Bs'd
Psalm
22
To
begin with; the Psalms are not prophetic writings. Also Psalm
22 does not claim to prophesize about the messiah. It is
nowhere written: The messiah will come and he will call out during his
execution: My God, my God, why did you forsake me? This is king David speaking
about himself. This Psalm is written mainly in the past tense, and describes the
tribulations King David went through. But, as shown before,
the authentic messianic prophecies are NOT fulfilled by Jesus, and therefore
Christianity has to resort to Biblical texts that have no bearing on the messiah
whatsoever, and present them as messianic prophecies. Because
of the fact that, according the NT, Jesus quoted Psalms during his execution,
the Christians claim that this Psalm must be a prophecy about the messiah.
An upside down proof based upon nothing. And
even that is not enough. In order to make it a little more
authentic Christianity squeezed in the infamous falsification about the “piercing
of hand and feet”. See verse 16: “Yea,
dogs are round about me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced
my hands and feet.” They say: “Look! Here is the
crucifixion, prophesized in the Psalms!”
Point one: It is not written here that that the hands and feet of the messiah
would be pierced. Like I pointed out: King David speaks here about himself, and
that in the past tense. And on top of that: there is no such
a thing as “they pierced my hand an feet”. The Hebrew
word that is here translated as 'pierced' is 'ka'arie'. There is no word that
even comes close to ka'arie that means piercing. To call this a mistranslation
is too euphemistic, we should call this just what it is; another Christian
falsification of their Bible translations, in order to squeeze in JC. The word
that comes the closest is 'karah', but it is impossible to fit that in here,
because that would violate almost every rule in the Hebrew grammar. And besides
that, karah does not mean piercing, but 'to dig up, to bring up from the ground'
(in the sense of mining)
The
Hebrew prefix 'ka' means: 'as the', and the Hebrew word 'arie' means 'lion'. So
what it says here is: "Like the lion [they are at] my hands and feet."
The text between the square brackets is my insertion. So King David, who is not
prophesizing about the messiah here, is speaking about a lion, and not about
piercing hands and feet. The same lion he speaks about in verse 13 and 21.
Also
the modern day Bible translations translate this in the wrong way. I could find
only one Christian Bible translation who translates this verse in the right way,
and that is the translation of the Y-H-V-H witnesses. But at least the modern
Bible translations have the decency to write that there is no such thing in the
Hebrew text.
My
edition of the Revised Standard Version has a footnote with the word pierced in
verse 16, it says there: "Gk Syr Jerome: Heb like a lion" That
means that the translators get the word “pierced” from the ancient Greek
translation; the Septuaginth, and from the Syriac translation, and from the
Vulgata, the Catholic translation of the Bible into Latin, made by Jerome, on
the request of Pope Damascus, in 328 CE. But this: “Heb
like a lion” means that they admit that in the Hebrew is written: Like a lion.
Here
is the footnote of the New American Standard Bible Update (1995): "Another
reading is like a lion, my..."
And
here is the footnote of the New International Version: "Some Hebrew
manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts: 'like the
lion,"
What
the Bible translators are doing here is ignoring the original Hebrew Bible, and
translating translations instead, because that fits the Christian theology
better.
But
the exact same word "ka'arie" is used in Isaiah 38:13, and look here
how it is translated there:
New International Version “I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;”
ew American Standard Bible: “I composed my soul until morning. Like
a lion--so He breaks all my bones,”
The Message: “I cry for help until morning. Like a
lion, God pummels and pounds me,”
Amplified Bible: “I thought and quieted myself until morning. Like
a lion He breaks all my bones;”
New Living Translation: “I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as
though by lions.”
King James Version: “I reckoned till morning, that, as
a lion, so will he break all my bones:”
English Standard Version: “I calmed myself until morning; like
a lion he breaks all my bones;”
Contemporary English Version: “Until morning came, I thought you would crush
my bones just like a hungry lion;”
New King James Version: “ I have considered until morning-- Like
a lion, So He breaks all my bones;”
New Century Version: "I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones"
21st Century King James Version: “I reckoned till morning that, as
a lion, so will He break all my bones;”
American Standard Version: “I quieted myself until morning; as
a lion, so he breaketh all my bones:”
Young's Literal Translation: “I have set [Him] till morning as
a lion, So doth He break all my bones,”
Darby Translation: “I kept still until the morning; ... as
a lion, so doth he break all my bones.”
Revised Standard version: “I cry for help until morning; like
a lion he breaks all my bones;”
Another place where we see the word "ka'arie" is in Numbers 24:9. See here how it is there translated:
New International Version “Like a lion they crouch and lie down"
New American Standard Bible: “He crouches, he lies down as a lion"
The Message: “Israel crouches like a lion and naps"
Amplified Bible: “He couched, he lay down as a lion"
New Living Translation: “Like a lion, Israel crouches and lies down"
King James Version: “He couched, he lay down as a lion"
English Standard Version: “He crouched, he lay down like a lion"
Contemporary English Version: “Like a lion you lie down"
New King James Version: “He bows down, he lies down as a lion"
New Century Version: “Like a lion, they lie waiting to attack"
21th Century King James Version: "He couched, he lay down as a lion"
American Standard Version: “He couched, he lay down as a lion"
Young's Literal Translation: “He hath bent, he hath lain down as a lion"
Darby Translation: “He stooped, he lay down like a lion"
Revised Standard version: “He couched, he lay down like a lion"
So
the translators know very well what "ka'arie" means. It is just
that in Psalm 22 they all collectively go astray.
But here we see what “ka’arie” means: “As the lion”, and, more
important, we clearly see what is does NOT mean: "piercing".
So
in Psalm 22 it does not speak about the final messiah,
and not about a crucifixion, and the “piercing” in Psalm 22 is just another
Christian falsification of their Bible translations.