Zechariah

THE BOOK OF

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INTRODUCTION

THE

name Zechariah means one whom Jehovah remembers: a common

name, four others of the same name occurring in the Old Testament. Like

Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was a priest as well as a prophet, which

adapts him for the sacerdotal character of some of his prophecies

(Zec 6:13).

He is called "the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo"

(Zec 1:1);

but simply "the son of Iddo" in

Ezr 5:1; 6:14.

Probably his father died when he was young; and hence, as sometimes

occurs in Jewish genealogies, he is called "the son of Iddo," his

grandfather. Iddo was one of the priests who returned to Zerubbabel

and Joshua from Babylon

(Ne 12:4).

Zechariah entered early on his prophetic functions

(Zec 2:4);

only two months later than Haggai, in the second year of Darius' reign,

520 B.C. The design of both prophets was to

encourage the people and their religious and civil leaders, Joshua and

Zerubbabel, in their work of rebuilding the temple, after the

interruption caused by the Samaritans (see

Introduction

to Haggai). Zechariah does so especially by unfolding in detail the

glorious future in connection with the present depressed appearance of

the theocracy, and its visible symbol, the temple. He must have been

very young in leaving Babylonia, where he was born. The Zechariah, son

of Barachias, mentioned by our Lord

(Mt 23:35)

as slain between the porch and the altar, must have been the one called

the son of Jehoiada in

2Ch 24:21,

who so perished: the same person often had two names; and our Lord, in

referring to the Hebrew Bible, of which Second Chronicles is the

last book, would naturally mention the last martyr in the Hebrew

order of the canon, as He had instanced Abel as the first. Owing to

Mt 27:9

quoting Zec 11:12, 13

as the words of Jeremiah, MEDE doubts the

authenticity of the ninth through the fourteenth chapters, and ascribes

them to Jeremiah: he thinks that these chapters were not found

till after the return from the captivity, and being approved by

Zechariah, were added to his prophecies, as Agur's Proverbs were added

to those of Solomon. All the oldest authorities, except two manuscripts

of the old Italian or Pre-Vulgate version, read Jeremiah in

Mt 27:9.

The quotation there is not to the letter copied from Zechariah,

Jer 18:1, 2; 32:6-12,

may also have been in the mind of Matthew, and perhaps in the mind of

Zechariah, whence the former mentions Jeremiah. HENGSTENBERG similarly thinks that Matthew names

Jeremiah, rather than Zechariah, to turn attention to the

fact that Zechariah's prophecy is but a reiteration of the fearful

oracle in

Jer 18:1-19:15,

to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation. Jeremiah had

already, by the image of a potter's vessel, portrayed their ruin in

Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; and as Zechariah virtually repeats this

threat, to be inflicted again under Messiah for the nation's rejection

of Him, Matthew, virtually, by mentioning Jeremiah, implies that

the "field of blood"

[Mt 27:8, 9],

now bought by "the reward of iniquity"

[Ac 1:18]

in the valley of Hinnom, was long ago a scene of prophetic doom in

which awful disaster had been symbolically predicted: that the present

purchase of that field with the traitor's price renewed the prophecy

and revived the curse--a curse pronounced of old by Jeremiah, and once

fulfilled in the Babylonian siege--a curse reiterated by Zechariah, and

again to be verified in the Roman desolation. LIGHTFOOT (referring to B. BATHRA

and KIMCHI) less probably thinks the third

division of Scripture, the prophets, began with Jeremiah, and that the

whole body of prophets is thus quoted by the name "Jeremiah." The

mention of "Ephraim" and "Israel" in these chapters as distinct from

Judah, does not prove that the prophecy was written while the ten

tribes existed as a separate kingdom. It rather implies that hereafter

not only Judah, but the ten tribes also, shall be restored, the earnest

of which was given in the numbers out of the ten tribes who returned

with their brethren the Jews from captivity under Cyrus. There is

nothing in these characters to imply that a king reigned in Judah at

that time. The editor of the Hebrew canon joined these chapters

to Zechariah, not to Jeremiah; the Septuagint, three hundred

years B.C., confirms this.

The prophecy consists of four parts: (1) Introductory,

Zec 1:1-6.

(2) Symbolical,

Zec 1:7,

to the end of the sixth chapter, containing nine visions; all these

were vouchsafed in one night, and are of a symbolical character. (3)

Didactic, the seventh and eighth chapters containing an answer to a

query of the Beth-elites concerning a certain feast. And (4) Prophetic,

the ninth chapter to the end. These six last chapters predict

Alexander's expedition along the west coast of Palestine to Egypt;

God's protection of the Jews, both at that time and under the

Maccabees; the advent, sufferings, and reign of Messiah; the

destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and dissolution of the Jews' polity;

their conversion and restoration; the overthrow of the wicked

confederacy which assailed them in Canaan; and the Gentiles' joining in

their holy worship

[HENDERSON].

The difference in style between the former and the latter chapters is

due to the difference of subject; the first six chapters being of a

symbolical and peculiar character, while the poetical style of the

concluding chapters is adapted admirably to the subjects treated. The

titles

(Zec 9:1; 12:1)

accord with the prophetic matter which follows; nor is it necessary for

unity of authorship that the introductory formulas occurring in the

first eight chapters should occur in the last six. The non-reference in

the last six chapters to the completion of the temple and the Jews'

restoration after the captivity is just what we should expect, if, as

seems likely, these chapters were written long after the completion of

the temple and the restoration of the Jews' polity after the captivity,

in circumstances different from those which engaged the prophet when he

wrote the earlier chapters.

The style varies with the subject: at one time conversational, at

another poetical. His symbols are enigmatical and are therefore

accompanied with explanations. His prose is like that of Ezekiel--diffuse,

uniform, and repetitious. The rhythm is somewhat unequal, and

the parallelisms are not altogether symmetrical. Still, there is found

often much of the elevation met with in the earlier prophets, and a

general congruity between the style and the subjects. Graphic vividness

is his peculiar merit. Chaldæisms occur occasionally. Another special

characteristic of Zechariah is his introduction of spiritual beings

into his prophetic scenes.