Christian apologists claim the crucifixion of Jesus is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. One of the passages they use as a so-called “proof text” in support of their claim is Zechariah 12:10.
Although the passage is problematic for this purpose even in the variety of its mistranslated versions that appear in most Christian Bibles, a slight modification in the manner in which it is applied in one of the Gospels was designed to “fix” this difficulty.
This article presents a rigorous analysis of the Hebrew text and context of Zechariah 12:10, which demonstrates that reference to this verse in the New Testament, and its subsequent mistranslation in the Christian “Old Testament”, are inconsistent with what the Hebrew Bible teaches. Moreover, a closer look at the 12th chapter in its proper context confirms that such imputed Christological relevance is absurd.
Several years ago I gave lessons online, for which I prepared lesson notes using Microsoft PowerPoint. Those lessons covered many, but not all, of the articles that are published on this blog.
These are the lessons notes for this article.
Counter-Missionary University 