Zachariah (5)

5. ZACHARIAH, Son of Jehoiada, High-Priest of the Jews; probably the same as Azariah, 1 Chorn. vi. 10, 11. He was put to death by the Order of Joash, in the Year of the World 3164, before Christ 836, before the Vulgar Æra 840. This is what the Scripture says of him: When the People of Judah forsook 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21, 22.the Lord, the Spirit of God came upon Zachariah 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. Thus Joash the king remember’d not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son: And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it. The Year following God sent the Army of Syria against Judah, which entered into Jerusalem, put to death the Princes of the People, and sent a great Booty to the King of Damascus, which they had got in this Expedition.

Hieron. in Matth. xxiii.St. Jerome, followed by a great number of Commentators, believed that this Zachariah the Son of Jehoiada was the same of whom our Saviour speaks in these Words; I send Matth. xxiii. 34, 35.unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute them from city to city. 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. The Difference of Names of the Father of Zachariah Son of Jehoiada, and of Zachariah Son of Barachiah, does not move St. Jerome, or those that follow him: They observe, 1. That in the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, made use of by the Nazarenes, there was read Jehoiada instead of Barachiah. 2. That among the Hebrews nothing was more usual than to have two Names. Examples of this are very common in Scripture; and it is very easy to imagine, that the same Person might have been called Barachiah and Jehoiada.

But to this Opinion three things are objected: 1. That Zachariah Son of Barachiah, according to the Intention of Jesus Christ, seems to have been the last of the Just that were put to Death by the Jews, as the just Abel was the first of Saints that suffered a violent Death. 2. That Zachariah the Son of Jehoiada was stoned in the Court of the House of God, in atrio Domûs Domini; whereas Zachariah the Son of Barachiah was killed between the Temple and the Altar; inter Templum & Altare. 3. Lastly, that tho’ it be true that the Hebrews had often two Names, it is hardly to be thought that Jesus Christ would here omit the Name of Jehoiada, which was so well known, and substitute in its stead that of Barachiah, which was not so familiar. So that in the main we are rather inclined to believe, that our Saviour would point out Zachariah the Son of Baruch, of whom we shall speak afterwards, and who is mentioned by Josephus, in the Fourth Book of the War of the Jews, Chap. 19. according to the Greek, or l. 5. c. 1. p. 883, according to the Latin.

Sozomen¹ relates, that under the Empire of Valentinian, near Caphar-Zachary, a Village in the Dependance of Eleutheropolis a City of Palestine, was discovered the Body of the Prophet, or rather High-Priest, Zacharias. This holy Man appeared by Night to one called Calemerus, the Steward of a Lord to whom the Soil belonged, and bid him dig in a certain Place in the Field which he described to him, where he should find two Coffins, one of Wood, and the other of Lead; that of Wood enclosed in the Leaden one; and near the Coffin was an Urn of Glass, full of Water, and two Serpents of a moderate size, but without Venom, and as gentle as if they had been kept tame. Calemerus went to the place described, and, had the Earth dug up; and when the Coffin was opened, there was found Zachariah, clothed with a white Robe as a Priest. At his Feet, and out of the Coffin, was a Child with a Golden Crown upon his Head, Buskins of Gold, and a Royal Habit. And when the learned Men of the Country were at a loss to know who this Child was, the Abbot Zacharias, who then governed the Monastry of Gerara, said that he had found it written in an old Hebrew Book, but which was not Canonical, that when Joash King of Judah, put to death the High-priest Zachariah, as has been said, in seven Days after he lost one of his Sons, who was very dear to him; and that he caused him to be buried at the Feet of the High-Priest, as it were to make an Attonement for the Injury he had done him.

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