The Prophetic Fulfillment of the Crucifixion

Some say, 'I have given my Spirit upon you,' and again regarding such a thing, he says to others, 'I have given my Spirit upon him.' The generous gift is made manifest by the word, 'I will pour out a spirit of grace and mercy' (Ezekiel 36:26), as it can be learned from other sayings; for God says, 'I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh' (Joel 2:28), which signifies a rich giving, just as also, 'The love of God is poured out in our hearts' (Romans 5:5).

From the apostolic voice, it is presented that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace, it being written: 'If anyone violates the law of Moses, he dies upon two or three witnesses without mercies; how much more do you think he will deserve a more severe punishment, he who has trampled the Son of God, and considered the blood of the covenant common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace in whom he was sanctified?' (Hebrews 10:29). It is joined to the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace by another saying of the Apostle, which is brought forth thus: 'There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:4), and again: 'For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, to another faith in the same Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:8-9), and the enumerated following different gifts.

The Spirit of grace and mercy is being supplied by 'the Father of mercies.' It has been said toward this in other commentaries that the God of all is the Father of mercies of the Divine Word and the giver of the Holy Spirit. Knowing from what is written who is generously giving the Spirit of grace and mercy, we shall follow to see who the house of David and those dwelling in Jerusalem are. It was made clear that both are able to signify the Church existing, both Jerusalem and the house of David as one.

Regarding the prophecy: 'And they shall look upon me instead of those whom they have looked upon with contempt, and they shall wail for them as for a beloved, and shall grieve with a grief like that for a firstborn' (Zechariah 12:10). Having fallen into great distress, the Jews who struck the Lord are prevailing with loud wailing and grief, just as if they were wailing for a beloved one who has died and grieving over a firstborn son, 'before the wrath reaches its end upon them,' as if their fatherland were to be dug up and they were to become wandering vagabonds in all the land. Because of these things...

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They were made known by the vote of God's providence through a holy thing which they performed by placing the Savior of all upon the cross; from this present matter it is to be learned. For he says of the one suffering by them: 'They shall look upon me instead of those from whom they looked down' (Ps 22:6). Were they not acting impiously and irreverently when, mocking Jesus being hung as the stake, they said: 'Behold, the one destroying the temple of God and raising it up in three days (Mt 26:61). He saved others, but he is not able to save himself' (Mt 27:42). 'If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!' (Mt 27:42).

These things and other things of the scoundrels mocking, the evangelist writes to be fulfilled by the prophecy having such a character: 'They shall look upon him whom they pierced' (Zech 12:10), which differs in single words from: 'They shall look upon me instead of those from whom they looked down' (Ps 22:6). For those having investigated the Hebrew dialect say that the existing text of Zechariah was translated into the evangelical Greek, that is, the evangelist having brought it, for he was a Hebrew; or from another having interpreted and received it, that is, Aquila or Theodotus or someone else having brought the Hebrew word into Greece.

We have been led forward to say these things because some are seeking where it is said among the prophets: 'They shall look upon him whom they pierced' (Zech 12:10), not being found anywhere among those published of the Old Testament. It is probable that the grief is upon the beloved and the pain is upon the firstborn of those who murdered, since the cruel things came upon them, killing Jesus, being a firstborn Son and beloved.

It has been seen many times that 'the beloved' signifies two things: the one worthy of being loved and the Only-begotten Son. But both exist in Jesus Christ, being the Son of love, that is, of God, concerning whom it is written: 'God is love' (1 John 4:8), but also only-begotten, for he is the only-begotten Son from the Father and from the holy Virgin Mary. In that day the mourning shall be magnified in Jerusalem like the mourning of a reaper in a field being cut down, and the earth shall be cut according to tribes, tribe by itself and their women by themselves, the tribe of the house of David and their women by themselves, the tribe of the house of Nathan by itself and their women by themselves, the tribe of the house of Levi...