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ZECHARIAH 14: a D IALOGUE with the HISTORY of INTERPRETATION by Al Wolters a WELCOME TREND in Recent Biblical Scholarship Is

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ZECHARIAH 14: a D IALOGUE with the HISTORY of INTERPRETATION by Al Wolters a WELCOME TREND in Recent Biblical Scholarship Is MJT 13 (2002) 39-56 ZECHARIAH 14: A DIALOGUE WITH THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION1 by Al Wolters A WELCOME TREND in recent biblical scholarship is the increased attention that is being paid to the history of interpretation. An early sign of this trend was the commentary on Exodus by Brevard Childs, which appeared in the Old Testament Library series in 1974.2 Next to the application of the standard historical-critical methodologies to the text of Exodus, Childs also highlighted what he called the “theological” meaning of the text, and in this context interacted extensively with some of the great minds in the history of interpretation, such as Augustine, Rashi, Luther and Calvin. Since then, his example has been followed by other commentators, in both mainline and conservative circles. A notable instance is the recent massive commentary on 1 Corinthians by Anthony Thiselton, which deals extensively with what he calls the “post- history” of the text.3 Just as “pre-history” refers to the fortunes of a biblical book before it reached its canonical form (usually reconstructed in a highly speculative manner), so the “post-history” refers to the fortunes of a biblical book in the history of interpretation. In my judgment, this is a very positive development. Too long has biblical scholarship been dominated by a mentality which dismisses as “pre-critical” the work of master interpreters such as John Chrysostom and John Calvin, or regarded any exegetical work 1Lecture delivered at Mid-America Reformed Seminary on Nov. 8, 2000. 2Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus. A Critical, Theological Commentary (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974). 3Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: a Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000). 40 • MID-AMERICA JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY done more than a generation ago as out of date and valueless. The truth is rather that every age has made valuable discoveries in plumbing the riches of Scripture, and the history of interpretation is therefore a rich quarry of exegetical insight which we neglect to our own impoverishment. This is especially true of the so-called “theological” (I would prefer the term “confessional”) inter- pretation of Scripture, since so much of modern historical criticism has deliberately turned a deaf ear to the voice of God in the Bible. But it is also true of other, more technical, levels of interpretation. It has often been my experience, in my work on Zechariah, to discover that some recently launched proposal with respect to the meaning of a Hebrew word, or the historical reference of a given passage, was anticipated hundreds of years ago—and in some cases was convincingly refuted as well. All of this is not to say that there have not been many modern insights and discoveries which greatly enrich our understanding of Scripture (I think of the recovery of the Akkadian and Ugaritic languages, for example, and the very fruitful application of synchronic literary criticism in recent years). Nor do I mean to suggest that there is not a lot of misleading and unhelpful exegesis that is part of the history of interpretation (I think of a good deal of allegorical interpretation, for example). I am simply pointing out that there is an enormous and largely untapped reservoir of potential exegetical insight in the history of interpretation. Sometimes the value of exploring it may be largely negative. The diversity and apparent arbitrariness of earlier interpretations may alert us to the fact that a given passage has never been satisfactorily explained, and that we need to be modest in our claims to be hearing and proclaiming what God is saying in that passage. A case in point is the last chapter of the book of Zechariah, which is the subject of the present essay. This chapter has perplexed interpreters down through the centuries. We find a particularly stark example of this exegetical perplexity in Martin Luther, who wrote two commentaries on the book of Zechariah, one in Latin and one in German. The Latin one, published in 1526, stops abruptly at the end of chapter 13.4 The commentary contains nothing on chapter 14, and offers no explanation of its absence. The German 4Martin Luther, “Lectures on Zechariah. The Latin Text, 1526” in Luther’s Works, Vol. 20: Lectures on the Minor Prophets III: Zechariah (ed. Hilton C. Oswald; Saint Louis: Concordia, 1973), 1-152. ZECHARIAH 14: A DIALOGUE WITH THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION • 41 commentary, published a year later in 1527, does contain a section on chapter 14, but it begins with the following frank admission: “Here, in this chapter, I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.”5 In effect, Luther is throwing up his hands in despair. Nevertheless, he does offer some tentative comments on the meaning of the chapter, although they are much less extensive than his comments on the previous chapters of Zechariah. At the conclusion of his scanty remarks he invites other interpreters to do a better job than he has done: “Whoever can do better has sufficient opportunity and leave for that.” Before we take a closer look at the various approaches which have been taken to the interpretation of Zechariah 14, let us briefly remind ourselves of its content. It is a description of what will happen “on that day” (aWhh;-~AYB;), on the Day of the Lord. We can summarize what it says in seven sentences: 1. The Lord will first gather the nations in order to visit the horrors of war on Jerusalem, and then turn around and fight these nations (vss. 1-3). 2. Right through the Mount of Olives, where his feet will stand, the Lord will create a valley of escape from Jerusalem, and then arrive with his army (vss. 4-5). 3. The day of the Lord will have continuous daylight, continuous streams will flow eastwards and westwards from Jerusalem, and the Lord will be king of the whole earth (vss. 6-9). 4. Jerusalem will be lifted high in safety, and the surrounding countryside will be flattened (vss. 10-11). 5. The nations that fought against Jerusalem will be decimated by plague, panic, and the attack of Judah, and their wealth taken (vss 12-15). 6. The survivors of the nations will make an annual pilgrimage to worship the Lord in Jerusalem, and those who don’t will be punished (vss. 16-19). 7. The commonest things in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy, and the ungodly will be absent (vss. 20-21). The chapter is plainly a prophecy concerning a series of 5Martin Luther, “Lectures on Zechariah. The German Text, 1527” in Luther’s Works, Vol. 20: Lectures on the Minor Prophets III: Zechariah (ed. Hilton C. Oswald; Saint Louis: Concordia, 1973), 153-347 (337). 42 • MID-AMERICA JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY dramatic future events which God will bring about in and around Jerusalem, but it is unclear what these events are. Are they real events in world history, which inform us about the future history of greater Jerusalem, or are they images projected onto the screen of the apocalyptic imagination, which tell us more about the prophet’s own situation and aspirations than about anything that is actually going to happen in Jerusalem and its environs? If we take the former approach, just where in world history do we find the events just described? Have they already happened, or are they still to come? Is the language which describes them to be taken literally or figuratively? And if we take the second approach, just what does this apocalyptic language tell us about the prophet and his outlook? In my study of the history of interpretation of the book of Zechariah, I have come across seven basic interpretations of Zechariah 14, which can be classified according to the different answers which they give to these questions. I propose to sketch briefly what these seven interpretations are, and to illustrate them from at least one prominent representative. I will also note what to me seem to be some of the weaknesses of each approach. After this survey of the basic interpretations I will suggest some lessons which we can learn from it, and propose a responsible way of appropriating this chapter for our edification today. It was not until the nineteenth century that biblical interpreters began to question the assumption that Zechariah was predicting real events in world history. It is not surprising, therefore, that five of our seven basic interpretations take this as their starting point. Although they all agreed on this, they disagreed on two other issues: whether or not the historical fulfillment of this prophecy had already taken place (and if so, when), and whether or not its language should be understood literally. We shall deal first with the three interpretations which assume that fulfillment has already taken place—an assumption which is usually paired with the view that the language is to be understood figuratively. (1) The oldest view, which is that of the commentary ascribed to the Syriac church father Ephraem Syrus, holds that the prophecy of Zechariah 14 (all except the last two verses, which refer to the last days) was fulfilled in the days of the Maccabean Revolt in the early second century B.C.6 A similar view was espoused by the 6See T.-J. Lamy, “Les commentaires de S. Éphrem sur le prophète ZECHARIAH 14: A DIALOGUE WITH THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION • 43 influential Greek church father Theodore of Mopsuestia,7 and by the later Syriac father Ishodad of Merv.8 In modern times the Maccabean interpretation was defended by J.
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