J. Macpherson. ZECHARIAH, BOOK OF.—
I. The genuine prophecies of Zechariah (chs. I-8X U. The activity and significance of the prophet.
Literature. Ui. Chs. 9-14: (1) Contents; (2) Relation of the rtiflerent parts to one another ; (;i) Date of the various com- ponents ; (4) Religious and theological value of these chapters.
Literature.
i. The oenui.ne Prophecies of Zechariah (Chs. 1-8). — The Book of Zechariah includes within it passa;.'es belonging to very diilerent dates and procee<ling from diiferent hands. The super-scriptions that ajipear in 9' and 12' divide the book into two larger parts: (1) chs. 1-8, (2) chs. 9-14.
For Zechariah, the contemporary of Haggai, who is named in 1', all that has to be taken into account is chs. 1-8, which fall into three divisions : (a) I'"" a call to repentance, based uijon an allusion to the impenitence of the fathers and the consequent judgment that overlook them. They f^""^' ''''o prophets are gone, but Cod's word still abides in force. — (6) I'-O" the nocturnal visions of Zecha- riah, with an appendix 6'""'°. In eight visions, which are explained to him on each occasion by the angelu-1 interprcs, the prophet gives, as it were, a compendium of tlie e.schatological hopes that animated him. The exposition of these is followed up by the direction in B'""- to him to take of the silver and gold brought by the deputies of the Babylonian Jews, ana to have a crown made for the ^cmnh, i.e. for Zcrubbabcl. This crown is then to be laid up in the temple as a memorial of tlio^o deputies Side by side with Zerubbabel is to be
Joshua as priest, and peaceful relations are to subsist between the two. Then shall the peoples come from f.ar and help to build the temple of Jahweh. (The text of this passage has not come down to us intact, but has obviously undergone revision in order to obscure the dillerence between these hopes and the actual history. By aid of the LXX the original text may be reconstructed). — (c) Chs. 7. 8. Taking occasion from the question addressed to the priests and prophets whether the fast-days observed during the Exile were still to be kept up, the prophet points to the impending Messianic time, for which a moral reformation is the inilispensable prerequisite. Then shall the fast-days become joyous festivals, %\'lien men from all peoples shall join themselves to the Jews in their pilgrimages to Jahweh, because they have heard that God has fixed His d\\clling-i>lace with them.
ii. The Activity and Sig.mficance of the Prophet. — According to l'-', Zechariah was a son of Berechiah and a grandson of 'Iddo, the latter of whom is mentioned as the head of a priestly tamily which returned from the Exile (Neh 1"^'). Zechariah will thus have been presumably somewhat young when he began his pro[)heticaI work amongst his people. We are told in 1' that he came forward, like Hagg.ai, in the second year of Darius (Hystas- pis), but two months later than that prophet ; he continued to labour till the 7tli month of the fourth year (cf. 7'). In this way liis whole activity would appear to have been confined to rather less than two years. The political back<jvound is the same .as in Haggiii, njiniely, the violent commotions which the accession of Darius produced in the north-eastern portion of his empire. A feeling of profound depression had laid hold of the community at Jerusalem ; Jahweh, it was felt, had not yet had compassion upon His people, He yet remained far from them. Zechariah strives to reanimate the hopes of his co-religionists, and to rekindle faith in the time of consummation, which will speedily set in ; and it would ajipear that he was at least parti- ally successful (cf. 7' •)• An indispensable condition of the arrival of the Messianic era is the building of the tem|jle ; for as the commencement of the judgment formerly showed itself when the glory of Jahweh was seen by Ezekiel (cf. ch. lU) to forsake the temple, so upon the day when Jahweh once more makes His abode with His people all the dis- tress of the time shall come to an end ; in short, this dwelling of Jahweh in the temple is the sine qua non of the dawn of the Messianic age (cf. 8'°). Hence Zechariah, like Haggai, concentrates all his energies upon the task of inducing the people to undertake the work of building the teinjile. It is from this point of view that one can understand Zechariah's view of the priesthood as the security for the coming of the Zfiiiah, i.e. the Messianic King(cf. 3"'-)- — Zechariah's endeavour to reanimate the hopes of his contemporaries explains also the central place which Messianic prophecy occupies in his book. The whole of the nocturnal visions turn essentially upon the Messianic expectations of the time, and in eh. 8 as well he has regard to these, so that from this book we can construct a pretty com- plete picture of the Messianic hopes that were then entertained. The central liguro is the Messianic King, whom Zechariah, with reference to Jer 23' (33"), calls the Zcmnh and ideiitilies with Zerub- babel, although a redactor, who had regard to the actually existing relations, has sought to sub- stitute the high priest Joshua for Zerubbabel. It is true, indeed, tliat even with Zechariah himself the high priest holds a highlv sigiiilicant place: ho represents the community oefore Jahweh, and has at all times free access to lliiii. Cf. also the articles Ezra-Nehemiaii, Haogai, and Zerub-