Who was Zechariah in the Bible?
The name Zechariah belongs to more than one man in the Bible, and the confusion between them goes back a long way. The best known is the prophet who spoke to the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon — but a priest of the same name was murdered in the temple courts centuries earlier, and another Zechariah appears at the very start of the New Testament as the father of John the Baptist.
The Meaning Packed Into His Name
The prophet's family line is given in the opening verse, and one writer reads the three names as a summary of the whole book.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinZechariah is named in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14; he was of priestly descent, which we learn by consulting Nehemiah 12:4, 16. His name means "Jehovah remembers." He was the son of Berechiah, which means "Jehovah will bless;" and his grandfather's name was Iddo; Iddo means "the appointed time." These are significant names; one might say the great prophetic message of Zechariah is given in these three names in a nutshell. For the covenant-keeping God remembers His people, which the visions and messages of Zechariah show. When He remembers them He will bless them, but it will be at the appointed time, and the appointed time has not yet come, hence the greater part of Zechariah remains unfulfilled.
A Young Man Called To Speak
Zechariah did not begin as an elder statesman. He came back to the land as a boy, and the visions came to a man still early in life.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe was born in Babylon, and when he returned to the land of his fathers he was a child. In his vision he is addressed as a young man, so that he was quite young when called into the responsible position of a prophet.
His book is also unusually precise about dates, and one writer points out that the calendar he uses is not his own nation's.
Walter ScottWe would direct special attention to the minute accuracy of the dates in the books of Zechariah and Haggai. They conclusively mark God's recognition of the sovereign power granted to the Gentiles, and under which His people were placed till the government of the world shall be once again exercised through the Jew, and from Jerusalem, the city of the Great King.
Partner With Haggai In Rebuilding
Work on the temple had stopped. Two prophets were raised up, and the building started again — but their messages did different jobs.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHaggai's ministry stirred up the conscience of the people, exhorting them to consider their ways, which must have led them to seek His face. Zechariah is the prophet of glory. The vision of glory, the ultimate victory of God's people, the coming of the King and setting up of His kingdom, the future overthrow of all their enemies — this vision of the coming glory became an inspiration for them. God's people need this twofold ministry which is so abundantly supplied in the Word of God.
A Horizon Far Beyond His Own Day
Zechariah's subject was not mainly the builders in front of him. He looked down the centuries.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe horizon of Zechariah's visions and prophecies is far more extended than the horizon of the other minor prophets. He covers the entire future of Israel and leads onward from his days to the time when Messiah comes to Jerusalem, when His own received Him not. He pictures the condition of the nation after the rejection of Christ, and then leads up to the time of His return and the happy results which follow the repentance of the remnant, when they shall look upon Him whom they pierced.
The Other Zechariah — Killed In The Temple Court
Long before the exile, a priest named Zechariah confronted a king he was related to, and paid for it.
C Knapp"And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, He hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king, in the court of the house of the Lord." "At the commandment of the king"! … Zechariah was his cousin, and his foster-brother too!
Commentators differ on which Zechariah Jesus meant when He spoke of the one "murdered between the sanctuary and the altar" (Matthew 23:35, ESV). Some argue for the prophet, since he was of priestly family. Others weigh the placing of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible:
J. N. DarbySo that we have remarkable historical probability of Zechariah the prophet's being so killed, but I avow that 2 Chronicles 24, being nearly the last chapter in the Hebrew Bible, I think it exceedingly probable that it may have been the Zechariah referred to in verse 20 that the Lord refers to.
The Priest Who Was Struck Dumb
The New Testament opens with a third man of this name, a temple priest whose long-held prayer was answered in a way he never planned.
C E StuartZechariah had asked for a son. He got an answer that his son should be the immediate forerunner of the long-expected Messiah. … Far beyond the aged priest's desires or conceptions God was about to go. The son asked for should come, not indeed to minister in his father's stead in the sanctuary at Jerusalem, but to bow the hearts of multitudes like bulrushes before the wind, to make ready a people for the Lord.
Summary
- Remembers. The prophet's name means "Jehovah remembers" — the theme of his whole book.
- Blesses. His father's name, Berechiah, means "Jehovah will bless," and the promised blessing runs from his own day to Messiah's return.
- Appointed time. His grandfather's name, Iddo, means "the appointed time" — which is why most of the book is still unfulfilled.
- Young and priestly. Born in Babylon, brought back as a child, of priestly descent, and called as a young man to work beside Haggai so the temple was finished.
- Three men, one name. Zechariah the prophet; Zechariah son of Jehoiada, stoned in the temple court on a king's order; and Zechariah the priest, father of John the Baptist.