“And”?

In one of the comments boxes, a reader writes:

Jimmy, I NEED to hijacked this entry because you are the only competent people on this matter as far as I know. So please bear with me

Douay Rheims
Zech 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Is there an “and” in the hebrew text?

I know that Zec is not talking about two different Ass. It’s a Hebrew literary style. However in the RSV, the “and” is gone. I’m thinking that they took it off to compensate for the Hebrew literary style understanding (to make the reader understand that there’s no two animals). But my guess is that there’s actually an “and” in the Hebrew.

Help!

Happy to oblige. Sorry I couldn’t do so sooner, but while I was on vacation I didn’t have a copy of the Hebrew text handy.

The answer to your question is that there is an “and” at this point in the Hebrew text of this verse.

This verse is often commented upon apologetically since some see here a difficulty regarding what Jesus rode during the triumphal entry. (As with all alleged contradictions in the Bible, however, this one has a good solution.) Let me know if you need more info on that.

BTW, when you have an off-topic question there’s no need to commandeer a comments box to get the message to me. Just use the e-mail address that I have on the site, and I’ll try to oblige. 🙂

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

4 thoughts on ““And”?”

  1. So how is this apparent contradiction explained?
    If Zechariah is speaking of only one animal…why does Matthew seemingly speak of two?
    I think I’ve heard (read) a Jewish apologist make the point once that Matthew didn’t understand his Hebrew on this line and that he was trying desperately to get his narrative to fit the prophecy.
    He sounded pretty convincing.

  2. BILLY, THAT IS EXACTLY MY DILEMMA!!! Me and friend at Catholic-convert is trying to solve this problem. We try to reconcile Mat 21:7
    New American Bible
    21:7. They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them.
    Douay Rheims Matthew
    Mt 21:7 And they brought the ass and the colt, and laid their garments upon them, and made him sit thereon.
    Revised Standard Version Matthew
    21:7
    they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.
    King James Version Matthew
    Mt 21:7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon..
    Latin Vulgate
    Mt 21:7 et adduxerunt asinam et pullum et inposuerunt super eis vestimenta sua et eum desuper sedere fecerunt
    Greek NT – Stephanos 1550
    Mt 21:7 hgagon thn onon kai ton pwlon kai epeqhkan epanw autwn ta imatia autwn kai epekaqisen epanw autwn
    The problem.
    The Moslem is making an argument that Matthew is being stupid by suggesting that Jesus is riding on TWO asses. He also stated that ONLY MATTHEW wrote about an Ass and a Colt but the other Evangelists don’t, so this mean Matthew is erroneous and is a Gentile (he insisted that Matthew is a gentile and not the Apostle. I disagree because the Church long held believe that Matthew the gospel writer is the same as Matthew the Apostle [altough the erroneous NAB commentary proposed otherwise]
    I need to prove that the wording in the original writing means only ONE ASS in Matthew 21:7
    However from people at Catholic-convert.com. It turned out that the original Greek said “Them,” implying that Jesus was riding on two animals. (Jimmy I need your language help on the original Greek too)
    We then try to propose a solution that the “them” is referring to the “garments” which Jesus sat on. This argument is not pretty assuring although not entirely wrong. The “them” in Mat 21:7 could pass as referring to the “two animals” or the “garments”
    In regard to the other evangelists, my argument to the Moslem is that they didn’t mention the Ass because it’s not necessary to fulfill Zach 9:9. But the Ass WAS there, it just didn’t get mentioned.
    http://forums.catholic-convert.com/viewtopic.php?t=16973
    The thread at Catholic-convert

  4. Jimmy what do you think of the Kabbalah?
    Have you ever seen the websites:
    http://www.inner.org
    of Rabbi Yitzak Ginsburg and Gal Enai
    What do you think of Gematria? Hebrew letter/number code and Torah code?

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