Whom They Pierced
Zechariah 12:10, the pierced One they will mourn, as the early church read it
Five centuries before the cross, Zechariah records the LORD saying something staggering: "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn." God speaks of being pierced, and of a day when those who pierced Him will look on Him and weep as for an only son. The New Testament splits the prophecy across Christ's two comings: John says the spear in Jesus' side fulfilled "they shall look on him whom they pierced" (John 19:37), and Revelation says at His return "every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him" (Revelation 1:7). The early church read it exactly so, the pierced Messiah, rejected at the first advent, recognized and mourned at the second. Justin Martyr and Tertullian in their own words below, with a plain restatement.
The Fathers' words are verbatim and attributed (Justin Martyr and Tertullian, in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, public domain; selected from the running prose, footnote apparatus omitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Fathers' words.
Zechariah 12:10 · KJV…and I will pour upon the house of David… the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son…
"And then in Jerusalem there shall be great lamentation, not the lamentation of mouths or of lips, but the lamentation of the heart; and they shall rend not their garments, but their hearts. Tribe by tribe they shall mourn, and then they shall look on Him whom they have pierced; and they shall say, Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy way? The glory which our fathers blessed, has for us been turned into shame."
Justin MartyrJustin hears in this a true repentance, not torn clothes but torn hearts, "the spirit of grace and of supplications" poured out so that those who pierced the Messiah finally see Him for who He is and grieve. It is grief that heals, the mourning of a people awakened, looking at last on the One they rejected and crying out to Him. And note who is pierced: the LORD says "they shall look on me." The pierced one is none other than God Himself, come in the flesh.
Zechariah 12:10 · with John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7"They shall look on him whom they pierced." — "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."
"Then shall they look on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, tribe after tribe; because, no doubt, they once refused to acknowledge Him in the lowliness of His human condition… others had reference to His second advent, when He shall appear in glory and above the clouds; and your nation shall see and know Him whom they have pierced."
Tertullian and Justin MartyrThe Fathers read the verse across the two comings, the same pattern the New Testament uses. At the first, the lowly Christ was "pierced," literally, when the soldier's spear opened His side (John 19:34-37). At the second, "he cometh with clouds," and "they also which pierced him" will see Him in glory and mourn (Revelation 1:7). The piercing already happened on a Friday outside Jerusalem; the looking and the mourning reach their fullness when He returns. The wound He still bears is the proof that the Judge and the Crucified are one and the same.
Where this stands among the traditions
That Zechariah 12:10 speaks of the pierced Christ is shared Christian ground, fixed by the New Testament itself: John cites it of the spear at the cross, and Revelation of the wailing at His return, so Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant alike read it as the pierced and returning Messiah. Two points sharpen it. First, a textual one: the Hebrew has the LORD say "they shall look on me whom they pierced," identifying the pierced one with God; some witnesses and translations soften it to "him," and John quotes it as "him" (of Christ), but the "me" reading is a powerful testimony to His deity, the pierced man is the LORD. Second, the older Jewish reading takes the mourning as a future national lament (for the slain of Israel, or a Messiah who suffers and dies), without identifying him as Jesus; Christians honor the expected mourning and find its object in the Crucified. The modern critical reading treats it as an obscure historical lament and debates the referent. The drift to resist is detaching the verse from the pierced Christ the apostles plainly named, and losing the "me", that the One whose side was opened is God with us. (See the crucifixion psalm, the suffering servant, and the thousand years.)
Patristic text from Justin Martyr, First Apology (ch. 52) and Dialogue with Trypho (ch. 14), and Tertullian, Against Marcion (Book III), in the Ante-Nicene Fathers (public domain), selected from the running prose with footnote apparatus omitted; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. This passage in the Study Bible; Zechariah 12 at BibleHub.