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Name of God’s Son

Psalm 119:120 (118:120 LXX) – Nail down my body?

Our translation says:

‘Nail down my body…’

Many ‘Church Fathers’ quoted these words as a Messianic Prophecy, although they used the words ‘fasten my flesh with nails’. Jesus was, of course, impaled on the lumber by having nails driven down into his flesh, before being raised up.

The word that we translate as ‘nail down’ is a single Greek verb (action word), Καθήλωσον/Kathēlōson, which is made up of:

So it’s a compound word, coming together to form a verb.

The Hebrew sources, however, say something completely different in this verse:

‘My flesh trembles in fear of you’ (NIV)

One Deas Sea Scrolls fragment, believed to be from around 30-50 AD, says:

‘My flesh trembles for fear of you.’ (11Q5 Psalmsa)

Indeed, the passage as a whole is different, with different inflections referring to different persons.

So the question is: Is this a Messianic Prophecy or not? Well, we have three big problems.

So this text is in dispute. We can’t be sure that it is a Messianic Prophecy. So what is our reason for thinking that this might be a prophecy?

So there are arguments both ways.

We are simply waiting for some new evidence to come to light.