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A Funny Gaffe – fit for a Good Friday

The puzzle of Psalm 22

Jesus on crossA few years ago a friend and work colleague, J, wandered over to my desk. J was smart and educated – and definitely not a believer in the gospel. He was skeptical but somewhat curious which gave rise to some warm and open conversations between us. He had never really looked at the Bible so I encouraged him now and then to give it a go.

One day he came into my office with a Bible to show me that he was indeed taking a look. He had opened it randomly in the middle. I asked him what he was reading. I remember our conversation going something like this.

“I am reading in Psalm chapter 22”, he said (pronouncing the ‘P’ in Psalm).

“Really”, I said. “It is pronounced salm – without the ‘p’. Any idea what you are reading about?”

“I guess I am reading about the crucifixion of Jesus”, J replied.

“That’s a good guess”, I laughed. “But you are about one thousand years off. Psalm 22 was written by David around 1000 BC. Jesus’ crucifixion was in 30’s CE.”

J was not familiar with the books in the Bible and did not realize that the Psalms were not the accounts of Jesus’ life by his contemporaries. He had only heard some stories about Jesus, including his crucifixion, and randomly opening his Bible he stumbled on something that, from his perspective, seemed to describe the crucifixion, and not knowing any better, he just assumed it was the story of the crucifixion. He had made a little gaffe – an error- in his first Bible reading exercise. We had a chuckle over his first mis-step in Bible exegesis.

Then I asked J what he saw in Psalm 22 that made him think he was reading about the crucifixion of Jesus. Thus began our little on-the-spot investigative study. I invite you to consider some of the similarities we noticed by placing the passages side-by-side in a table. To help I have color matched the texts that are similar.

Comparison of Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion with the details in Psalm 22

Crucifixion details from the GospelsPsalm 22 – written 1000 BC
(Matthew 27: 31-48) ..Then they led him (Jesus) away to crucify him…. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “… save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him,…About the ninth hour Jesus cried…“My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” …48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink.Mark 15: 16-2016 The soldiers led Jesus away… They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him…37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.(JOHN 19:34) they did not break his legs..., pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.…they crucified him… (JOHN 20:25) [Thomas] unless I see the nail marks in his hands ,…”…JOHN 20:23-24 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining…Let’s not tear it”, they said,”Let’s decide by lot who gets it”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest…All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.

The fact that J, being astute but not familiar with the Bible, made the logical but wrong conclusion that Psalm 22 was an eye-witness account of the Good Friday crucifixion, should make us ask a question. How do we explain the similarity between these accounts? Can we write it off to chance coincidence that the details can match so precisely as to include that the clothes would BOTH be divided (the clothes with seams were split along the seams and passed out among the soldiers) AND have lots cast (the garment without the seam would be ruined by tearing it so they threw dice for it). Psalm 22 was written before crucifixion was invented but it uncannily describes its various details (piercing of hands and feet, bones being out of joint – by being stretched as the victim hangs). In addition, the Gospel of John states that blood and water flowed out when the spear was thrust in Jesus’ side, indicating a fluid buildup in the pericardium cavity around the heart. Jesus thus died of a heart attack.  This matches the Psalm 22 description of ‘my heart has turned to wax’. The Hebrew word in Psalm 22 which is translated ‘pierced’ literally means ‘like a lion’. In other words the hand and feet were mutilated and mauled as they were pierced. So, what to make of all this?

Jesus, through the pens of the Gospel writers, argued that these similarities were prophetic. God inspired Old Testament prophets hundreds of years prior to Jesus’ life to predict details of his life and death so that we can know that this was all in the plan of God. Prophetic fulfillment is like having a Divine signature on these events of Good Friday since no human can know the future like this.

Bart Ehrman’s explanation

Bart Ehrman, renowned Bible scholar and arch Gospel critic, counters that the prophetic credentials of Psalm 22 are suspect because the whole thrust of the Gospel story was that the ‘Messiah’ or Christ was the one that was supposed to be sacrificed and Psalm 22 says nothing of the victim being the ‘Messiah’. As he states it

“But what to do with the fact that there were no Jewish prophecies that the Messiah would suffer and die?” (Bart Ehrman, Jesus Interrupted. p. 234)

But this raises another issue. It is not that there is just one prophecy (like Psalm 22) that Jesus was to fulfill, but there are scores of them. These are testable predictions by different authors in different time periods and social strata through the Old Testament. So, to take Ehrman at his challenge, Daniel, living in exile in Babylon around 550 BC had a vision in which he was told the following prophetic riddle:

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing… ” (Daniel 9:25-26)

Hmm. My deepest respects to the New Testament scholar but he missed this in the Old Testament. Here, exactly as he challenged, is a prophecy that the ‘Anointed One’ (= Christ = Messiah) would be ‘cut off’. The timing of this and the details of ‘cut off’, which foresaw the meaning of Jesus’ death, flatly refutes Ehrman’s assertion that there is no Old Testament prophecy where the ‘Christ’ was to suffer and die.

Spong’s explanation

Others, like Shelby Spong (in That Hebrew Lord), argue that the similarity of Psalm 22 with the events of crucifixion of Good Friday are simply due to the fact that the Gospel writers made the events up to ‘fit’ the prophecy. His detailed verse-by-verse analysis showing the similarities between Psalm 22 and Jesus’ crucifixion in the Gospel accounts is data to support his theory that the Gospel writers made up the crucifixion events, taking the details from Psalm 22. At the very least, Spong’s theory means that he thinks the similarities demand an explanation. But his explanation totally ignores the testimony of historians from that time outside of the Bible. Josephus and Tacitus respectively tell us that:

“At this time there was a wise man … Jesus. … good, and … virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die.” (Josephus. 90AD. Antiquities xviii. 33   Josephus was a Jewish Historian)

“Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius” (Tacitus. 117 AD. Annals XV. 44.  Tacitus was a Roman Historian)

Their testimony agrees in broad-brush strokes with the gospels that Jesus was indeed crucified. This is important because many of the details in Psalm 22 are simply particulars of the act of being crucified. If the gospel writers were going to make up or grossly distort the actual events to make them ‘fit’ Psalm 22 then they would basically have had to make up the whole crucifixion, yet no one denies his crucifixion, and Josephus explicitly states that this is how he was executed.

Psalm 22 and Jesus’ legacy

But Psalm 22 does not end at v18 in the table above – it continues seamlessly on. Note here how triumphant the mood is at the end –after the person is dead!

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him— may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn— for he has done it. (Psalm 22:26-31)

Notice that this is not talking at all about details of the events of this person’s death. That was dealt with in the first section of the Psalm. The psalmist is now addressing the impact of that person’s death on ‘posterity’ and ‘future generations’ (v.30). That is us living 2000 years later.  He tells us that  ‘posterity’ which follows this ‘pierced’ man who died such a horrible death will ‘serve’ him and be ‘told about him’.  Verse 27 predicts the geographic scope of the impact – it will go to the ‘ends of the earth’ and among ‘all families of nations’ and cause them to ‘turn to the LORD’. Verse 29 indicates how ‘those who cannot keep themselves alive’ (since we all die would that not be all of us?) will one day kneel before him. The righteousness of this man will be proclaimed to people who were not yet alive (the ‘yet unborn’) at the time of his death.

One could not make a better prediction of the subsequent legacy of the death of Jesus than Psalm 22 does. Two thousand years after Jesus amid global Good Friday celebrations this week highlight the worldwide impact of Jesus’ death, fulfilling the conclusion of Psalm 22 as uncannily as the earlier verses predicted the details of his death. Who else in world history can even make a claim that details of his death as well as the legacy of his life into the distant future would be predicted 1000 years before he lived?

The conclusion in Psalm 22 has nothing to do with whether the gospel accounts borrowed from it or not because it is now dealing with much later events – those of our time. The gospel writers, in the 1st century could not make up the impact of the death of Jesus into our time. How does Spong incorporate this fact in his explanation? He doesn’t. He ignores this latter part of Psalm 22.

Perhaps, like my friend J, you will take the opportunity this Good Friday to consider Psalm 22 in light of Jesus’ crucifixion. It will take more mental effort than if you just coasted through Good Friday. And you may make some gaffes as you engage with the text like J did. But don’t let that stop you. As you can see, even the most well-known of scholars make gaffes over Psalm 22. The reward is worth the risk because the man whom I believe Psalm 22 is referring to promised:

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full

That would make this Easter fulfilling indeed.  Here is the full Psalm 22, and the crucifixion account according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  May you experience some of that not only this Good Friday but through the year as well.

21 thoughts on “A Funny Gaffe – fit for a Good Friday”

  1. I am astounded that the author doesn’t think Psalm 22 has to do with Christ. Christ pre-existed and was the Lord of the OT who inspired the OT scriptures. . Jesus quoted from Psalm 22 when He was on the cross, so it would seem quite clear that Jesus himself endorsed it as applying to what He was going through. Most folks didn’t have written scriptures back then, but memorized them from hearing them in synagogue. Jesus quoted enough words for folks to recognize He was quoting from Psalm 22. Then they could recognize what event they were witnessing. Of course it is about Christ, as are other OT prophecies, such as Isaiah 53. Psalm 22 also includes future events that Jesus will fulfill after His return. If someone can’t figure out how Psalm 22 is prophetic about Jesus’ crucifixion and His later return, they must truly be under the veil which prevents understanding. See my article entitled “When Jesus Cried Out” on http://www.radwritings.com. For Jesus’ pre-existence, see the article “More About Jesus.” -Roger Day

    1. Hi Roger. I am not sure which author you are referring to. I (the author of this article) think that Psalm 22 has to do with Christ. It is prophetic, but it is not an eye-witness like the gospels. The point I am making is that it is so vivid descriptive that one can assume that it was written as an eyewitness (like J thought). The authors I quoted do not think Psalm 22 is prophetic because they do not believe in prophecy. So that have to try to explain the connections in other ways. I leave it to the readers to see if they have done a good job or not.

  2. Hello, Ragnar,
    The pastor at our 4-churches Good Friday service preached on Psalm 22. He did not have time to go into part two of the psalm. I enjoyed your story and the rest of your teaching on this passage. Happy Easter, Julaine and George

  3. remember matthew was a jew therefore he believed in the fulfilment of the new testament hence thus the reason why he used psalms 22 unlike other gospels like luke ,mark and john who used oral tradition and eye witness such as mary the mother of jesus, paul and some of the disciples.

    1. Hi Eugine
      Thanks for your comment, though not exactly sure I follow it. John and Mark were Jews just like Matthew was, so I am not sure why you differentiate these gospels along Jewish authorship lines. And Jews in general do not ‘believe in the fulfillment of the new testament’. John claims that he was an eyewitness (The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. John 19:35) yet he is the only one who specifically references Psalm 22 as being fulfilled

      24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

      This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

      “They divided my clothes among them
      and cast lots for my garment.”

      So this is what the soldiers did.

      So it is John, rather than Matthew, which references Psalm 22

  4. MY 92 YEAR OLD SISTER HAS A QUESTION REGARDING STATEMENT FIVE IN THE APOSTLES’ CREED WHERE IT IS WRITTEN…CHRIST ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD. HER QUESTIONS IS —WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORD AGAIN. DOES IT MEAN THAT CHRIST ROSE FROM THE DEAD MORE THAN ONCE?

    1. Hi Dorothy
      I am no expert on the creeds but I have always understood the word ‘again’ not that he rose more than once but that he came alive again. He was alive on Friday morning but put to death, but on Sunday he came alive again.

  5. Many thanks for this article. It supports my belief in the matter. Of those with whom I previously held discussions concerning it, most strongly denied my position. I have a feeling that the Lord led me to this place, confirming my understanding.

    Somehow I can’t believe that my Lord had lost His faith when He cried out as He did, especially when viewed within the context of His statements on either side of “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
    I pray for understanding on the part of those who have refuted the position that I expressed.

    1. @ 4 Him ”My God my God why have you forsaken me?” You know when Jesus cried out these words it meant that on Him were the sins of the world and God always forsakes us when we sin. This does not mean that Jesus had sinned but it means that the sins of the world were on Him, this is after our Lord agreed to take that cup and drink from it.Luke 22:42

  6. One of the many thousands of prophecies about Jesus Christ’s birth, life, and death & resurrection that give solid proof that the Bible is 100% correct and true! ! !
    Discount this at your own peril, because we all WILL kneel down before God one day!!!
    Some will be at the Bema seat, most people will be at the Great White Throne Judgment! !!

    Loved it, glad I found this article! !!!

  7. John Stacey-Hibbert

    What a pity that no-one seems to have read Psalm 22 in the original Hebrew of the Tanack. A few versions of the NT have it right – one of them is The Good News Translation. The Psalm says nothing about hands and feet being pearced – verse 16 reads (in a proper translation: “An evil gang is around me; like a pack of dogs they close in on me; they tear at my hands and feet …” King David, at one of his worst times, was pleading to God to rescue him from his oppressors

  8. Psalm 22:16 reads, “Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.” The phrase “pierced my hands and feet” along with the context, is likely the clearest prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures. Some propose, however, that Psalm 22:16 should read, “like a lion, they are at my hands and feet.” So, does Psalm 22:16 truly prophesy the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross?

    What causes such confusion is that the two Hebrew words for “pierced” and “lion” are remarkably similar. All that separates the two Hebrew words is the length of an upright vowel stroke. A majority of Hebrew manuscripts, from the Masoretic text, of Psalm 22 have the “lion” reading, while a minority of manuscripts contain the “pierced” reading. However, which reading is in the majority is not always the deciding factor in determining which reading is correct. For example, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which predate most other Hebrew texts by over a thousand years, note that the term is unmistakably “pierced.” In addition, the oldest Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions also go with “pierced.” The same is true in the Septuagint, the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which was completed approximately 200 years before the birth of Christ.

  9. The term in the Dead-Sea scrolls is NOT pierced. There is no evidence that the Hebrew scrolls say such a thing.

    1. Exactly as stated in the article. The Hebrew literally says ‘like a lion’ indicating the hands and feet were mauled

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