In apocryphal literature
After the death of Zechariah Ben Jehoiada, according to the ancient apocryphal Lives of the Prophets, the priests of the Temple could no more, as before, see the apparitions of the angels of the Lord, nor make divinations with the Ephod, nor give responses from the Debir.
Possible allusion by Jesus
Most modern Christian commentators identify this Zechariah with the one whose murder Jesus alluded to in Matthew 23:35 and Luke 11:50–51. In Matthew 23:28–23:39, Jesus derides the Pharisees and then says,
"Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias (Ζαχαρίου υἱοῦ Βαραχίου), whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar" (Matthew 23:35)
[The] name "Zacharias/Zechariah son of Barachias/Berechiah"...can be reconciled if Jehoiada was Zechariah's grandfather, and Berechiah his father. However, the prophet Zechariah is listed as the son of Berechiah (Zech. 1:1). Some, therefore, make this identification.
The Gospel of the Nazarenes, said to have been related to the Gospel of Matthew, and considered the true Gospel of Matthew to the Nazarene Christians, says "son of Jehoiada" instead of "son of Berechiah."
Other identifications of the person Jesus was referring to include the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which considers "Zechariah son of Berechiah" as Zechariah the father of John the Baptist; and has his slaying as taking place during the slaughter of the Innocents by Herod.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zechariah_ben_Jehoiada
From Josephus Flavius' Jewish War, book 4 chapter 5, Methodist theologian Adam Clarke suggested that this allusion by Jesus was actually a prophetic reference to Zacharias Baruch, who was indeed slaughtered 'in the middle of the Temple' in the late AD 60s. Clarke says of this:
"Some think that Jesus refers...to the murder of Zacharias son of Baruch ... They gave him a mock trial, and when no evidence could be brought against him...two of the stoutest of the zealots fell upon him and slew him in the middle of the temple."
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Nx ... ch&f=false
- (Perhaps Josephus 'borrowed' his account of Zacharias Baruch from accounts of Zechariah ben Jehoiada)
Statistics: Posted by MrMacSon — Wed Oct 02, 2024 4:20 pm