I. BARACHIAS, the Father of Zachary mentioned in S. Matthew xxiii. 37. Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee: 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. There is great diversity of opinions concerning the person of this Zacharias the Son of Barachias. Some take him to be1 Zechariah the Son of Jehoiada, who was killed by Joash’s orders, between the Temple and the Altar. They pretend, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21.that Jehoiada had two names, Barachias and Jehoiada, and in the Gospel of the Nazarens, cited by S. Jerom, instead of Zacharias the Son of Barachias, was put Zacharias the Son of Jehoiada.
Others2 are of opinion, that this Barachias was the Father of Zacharias, the Zach. i. 1.last of the twelve small Prophets. But we have no proof of this Barachias’s dying a violent death, nor that he was killed in the Temple, between the Altar of Burnt-offerings and the porch of the Temple.
Several of the Ancients thought3, that Zacharias the Father of S. John Baptist, was the Son of Barachias, who is here spoken of; and in some old apocryphal Books it was said4, that in effect Zachary was killed in the Temple; because he found a way to secure his Son from the fury of Herod, when he gave orders for the massacre of the Children of Bethlehem. But nothing can be more uncertain than this story.
If. viii. 2.There is a Zacharias the Son of Barachias (or Jeberechiah,) to whom the Prophet Isaiah addressed himself5, to be witness to the Prophecy he was then writing, concerning the Birth of the Messiah. But we know nothing of the life and death of this Barachias and his Son Zechariah.
Lastly, several of the Moderns6 conjecture, that this Barachias is no other than Baruch, the Father of Zechariah mentioned by Josephus in his books concerning the Jewish War7. Zechariah was killed between the Porch and the Altar, by the Zealots a little before the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans. We are at liberty to choose which of these opinions we please; for there is something probable in every one, and every one too has its difficulties.
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Footnotes
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Hieronym. Beda. Mald. alii in Matt. xxiii. c. ult. Natal. Alex. in Matth. xxiii. ↩
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Strab. in Matth. xxiii. Sanct. ad Zach. i. 1. Chrysost. Theophil. Euthym. in Matt. xxiii. Basil. de human. ↩
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Origen. Christ. Gener. Tertull. Sorpiac. Epiphan. alii. upon S. Matth. xxiii. ↩
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Vide Protevangellum Jacobi. ↩
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See F. Martianay Lud. de Dieu, on S. Matt. M. de Tillemont, tit. 1. of the Jud. l. v. c. 1. in Lat. & l. iv. c. 15. in Græc. p. 883. G. ↩
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Grot. Hammond, Emperors, art. 54. ↩
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Joseph. de Bello, ↩