Intertextuality Pair

Matthew 24:30 → Zechariah 12:10

Allusion

Later text

Matthew 24:30BSB

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

Earlier text

Zechariah 12:10BSB

Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
+ 1 more earlier text

Earlier text

Daniel 7:13-14BSB

In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Significance

In the Olivet Discourse Jesus describes His own parousia with a composite citation fusing two prophetic texts: "all the tribes of the earth will mourn" (Zechariah 12:10/12:12) and "they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory" (Daniel 7:13). The Zechariah leg is unmistakable — kol-mišpəḥôt hāʾāreṣ ("all the families of the land/earth") mourning over the pierced one is the very vocabulary of Zechariah 12:10-14, where the inhabitants of Jerusalem look on the One they have pierced and mourn clan by clan. What is striking is that this same Zechariah-plus-Daniel composite reappears at Revelation 1:7, which establishes that the fusion is dominical — it originates on Jesus's own lips and is inherited, not invented, by the apostolic church. The two prophecies fuse two Christologies that might otherwise stand apart: the exalted cloud-coming Son of Man (Daniel) is identically the pierced One whom the nations mourn (Zechariah). The mourning at the parousia is the eschatological completion of the looking-and-mourning that began at the foot of the cross (John 19:37). For the believer this is no terror but the deepest comfort and the deepest summons of joy: the Lord who returns in glory is the Lord whose side was opened for us, and to behold Him pierced-and-coming is to be drawn to mourn over sin and to treasure the crucified King who is desirable above all — the One whose wounds are the ground of our welcome.

Found via
Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Sigurd Grindheim, Christology in the Synoptic Gospels (2012)
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Promise-Fulfillment

▸ They Shall Look on Him

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