No matter how much prophetic material you cover, there are always people who ask, “But what about this verse and that verse?” My first foray into dealing with Bible prophecy was The Reduction of Christianity: Dave Hunt’s Theology of Cultural Surrender, published in 1988. This was followed by The Debate over Christian Reconstruction that same year. It was a response to a debate that Dr. Gary North and I had with Dave Hunt and Thomas Ice that year in Dallas. In 1991, the first edition of Last Days Madness was published by Wolgemuth & Hyatt. Many more books followed, along with articles, debates, and radio interviews.
Each subsequent book and article attempted to answer additional prophetic passages. Last Days Madness was expanded. I wrote a response to the Left Behind series that was published by Thomas Nelson. This was followed by my study of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and Zechariah 12.
No matter how much material I covered, I would always get an email from someone asking, “But what about Zechariah 14?,” as if everything I had written up to that point was negated because I had not dealt with one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible. Well, after many years of tinkering, I have finished my verse-by-verse study of Zechariah 14. Robert Cruickshank joined me in this venture. The result is Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14. It’s two commentaries in one. We each take a stab at interpreting the chapter.
Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14 covers a lot of ground, including the history of interpretation going back centuries. As this volume points out, interpretations vary, and some are radically different, even when they agree on the time of fulfillment. There is no consensus, given the fact that it’s one of the most difficult prophetic sections found in Scripture, as many well-known and respected commentators have admitted.
Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14
There was a first audience to receive what was revealed to Zechariah, and much interpretive difficulty arises from failing to understand Scripture as the original readers would have. Can you imagine someone saying, “This is not for us; we can rest easy. It’s really meant for a single generation thousands of years in the future”? The better approach is to investigate the prophecies in terms of their time and place in redemptive history. Zechariah 14 has been interpreted in various ways throughout history. The chapter describes a future “Day of the Lord.” How far in the future is that time, and what events does the final chapter of Zechariah describe?
Buy NowPreterists interpret Zechariah 14 as a prophecy that has been mostly fulfilled, and in some cases, fully fulfilled. The earliest era for fulfillment would have been “in the days of the Maccabean Revolt in the early second century B.C.,” a view held by many scholars like Ephraem the Syrian (c. 306-337), Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350- 428), Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), John Calvin (1509-1564), Dathius (1773), Hermen Venema (1697-1787).[1] Calvin observed, “the Prophet meant here to include the calamities which were near at hand, for the city had not yet been built, the Jews having been much harassed by their neighbors; and we also know how atrocious was the tyranny which Antiochus exercised: in short, there was a continued series of evils from the time the city and the temple began to be built till the coming of Christ.”[2]
In addition to finding fulfillment in events of the post-exilic period, others contend that elements of fulfillment occurred in the first century.
Zechariah 14:1-2 is understood by some preterists as describing the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. Others understand it as a prelude to events leading up to the time of the incarnation, Jesus’ ministry, and culminating in the destruction of the temple in AD 70. The “gathering of nations” against Jerusalem is seen as God using Rome as an instrument of judgment. The “plague” and “rotting flesh” are interpreted as references to the starvation and internal violence during the siege, as described by the eyewitness testimony of Josephus (AD 37-100 in his historical work The Wars of the Jews.
Zechariah 14:3-7 is interpreted as a symbolic fulfillment, not a physical splitting of the Mount of Olives, like John the Baptist’s comments about mountains being brought low and valleys raised (Isa. 40:3-5; Luke 3:6). Some preterists argue that the “feet of the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives” symbolizes Christ’s presence and victory over the Roman Empire, not a physical return. Actually, Jesus did physically stand on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 21:1; Acts 1:12). Zechariah does not say that the Lord comes down and physically stands on the Mount of Olives, but even if it did, there’s precedence for that action (Isa. 19:1). The “splitting” of the mountain is viewed metaphorically representing the breaking down of the barrier between Jew and Gentile, fulfilled in the early Church’s expansion (Eph. 2:14). The “Valley of the Mountains” is seen as a route for the faithful remnant to flee, aligning with the Christian flight to Pella in AD 66.
Key support comes from New Testament parallels: Matthew 23:34-39, where Jesus says the generation alive in His day would see Jerusalem’s destruction; Luke 21:22, which links the siege to the “abomination of desolation”; and Revelation 19, which describes a heavenly celebration after the fall of “Babylon” (symbolizing Jerusalem’s corrupt system).
Notable preterist scholars such as Eusebius (c. AD 260/265-339), Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393-c. 458/466), and Tertullian (c. 155-c. 220), interpreted Zechariah 14:4 as a prophecy mostly fulfilled in the work of Christ during His earthly ministry. Matthew Henry (1662-1714) notes the imagery of “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4) was fulfilled when Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12). The mountain splitting in two—creating a great valley—symbolizes the removal of barriers, particularly the division between Jews and Gentiles, enabling the gospel to spread universally.
Admittedly, as we can see by the various interpretations, Zechariah 14 is difficult to interpret. What follows after the Introduction is a verse-by-verse study of this popular and diversely interpreted chapter. The variety of interpretations over the centuries has been legion; even among the interpretive positions, there are differences. The following is the Editor’s note from John Calvin’s commentary on Zechariah 14:
[J.A.] Dathius [1773] truly says, that interpreters have toiled much in the explanation of this chapter, some taking the words in a spiritual sense, others maintaining that what is here said was fulfilled before the coming of Christ, and a third party holding that all is as yet unfulfilled. He was disposed on the whole to assent to the opinion of Grotius, the same in part with that of Calvin—that this prophecy, as well as some in the preceding chapters, were fulfilled in the times of the Maccabees. See 1 Maccabees 6:26, etc. He indeed admits that this theory does not remove all the difficulties but leaves less than any other.
[Johannes] Marckius [1656-1731] doubted not but that the beginning of this chapter is a prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and he quotes Jerome [c. 347-420], Cyril [c. 376-444], and Theodoret [c. 393-458/446] as having expressed the same opinion.
Lowth, Scott, Adam Clarke, and Henderson take the same view. But the sequel of this chapter may be better explained by the events which followed the attacks of the Greco-Syrian kings on Jerusalem (see 2 Maccabees 4) than by the events which followed the ruin of that city by the Romans.
[Benjamin] Blayney [3] [1721-1801] viewed the contents of this chapter, and much of what is found in the preceding chapters, as yet unfulfilled: and so does Newcome in part. [Matthew] Henry is doubtful whether this chapter and the preceding are to be understood of the whole period from the Prophet’s days to the days of the Messiah, or to some events during that time, or to Christ’s coming and the setting up of his kingdom upon the ruins of the Jewish polity.[4]
Martin Luther wrote two commentaries on Zechariah, the first in Latin and the second in German. The Latin edition stopped at Zechariah 13:7-9. Later, he wrote an expanded German edition. When he gets to Zechariah 14, he wrote, “In this chapter, I give up, for I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.”[5] Luther’s not alone.
Jonathan Menn argues that “the Olivet Discourse is a ‘retelling’ of Zechariah 14. The idea that Jesus was alluding to or ‘retelling’ Zechariah 14 is reinforced by his references to ‘fleeing’ [Matt. 24:16; Mark 13:14; Luke 21:21; compare Zech. 14:5], the sun and the moon being darkened [Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24; Luke 21:25; compare Zech. 14:6], and his coming with ‘all the angels with Him’ [Matt. 25:31; compare Zech. 14:5b].”[6] If this is true, and since the Olivet Discourse described what would happen to that present generation (Matt. 24:34), then Zechariah 14 is a fulfilled prophecy.[7] When Rome turned its military forces against the Jews from AD 66-73 in what Josephus described as “The Wars of the Jews,” would any Jew who was familiar with Jesus’ comments from the Mount of Olives have concluded that He was describing a different tribulation from the one they were experiencing (Matt. 24:21; Rev. 1:9) that would have included another rebuilt temple?
Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14
There was a first audience to receive what was revealed to Zechariah, and much interpretive difficulty arises from failing to understand Scripture as the original readers would have. Can you imagine someone saying, “This is not for us; we can rest easy. It’s really meant for a single generation thousands of years in the future”? The better approach is to investigate the prophecies in terms of their time and place in redemptive history. Zechariah 14 has been interpreted in various ways throughout history. The chapter describes a future “Day of the Lord.” How far in the future is that time, and what events does the final chapter of Zechariah describe?
Buy NowZechariah 14 addresses events leading up to the incarnation of Christ and subsequent events related to His earthly ministry, particularly the final days preceding His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Also, there may be some allusions to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Those who contend that the prophecy was fulfilled in our past are obligated to make their case by appealing to actual historical events, some of which may never have been recorded. Futurists hold a favorable position, as they maintain that the events described in Zechariah remain in the future, even after Christians and other Bible commentators are no longer present to debate the issue.
[1] Al Wolters, “Zechariah 14: A Dialogue with the History of Interpretation,” Mid-America Journal of Theology 13 (2002), 42.
[2] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950), 5:405.
[3] Benjamin Blayney, Zechariah; A New Translation: With Notes, Critical, Philological, and Explanatory…(Oxford/London: J. Cooke, Cadell, and Davies, 1797): http://bit.ly/2W9OBzP
[4] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950), 5:406, note 1.
[5] Hilton C. Oswald, ed., Martin Luther, “Lectures on Zechariah,” Luther’s Works, Lectures on the Minor Prophets III: Zechariah, trans. Walther H. Miller (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House [1527] 1973), 20:337.
[6] Jonathan Menn, Biblical Eschatology, 2nd ed. (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, [2013] 2018), 446.
[7] Gary DeMar, Wars and Rumors of Wars: What Jesus Really Said About the End of the Age, Earthquakes, a Great Tribulation, Signs in the Heavens, and His Coming, 2nd ed. (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, [2017] 2023).