Christian Claims Zechariah 12:10 Predicts Jesus' Crucifixion—Rabbi Singer Shuts It Down!

Christians have a problem. And their problem is they're claiming that it is predicted in the Hebrew Bible that the Messiah is supposed to be crucified. Christians have a problem. Why? Because it's nowhere found in Tanakh. Hello. I just had a question. My name is Avi from LA. I just had a question about Zakaria 1210. Um I know that the rabbi made a um video on this about uh two months ago or so, but he was talking about how the piercing was the Roman spear that came uh postmortem after the death of Jesus. But the piercing um if we look at archaeology, I'm not sure that that is the piercing it's speaking of because piercing if we look at archaeological evidence was the nails. So somebody would have had their wrists bones pierced and their leg bones pierced kind of beside the post. Their feet separated by the post and then nailed straight through one big iron nail would go through one foot through the post and through the other foot. And then their wristbones would have been nailed or used with ropes, but they would have been pierced by iron long nails, iron Roman long nails. And the crucifixion is what would have killed someone, especially in the case of Jesus if this person was real. A little bit confusing on that. The rabbi made a video saying, you know, that the the pierce he kind of like drew the attention to the piercing being postmortem, which the spear uh kind of made an incision. I I don't know if I would call that a real piercing. I think a piercing would probably have to go, you know, straight into the body like a jab. Maybe that's what happened. I don't know. But the thing is the piercing that to to to my understanding was the hands and the feet or or the wrist bones and the feet. Obviously, the the hands can't the carpals can't hold body weight, so they would just tear through that. But I know that they put long nails through the the wrist bones and the and the feet, which could hold body weight. Thank you. I don't know why people have so much trouble understanding Zechariah 12:10. And I'm not sure if this fellow understands this passage either. And thank you very much for your question. So, as it turns out, it is not me that says that Zechariah 12:10 is referring to Roman soldiers piercing the sight of Jesus as a postmortem inspection, but rather it's the book of John that makes that claim. I don't say that. I don't believe that for a moment. And it's very clear in the context that that's not what it's referring to. I think what we need to do to help you understand what's going on here is Christians have a problem. And their problem is they're claiming that it is predicted in the Hebrew Bible that the Messiah is supposed to be crucified. Okay, that's the key part. Now, Christians have a problem. Why? because it's nowhere found in Tanakh. And what they're what they do then is they scour the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish scriptures to find any passage that could possibly be construed to be referring to Jesus's crucifixion. That's the real story here. And they happen upon Zechariah 12. And it's a really important chapter. And we've been discussing this chapter a lot because this chapter is a messianic end time chapter which is in fact unfolding now. It's the Jews returning to the land of Israel. Read it in context. Jerusalem is in the hands of the Jewish people. Nations go to war against Jerusalem and Jerusalem is a heavy burdensome stone to all the nations who come upon it. God strengthens the Jewish people and they defeat all the enemies who come against Jerusalem. Okay, does this sound familiar? All right, beautiful. And then in the midst of this, there is a a cataclysmic attacker, which means they will look to me because of those who pierce and it's a plural. It means daru. People are piercing. Now the word there doesn't necessarily dar means to for stab pierce to a bullet does the exa ex exact same thing a bullet does precisely what a knife does same thing now Christians claim that this passage is referring to Jesus well that's this is so problematic on every level because number I don't if you know what number One is number one. The context of this chapter is when Israel returns back to the land of Israel, liberates Jerusalem, Jerusalem is a heavy burdensome stone to all those who come against it, the Jewish people defeat all their enemies. See Zechariah 12 verse 7 and 8. This is why Christians get in trouble. Like when you go to church, not that you do, but if you go to church and you meet nice people who are there, like right now there are tens of millions of people in churches in the United States right now. The how do they believe this stuff? Because they're reading it out of context. So the context is that God will strengthen the children of Israel and they'll defeat their enemies. The weakest of the Jews, the Kalosim, the text says, will be as strong as David, even like the angel Lord of Hosts. Just look up Zechariah 12 verse 7 and 8. Just got to look it up. Don't trust me. Do not trust me. Okay. Verse 9 means God says, "I will destroy all those who go to war against Israel." That's it. And that's what's happening now. That's was mindblowing right now. And then after Jerusalem is in the hands of the Jews and they defeat their enemies. So there is an attack. Now it in our commentaries it could be one person who was killed or many people were killed. I believe there's no question of mind this is a reference to October 7th meaning attack on the children of Israel. But read it in context. Not talking about the first century in the time of Christianity. The Jews didn't defeat their enemies. Jerusalem was not in the hands of the Jews. It was the hands of the Roman Empire. In fact, Jeru Jerusalem was under the control of the empire from the time Pompei entered Jerusalem in 63 BCE. Jerusalem was a vassal when I say Jerusalem means the land of Israel was a vassal state of the Roman Empire. Not just any part of the Roman Empire, but the golden age of the Roman Empire. and the Jews were crushed like a knat under the heel of the empire. So this can't be referring to Jesus because the context of Zechariah 12 is at a time at the end of days when the Jews defeat the enemies. Jerusalem is a burdensome stone and the Jewish people are victorious over their enemies. But after Jerusalem is liberated and the Jews then defeat their enemies, there's a catastrophic attack against the Jewish people, the consequence in in context, keep reading it, is there it cause a massive mourning among the Jewish people and they will look to me because of those or because of the stabbings duru they will look to me because of the one who is pierced and mourn over him as one mourns over firstborn son. Okay. So this can't be referring to it doesn't work. Now what is crazy and this is goes to your issue is that John says not Rabbi Tovia Singer the fourth gospel claims that this event occurred after Jesus was killed by the Roman Empire. I'm not kidding. So that the text says that now you claim that the word pierce could only be nails. That's totally not true. You're you're saying the there's no the word pierce just means like in the English language to pierce to stab. The word dar just means to to stab to pierce through any way you could do that that word fits. It does not refer to nails doesn't mean iron doesn't mean any of those things. It simply means it's just a simple verb to stab or to pierce. Period. Full stop. Here's the story in John. The author of the fourth gospel, whoever wrote it, we don't know, but whoever wrote that book claims that after Jesus was crucified and Roman soldiers want to take his body down prior to the Sabbath. So, it's buried before the Sabbath. Now, this is a unique plot device to the book of John. It's uniquely Joanian. John has a reason for this. I'll explain in a moment. So, he has Roman soldiers come to Jesus' body, but they want to make sure he really is dead. They don't want to take down a guy who's still alive. What do you mean he's alive? He was crucified. Well, as it turns out, crucifixion was a was really a horrible way to kill somebody. But people who were crucified typically would live for days on a cross before they would die. And that was the whole point of crucifixion. The whole point of it is like if you looked up the weather right now, no matter where you are, look up the weather. What's the weather like in Jerusalem? It's really nice. You know, 80% of the year in Jerusalem, the weather is great. It's it's never Montana. It's never it's Jerus has very very nice weather. So people who were put on a cross whether they were tied to the cross or nailed to the cross often would languish for a long time. Josephus in fact tells us that he saw some of his friends on a cross alive. But the point is the Roman soldiers are considering if he's still alive to break his legs with a sledgehammer. This was a method used in the ancient world. if they want to hasten someone's death. Meaning, when someone is crucified, how do they die? It's not what you think. Typically, a person is standing on a cross or a stake. And as long as they can stand there and hold themselves up in agony, naked, it was just horrible, horrible. They were alive. But the moment the person could no longer stand, their feet gave out. the the person's lungs became elongated and they the person died from esphyxiation. It was a terrible terrible way to kill someone. This often went on for days. As I said, if this empire wanted to hasten to quicken the death, they would take a sledgehammer and break the legs of the person on the cross. And therefore, the person would no longer be able to sustain person would no longer be able to sustain himself. His legs would of course give out and he would die of his sixation but immediately they were considering doing this but rather than break his legs they pierce his side see John 19 verse 34-37 ple this is John 19 so this is part of the passion narrative right I think this is John 18:19 this is the passion narrative okay this is in context text. They pierce aside and blood and water comes out and those who were there then knew that it was true and this filled two verses. One of them is not a bone of him should be broken reference to Exodus 12. Now the reason John does this is now transparent. He wants Jesus to be the lamb of God. The other three gospel writers have no interest or never heard of the notion that Jesus or the Messiah is to be a lamb. Incidentally, just full disclosure, there's nowhere in Tanakh that the Messiah has anything to do with a lamb. That's Joanian. Okay. So, so but John wants to connect the two. So that because the Passover lamb the bones can't be broken for whatever reason. We're not going to go into it now, but it can. So, they want to have Jesus taken down from the cross without his legs broken. Got it. Got it. And then it says further in verse 37 of chapter 19 and to fill another verse, they will look to they will look to him whom they appears and mourn over him who mourns over only son. They actually change the pronoun. I'm not kidding. I beg you. I plead with you. Don't trust me. Open up two browsers on your computer. One browser, look up Zechariah 12:10 in a in well, it doesn't matter what Bible you use. Use a King James, doesn't matter. And the other one, open up John 19:37. Just look at them side by side and you'll see that John changes the pronoun. It says, "Baby, they look to me." John puts there and they will look to him. So he changes that because he needs to alter the datam in order to fit his story. This is how the Christian Bible just plays plays with the Hebrew Bibles and make it appear christoologgical. So none of this fits. Moreover, I think a point should be made and that is what's weird. This is very strange stuff. And then if you look up virtually any commentary on Zechariah 12:10, Christian commentary, even one that's not that's not anti look up John MacArthur Bible, okay? It doesn't matter. You look it up. They will tell you that Zechar the the commentary will tell you that Zechariah 12:10 is speaking of the Jews, not the Roman soldiers, at the end of days recognizing they killed Christ. I'm not kidding. Which is insane. Did you I don't know if you did you did you did you wrap your frontal lobe around that? That means and John MacArthur is a very nice man. This is a guy who's like this is not a a weirdo. So he is saying it doesn't really matter. You could pick any Christian commentary, any conservative Christian comment. They all will say that Zechariah 12:10 is referring to the Jews at the end of days when Christ makes a second coming. Some not supposed to come twice, but we'll just work in their world. that when Jesus makes his second coming, all the Jews go will look upon Jesus whom they pierced, which means we killed Christ. This is so mindblowing. And the reason I pick John MacArthur is because he's a man who's uh who has a favor of Jews and a favor of Israel. I'm not I'm steelmanning this. I'm not strongman. I like picking out some weirdo or outlier. This is very mainstream evangelical um material and these the nice people say it. Moreover, they're saying it despite what John says. So you are mistaken in saying that the word dakar this verb only means an iron nail and hands and leg. It doesn't mean only that. It could mean any kind of stabbing, piercing, cutting through whether it's done with a knife or spear. in the ancient world or is that what a bullet in the modern world doesn't matter doesn't what does not convey that at all the word does mean stare pierce to cut through flesh it does unlike Psalm 22 verse 16 in the Christian Bible where they totally changed the word like a lion to pierce so therefore I don't say it it's John that says it John is guilty of this crime against the Hebrew scriptures ripping it out of context claiming as referring to Jesus. This is complete nonsense. And Christians today actually discard John's reading of Zechariah 12:10 or misreading of Zechariah 12:10. Again, I just one little point. According to John, Zechariah 12:10 is not referring to the death of Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus according to John. You got to get this through your head. Zechariah 12:10 is referring to a postmortem inspection of the body after the guy is dead already. I don't say it. I don't say that. John says that. I rest my case. If you enjoyed this program, please like and subscribe. My love to Oh.