Psalm 22:17—The Crucifixion Psalm

“For dogs have surrounded me; a pack of evildoers has enclosed me, they pierce my hands and feet.”

Claim: The entire Psalm, particularly verse 17 (or 16 in Christian Bibles), is a direct reference to Jesus’ suffering at the Cross. Perhaps there was no greater way of describing it than “they pierce my hands and feet.”

Response: If I were to define the definition of mistranslation, this would probably be my description. The strictly accurate translation of the Hebrew phrase in this poetic verse would be: “they encircled me, like a lion, my hands and feet.”[1]

The root of the problem lies in the Hebrew wording. All the Masoretic texts of the Bible read ka’ari—like a lion. The Christians would like to amend the wording to karu [by withdrawing the letter Aleph and lengthening the Yud to a Vov]. Karu means “dig” or “excavate.” The Christians, after amending the word, found it somewhat similar to “pierce” where one “digs” into the flesh—thus it became known as The Crucifixion Psalm.

Grammatically speaking, this Christological interpretation makes zero sense. If the Psalmist was intending for a crucifixion, he would rather have used the word ratza, dakar, (nakar) or nakav which mean respectively perforate, stab, (pierce) or bore, as is indeed found in other places in the Bible.^[i]

In this very Psalm, the “lion” is frequently used, as well as many other animals. They are used as a motif representing David, the Psalmist’s, enemies. Verse 14 (or 13 in the Christian Bibles): “They open their mouths against me like a tearing roaring lion.” Verse 22 (or 21 in the Christian Bibles): “Save me from the lion’s mouth as You have saved me from the Re’eimim.” It would therefore be reasonable to assume that here too the “lion” is written, and verse 22 is referring to this very lion.

A startling question faces this alleged proof-text: why didn’t the New Testament refer to this vivid prophecy about Jesus? The answer is that the new changed text wasn’t yet around in their days, only to be amended later by early Christian missionaries.

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest preserved biblical manuscripts, only one scrap was found containing Psalm 22.^[2] The word written in verse 17 is slightly faded, but it most probably reads the following letters: Kof, Aleph, Reish and either a (slightly) shortened Vov or lengthened Yud. If it is a Yud—then that would be the exact same as the Masoretic texts; and if it is with a Vov—it’s a clear spelling mistake or slip of the pen, something the Dead Sea Scrolls’ authors were well acquainted with. Reading it with a Vov resembles no word in the Hebrew dictionary. Additionally, it’s clear from the very next word that the author misquoted/misspelled. To the word yadi (my hands), an extra Hey letter was added at the end of the word—a clear mistake. It is rather clear from the letter Aleph that the Dead Sea Scroll reads, that no “Crucifixion” was intended by the Psalmist.

The Christian missionaries, in a desperate hope, turn to the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Bible. This Septuagint translates verse 17 just as the Christians do. They, therefore, derive that the text was changed by the Pharisee scribes to hide the evidence for Jesus as the Messiah.

Now, although the Septuagint is traditionally traced back to the 2^nd-century B.C.E., when Ptolemy, the Greek King of Egypt had rabbis translate the Bible, the originals we do not possess.^[ii] The Septuagint we now have is a copy of a copies that went through many deviations over the generations. Additionally, it was deliberately tampered with later-on by Christian scribal scholars.^[3] This all pertains to the Pentateuch; the Prophets and Writings, however, weren’t even translated at all so early back by the rabbis but in a much later period. This is clear from various early sources^[iii] [Including the Talmud and Josephus^[iv]]. Hence, the accuracy of the Septuagint and particularly of the Prophets and Writings is in big question, and unquestionably loses power against all the Masoretic texts [see “Is the Torah’s Text Accurate?”] and Dead Sea Scrolls.

Having concluded unveiling the fallacies in this deliberate mistranslation, we shall now proceed with the less popular part of the proof-text that concerns the first verse.

“My God, my God why have Thou forsaken me?!” This was one of the many screams Jesus proclaimed at his death. They therefore claim (in connection with the mistranslation discussed above) that he “fulfilled” this “Messianic” prophecy of Psalm 22 verse 1 as well.

There are several issues with this argument.

First, who said this Psalm is a Messianic prophecy? For the same price I myself should be crowned the Messiah, for I “fulfilled” the “Messianic prophecy” of the next Psalm—23: “Though I walk through the valley overshadowed by death, I will not fear, for You are with me…” There are no specifically Messianic terms used in the Psalm. This leads us to conclude that David is referring to himself and his own enemies in the verse. Alternatively, David is referring to any faithful sufferer throughout the many generations of Jewish exiles.

Secondly, (even if it were to be a Messianic prophecy) perhaps one would need to proclaim upon his death the entire Psalm; why only half a verse? The selection of the first half-verse is vividly a prejudiced interpretation of what the Messiah is allegedly meant to proclaim.

Of course, this is all under the assumption and premises that Jesus actually existed and actually died at the cross etc., something which there’s valid speculation about, as we have discussed in “The Resurrection Myth.”

[1] For a similar poetic phrase used by David see Psalm 118:12: “They encircled me like bees.”

[2] [Note, that although this scrap is generally referred to as being amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, they’re not quite so. The Psalm was found at Nahal Hever which is some distance from Qumran where the famed Dead Sea Scrolls are located. The Nahal Hever scrolls are significantly younger than that of Qumran being dated to somewhere between the two rebellions (70-135 A.C.E.). On the other hand, the Qumran scrolls predate the first rebellion. For those seeking further analysis, this particular Psalm 22 scrap is codenamed 5/6Hev Col. XI fragment 9.]

[3] Unlike nowadays when books are available for the public, back then only select few affluent individuals (usually kings and religious leaders) possessed the world’s rare articles and works (which of course were hand-written, unlike nowadays with the printing-press). Many mistakes, whether deliberate or unintentional, were consequently inevitable.

[i] Exodus 21:6, Deuteronomy 15:17, Isaiah 36:6, Job 2:24, Numbers 25:8, I Samuel 31:4, Numbers 16:14, Job 30:17 and more.

[ii] http://www.bible-researcher.com/brenton1.html

http://lhim.org/gladtidings/articles/What_about_the_Septuagint_by_Rev__John_Cortright_issue_106.pdf

[iii] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3269-bible-translations

[iv] Megillah 9a-9b, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-pref.html#EndNote_Ant_Pre.1b (or Flavius Josephus of the Antiquities of the Jews—Preface,—can be found in the third section as commonly divided).