierced him, since what one does by another, he may be said to do himself: though it was a Roman soldier that pierced the side of Christ, the Jews might desire and urge him to do it; and however, they agreed to it, and were well pleased with it; and just so Christ is said to be crucified and slain by them; though this was done by the above soldiers, because they prevailed upon Pilate to pass the sentence of death upon him, and to deliver him to the soldiers to be crucified. From the citation of this passage it appears, that the writers of the New Testament did not always follow the Greek version of the Old Testament, which here renders the words very differently, and very wrongly; but John cites them according to the Hebrew text, even which we now have, and which is an instance of the truth, purity, and integrity of the present Hebrew books of the Old Testament. The Jewish doctors (n) themselves own that these words respect the Messiah, though they pretend that Messiah ben Joseph is meant, who shall be slain in the wars of Gog and Magog; for since their disappointment, and the blindness and hardness of heart which have followed it, they feign two Messiahs as expected by them; one Messiah ben David, who they suppose will be prosperous and victorious; and the other Messiah ben Joseph, who will suffer much, and at last be killed.

(n) T. Bab. Succa, fol. 52. 1. & ex codem R. Sol. Jarchi, R. David Kimchi, R. Aben Ezra, & R. Sol. ben Melech. in Zech. xii. 10.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

Ver. 37. They shall look upon him] This is not a threat, but a promise, Zec 12:10, fulfilled, Act 2:37, when Peter’s hearers felt the nails, wherewith they had crucified Christ, sticking fast in their own hearts, and piercing them with horror, κατενυγησαν.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Another’ scripture - Zec 12:10. We must here be struck with the wonderful providence of God, that so many scriptures were fulfilled in his death. All these things happened without any such design on the part of the men engaged in these scenes; but whatever was done by Jew or Gentile tended to the fulfillment of prophecies long on record, and with which the Jews themselves ought to have been familiar. Little did they suppose, when delivering him to Pilate when he was mocked when they parted his garments when they pierced him - that they were fulfilling ancient predictions. But in this way God had so ordered it that the firmest foundation should be laid for the belief that he was the true Messiah, and that the designs of wicked men should all be overruled to the fulfillment of the great plans which God had in sending his Son.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This text is from Zacharias xii. 10. and seems to refer most literally to Jesus Christ.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

So also by seeing Christ’s side pierced, (a thing not very usual), they might have understood, that he was the person mentioned, Zec 12:10.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

37. Whom they pierced—The quotation is from Zec_12:10, with which compare Psa_22:16 : They pierced my hands and my feet. According to the prophet, God should pour upon the house of David (who in the Psalm quoted personates the pierced Messiah) the spirit of penitence, by which they should look with weeping upon the pierced One, and mourn as for an only Son, by them slaughtered. In this bodily piercing John sees a physical fulfilment of the prophetic physical image. It impressed his senses as he gazed. It was by inspired after-thought that he fully realized the Scripture verification. The visible image here too embodies its world of import. John saw the soldier look upon him whom his spear had pierced.

So every penitent Jew of John’s time looked upon the pierced and crucified Messiah and repented. In the fulness of time all Israel shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and repent; and all men whose sins have been the spear that pierced his side, have just reason to look upon him and repentantly mourn, as over a son their sins have murdered.

This leaving his bones unbroken, yet piercing his side, exhibited to John both the divine preservation and the sacrificial execution of the Lamb of God. Had Jesus been executed by Hebrew law his body must have been mutilated and crushed by stoning; so that, strange to say, the old Hebrew prophecy had to wait for the Roman to come, and in a mode his laws had prescribed, to sacrifice the Son of David according to the Scriptures. No wonder that John asseverates so solemnly that he saw it with his own marvelling bodily eyes.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 (eiv on exekenthsan). The original passage is, (Zec_12:10) WdqD rvaAtae yliae, "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 Epibleqontai prov me any wn katwrchsanto , 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. oqontai or on , "They shall look" with love and grace and repentance "on him whom (exekenthsan) 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 Rev_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. Zec_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:

(1) The autoptic testimony of one who scarcely expected to be credited with the result of his observation.

(2) The genuine humanity of our Lord.

(3) The more than humanity of his manner of death.

(4) The fact of his death, and therefore the reality of the Resurrection.

(5) The symbolic and twofold aspect of his redemptive act.

(6) The fulfillment of prophetic word.

(7) The establishment of the connection between the Passover sacrifice and the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shall look on him whom they have pierced - He was pierced by the soldier's spear. They who have occasioned his sufferings by their sins (and who has not?) shall either look upon him in this world with penitential sorrow: or with terror, when he cometh in the clouds of heaven, Rev. i, 7. Zech. xii, 10.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

37. ὄψονται. All present, especially the Jews. The whole world was represented there. Ἐκκεντᾶν, ‘to pierce deeply,’ occurs nowhere else in N.T. excepting Rev 1:7, and forms a connexion worth noting between the Gospel and the Apocalypse (see on Joh 1:14, Joh 4:6, Joh 7:30, Joh 8:2, Joh 11:44, Joh 13:8, Joh 15:20, Joh 20:16); all the more so because S. John here agrees with the present Masoretic Hebrew text and in every word differs from the LXX. The LXX. softens down ἐξεκέντησαν (which seemed a strange expression to use of men’s treatment of Jehovah) into κατωρχήσαντο (‘insulted’). See on Joh 6:45, Joh 12:13; Joh 12:15, where there is further evidence of the Evangelist having independent knowledge of Hebrew. With the construction εἰς ὅν comp. Joh 6:29, Joh 17:9.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37.] LXX, ἐπιβλέψονται πρός με, ἀνθʼ ὧν κατωρχήσαντο—but the Evangelist has given the literal and, as now acknowledged (Lücke), true sense of the word דָּקַר. The ὄψονται does not refer to the Roman soldiers,—but to the repentant in the world, who, at the time the Gospel was written, had begun to fulfil the prophecy: and is not without a prophetic reference to the future conversion of Israel, who were here the real piercers, though the act was done διὰ χειρὸς ἀνόμων.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. καὶ πάλιν ἑτέρα γραφὴ λέγει. ἕτερος “different” does not appear again in Jn.

The manner of the Lord’s death was, according to Jn., in fulfilment both of type and prophecy; negatively, because His legs were not broken as the usual custom was in the case of crucified persons, so that the type of the Paschal Lamb might be fulfilled in Him; and positively, by the piercing of His side, as had been prophesied in Zec 12:10 ὄψονται εἰς ὃν ἐξεκέντησαν, “they shall look on Him whom they pierced ”.

The LXX, reading רקדו for דקרו by an erroneous transposition of ר and ד, has the curious κατωρχήσαντο, “they danced insultingly”, instead of ἐξεκέντησαν, “they pierced,” which is the natural rendering of the Hebrew and is followed by Theodotion and Aquila, Symmachus having ἐπεξεκέντησαν. The same rendering is found in Rev 1:7, where the prophecy is given a different turn and referred to the Second Advent, ὄψεται αὐτὸν πᾶς ὀφθαλμός, καὶ οἵτινες αὐτὸν ἐξεκέντησαν. Justin uses similar words (with ἐκκεντεῖν) of the Second Advent (Apol. i. 52, Tryph. 64), and in Tryph. 32 distinguishes the two Advents, thus: δυὸ παρουσίας αὐτοῦ γενήσεσθαι ἐξηγησάμην, μιὰν μὲν ἐν ᾗ ἐξεκεντήθη ὑφʼ ὑμῶν, δευτέραν δὲ ὅτε ἐπιγνώσεσθε εἰς ὃν ἐξεκεντήσατε.

It is clear that Jn. did not use the LXX here, and while he may have translated independently from the Hebrew, it is more probable that he has adopted a version current in his time.

Abbott (Diat. 2318) suggests that Jn. means the prophecy to apply to the four soldiers (whom he fantastically supposes to represent the four quarters of the globe): “they shall look on Him whom they pierced”. But Zec 12:10 refers in its original context to “the inhabitants of Jerusalem”; and it is more natural to take the Jews for the subject of “they shall look.” It was to the Jews that Jesus was delivered to be crucified (v. 16), and the “piercing” was, indirectly, their act.

The Burial of the Body of Jesus (vv. 38-42)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.