Literature.— The Commentaries of Meyer, Alford, and Ols- hausen ; Ewald, History of Israel, vol. vi. ; Lange's and Renan'8 Z/(/e of Christ; art. 'Barabbas' in Hastings' DB, Encyc. Bill., and Jewvih Encyct. ; Merkel, ' Die Begnadigung am Passah- feste' in ZHTW, 1905, p. 293(1. J. C. LAMBERT.
BARACHIAH.-Mt '233Mom. N* and] 4 cursives), Lk 11" (ins. DS' and 2 cursives). The name occurs in Mt. in a passage, recorded in substantial agreement by Mt. and Lk., in which the Lord declares that the blood of all the prophets (Lk.) or all the righteous blood (Mt.) will be sought from or come upon that generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah. In 2 Ch 24-''»'- is an account of the stoning of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (LXX B has ' Azariah ' for ' Zechar- iah,' but Lagarde prints ' Zechariah ') in the court of the house of the Lord. This incident is re- peatedly referred to in the later Jewish litera- ture. In the Babylonian Talmud (Sanh. 964 ; Gittin, 576), in the Jerusalem Talmud (Tannith, 69«), and in the Midrashim (cq. Erhti Uahbati, Introd. IB ii. 2 ; Kohelcth iii. 16 ; Pesilda Bab. Kahuna xv.) it is recorded that Nebu/aradan slew many Jews in order to quiet ' the blood of Zechariah, who is called a prophet ' (Hanh. 966 ; Midr. Echo, R., Koheleth) with reference to 2 Ch 24'". It seems natural,, therefore, to suppose that the Zachariah of the Gospels is the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles. Abel's was the first murder of a righteous man recorded in the OT, Zechariah's the last (2 Chron. is the last book of the Hebrew Canon). Abel's blood cried from the ground (Gn i^"). Zechariah when dying said, ' The Lord look upon it and require it ' (2 Ch 24").
But how are we to account for Mt.'s 'son of
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liaracliiah,' when we should expect 'son of Je- hoiada'? In Is 8- we read of Zechariah 'son of Jeberechiah' (the LXX has vwv Bapaxi-ov), in Zee 1' of Zechariah the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo (LXX, Thv ToO Bapoxioi. iiov 'A55ci). The later Jewisli tradition identified the two. So the Baby- lonian Talmud {Ma/ckoth, 246 ; cf. Pesikta Rab. Kahrtna xv., Targuin of Is 8=, Raslii on Is 8=). Further, there seems to have been a tendency to identify Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo mth Zechariah son of Jehoiada, for the Targum of La 3'*' calls the Zechariah of Chronicles ' son of Iddo.' We might therefore suppose that Christ spoke of Zachariah, who was really son of Jehoiada, a.s son of Barachiah, because the Jewish tradition of His age identified or confused the priest and the prophet ; cf . the ' priest and prophet ' applied to Zechariah son of Jehoiada in Sank. 976. In this case the omission of woi) 'Rapaxlov from Mt 23^^ in N* would be due to someone who wondered at the 'Barachiah' instead of 'Jehoiada.' Or the 'son of Barachiah ' might be an insertion on the part of the editor of the Gospel, either on the "round of Jewish tradition, or in remembrance of the two LXX passages. Is 8=, Zee 1'. The fact that this editor elsewhere employs LXX forms of proper names, as in 'Aa6.<j>, 'A/xiis (!'■ "), is in favour of the latter. Or ' son of Barachiah ' m^ be a later in- sertion in the Gospel (so Merx). The insertion of the clause in AVestern texts in Lk. is due to as- similation to tlie text of Matthew.
The difficulty of the appearance of ' Barachiah ' in Mt. has led to other and less proljable identili- cations. Origen (de la Rue, iv. 845) supposed that Zacharias the father of John the Baptist was referred to, and quotes a tradition that this Zacharias was murdered in the temple. Cf. the Protev. Jacobi, 23, 24, which has a different account of the cause of the murder. Others refer to Jos. BJ IV. V. 4, where it is recorded that shortly before the last siege of Jerusalem one Zacliarias the son of Baruch or Bariscaeus was murdered in the t«mple by the Zealots. It is therefore argued that the Evangelist has either blundered by writ- ing ' of Barachiah ' in reminiscence of this event, when he should have wTitten ' of Jehoiada,' or that he is responsible for the whole of the clause in which this phrase occurs, and has put into Christ's mouth an anachronistic statement. But, apart from the difference between the Bapaxlov of the Gospels and the Bapouxov or Bdpeu- or Bapurxaiov of Josephus, the reference to 2 Chron. seems to satisfy the data better. The reckoning from Abel to Zechariah is Jewish in character, the ' of Bara- chiah ' may be due to Jewish tradition, and the ' between the temple and the altar ' is perhaps also due to current Jewish speculation or tradition. In the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanith 69«) the question is raised where Zechariah was killed, with the answer that it was in the court of the priests (cf. also the same tradition in Midr. Kolwhth iii. 16, Pesikta R. Kahana xv., Eclia Babbati, Introd. is). LiTKRATVRE.— Lightfoot, HoTceHebraiue; ilerx. Die wr Bean- gelien ; Wellliauseu and Zaiin in their corauientaries on Matthew.