In Matthew 23:35, Jesus is lambasting the scribes and Pharisees, and he says:
“That
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the
blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias,
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (KJV).
A number of
biblical scholars say this is an error. They think that Jesus really
meant Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who was murdered in the Temple
court in II Chronicles 24. Conservative Christian scholars and
apologists have responded that Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the
post-exilic prophet to whom the Book of Zechariah is attributed, could
have been killed between the Temple and the altar. That would mean that
Jesus in Matthew 23:35 is not in error.
I have expressed my problems with this conservative Christian view (see here and here).
But I was interested to find that there are at least two other ideas
about the identity of Zechariah the son of Berechiah in Matthew 23:35 in
the history of biblical interpretation. One view is that the Zechariah
Jesus is mentioning is Zechariah the father of John the Baptist (Luke
1). This Zechariah was a priest. The other view is that it is
Zechariah the son of Baruch, who was later killed by the Zealots and
Idumeans in the Jewish war (c. 70 C.E.), according to Josephus in Jewish
Wars 4:334-343.
A. Let's start with the
view that the Zechariah of Matthew 23:35 is Zechariah the father of John
the Baptist. I recently came across this view when I was reading the
Protevangelion of James, a second century C.E. Christian document. In
chapter 16, Herod is going on his rampage of killing babies, and he is
looking for John, who is hidden. Zechariah refuses to tell Herod where
John is, so Herod has him killed between the entrance of the Temple and
the altar.
The martyrdom of Zechariah the
father of John the Baptist appears in other sources as well, albeit the
motivation behind the martyrdom is different. Origen (third century
C.E.), in Sermon 25 of his Commentary on Matthew, relays a tradition
that he received about how Zechariah came to be martyred. There was a
certain place in the Temple that virgins could enter to worship God, but
this place was prohibited to women who were not virgins. Mary had just
given birth to Jesus, and she was going to this place in the Temple to
worship. People were hindering her from doing so because they thought
she was not a virgin: she had given birth to a baby, after all! But
Zechariah the priest allows her to worship in that place with the other
virgins, and he attempts to reassure the people that Mary is still a
virgin. Thinking that Zechariah is transgressing the law by allowing
Mary into the place of the virgins, the men of that generation kill
Zechariah between the Temple and the Altar.
Jerome
(fourth century C.E.), in his Commentary on Matthew 23:35, refers to
the view that Zechariah was killed because he predicted the advent of
the Savior. Jerome dismisses this view, however, for Jerome believes
that the Zechariah of Matthew 23:35 was Zechariah the son of Jehoida,
the Zechariah of II Chronicles 24. How does Jerome get around the fact
that the Zechariah in II Chronicles 24 was the son of Jehoida, whereas
the one Jesus mentioned was the son of Berechiah? Essentially, Jerome
focuses on the meanings of the names in Hebrew: Berechiah means "blessed
of the LORD," and Jehoida means "righteousness" (according to Jerome;
actually, the name relates more to the LORD knowing). According to
Edmon L. Gallagher, Jerome's point is that Berechiah and Jehoida are
synonymous.
Gallagher's article is worth
checking out. It is entitled "The Blood from Abel to Zechariah in the
History of Interpretation," and it appeared in New Testament Studies
60 (2014): 121-138. I learned about the views of Origen and Jerome on
Zechariah from this article. Gallagher also mentions other patristic
sources that interpret the Zechariah of Matthew 23:35 as Zechariah the
father of John the Baptist: Basil of Caesarea (Hom. in Sanctem Christi
generationem 5, PG 31.1468c-1469a); Gregory of Nyssa (In diem natalem
Salvadoris (ed. F. Mann, Gregorii Nysseni opera 10.2; Leiden:
Brill, 1996) 248-250; and Cyril of Alexandria (Comm. in Lucam 11:47, PG
72.720b-721a). Gallagher argues that Greek fathers preferred the
Zechariah father of John the Baptist interpretation, whereas Latin
fathers preferred the Zechariah son of Jehoida interpretation. A
significant factor in the difference, according to Gallagher, is that
the Old Greek translation of II Chronicles 24 said that Azarias, not
Zechariah, was the person who was killed in II Chronicles 24.
B. Josephus talks about the murder of Zechariah the son of Baruch in Jewish War 4:334-343: Vv 334-335 state:
"And
now these Zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of barely killing men,
so they had the impudence of setting up fictitious tribunals and
judicatures for that purpose; and as they intended to have Zacharias,
the son of Baruch, one of the most eminent of the citizens, slain,--so
what provoked them against him was, that hatred of wickedness and love
of liberty which were so eminent in him: he was also a rich man, so that
by killing him, they did not only hope to seize his effects, but also
to get rid of a man that had great power to kill them" (Whiston's
translation).
In this story, Zechariah son
of Baruch was a righteous man, and the Zealots and Idumeans wanted his
wealth and feared his power. Thus, they trumped up charges against
him. According to v 343, this Zechariah was killed in the middle of the
Temple.
I learned about this passage from Gallagher's article, and also Meyer's NT Commentary.
If this is the Zechariah Jesus meant in Matthew 23:35, then Jesus is
either speaking prophetically, or is being depicted as speaking
prophetically, for the event Josephus describes occurred decades after
Jesus lived on earth.