FINAL CONFLICT AND DELIVERANCE 443
But we need not impute any dishonest intention to the Jews in this matter, as some have done, 1 and of a desire to corrupt the text ; for, as a matter of fact, however much they obscured and perverted the true sense of Scripture, through their misinterpretations, and in their paraphrases and commentaries, they always most jealously guarded the original letter and text of Scripture from alteration or corruption.
The marginal reading in the few MSS which is also accepted in the Talmud, is, however, not recognised as a Keri> or proper reading, in the Massoretic text. It originated in the very natural difficulty, from the Jewish point of view, of conceiving how God, who is undoubtedly the speaker in the first part of the verse, since He promises to pour out the spirit of grace and supplication, can be " pierced." It requires the light which is thrown on Messianic prophecy by the New Testament ; and a knowledge of Him in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who could say, " I and the Father are One, " for men to grasp this mystery. 2
But we are told by Jewish and rationalistic writers that we must not " read the New Testament into these Old Testament prophecies, " but rather ask ourselves what meaning the people in the prophet s own time would attach to them. To this we reply. First : Though it is true, generally speaking, that the prophets spoke first and primarily to those in their own time, there is, never-
1 As, for instance, Martini.
2 It need not, it seems to me, be supposed that the Apostle John, in John xix. 37, quoted from a manuscript which read, "They shall look on Him." It is rather his adaptation and application of the prophecy in the light of fulfilment (as far as the piercing is concerned) to our Lord Jesus. lie knew well that in its connection, in Zech. xii., it is spoken of God ; but this passage, like many other prophecies and promises which in the Old Testament centre in Jehovah, find their fulfilment and realisation in history in the person of the Messiah, whom this beloved apostle depicts to us as " the Word made flesh," and in whose face he beheld the glory of the only-begotten of the Father. Hence, as he now gazes upon Him on the Cross, and beholds the Roman soldier plunging his spear into His side, he says, "Here, truly, is the One to whom this Scripture applies they shall look on Him whom they have pierced."
