no common jealousy; and large numbers of their breth- ren had not yet returned from Baliylon. It was a ques- tion, therefore, that seemed to admit of much debate.
It is impossible not to see of how great moment, un- der such circumstances, and for the discharge of the special duty with which he was intrusted, woidil be the priestly origin of Zechariah. Too often the prophet had had to stand forth in direct antagonism to the priest. In an age when the service of God had stif- fened into formalism, and the priests' lips no longer kept knowledge, the pro|)liet was the witness for the truth which lay beneath the outward ceremonial, and without which the outward ceremonial was worthless. But the thing to be dreaded now was not superstitious formal- ism, but cold neglect. There was no fear now lest in a gorgeous temple, amid the splendors of an imposing ritual and the smoke of sacrifices ever ascending to heaven, the heart and life of religion should be lost. The fear was all the other way. lest even the body, the outward form and service, should be suffered to decay. The foundations of the Temple had indeed been laid, but that was all (Ezra v, 16). Discouraged by the op- position which they had encountered at first, the Jew- ish colony had begun to build, and were not able to fin- ish ; and even when the letter came from Darius sanc- tioning the work, and promising his protection, they showed no hearty disposition to engage in it. At such a time no more fitting instrument could be found to rouse the people, whose heart had grown cold, than one who united to the authority of the prophet the zeal and the traditions of a sacerdotal family. Accordingly, to Zechariah's influence we find the rebuilding of the Tem- ple in a gre^t measure ascribed. "And the elders of the Jews builded," i t is said, •' and they prospered t hrough the prophesying of Haggai the proyihet and Zechariah the son of Iddo" (vi, 14). It is remarkable that in this juxtaposition of the two names both are not styled prophets — not " Haggai and Zechariah the prophets," but " Haggai the prophet and Zechariah /he ,wh of Iddo." Is it an improbable conjecture that Zechariah is desig- nated by his father's (or grandfather's) name, rather than by his office, in order to remind us of his priestl}' character? Be this as it may, we find other indications of the close union wliich now subsisted between the priests and the prophets. Various events connected with the taking of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon had led to the institution of solemn fast-days; and we find that when a question arose as to the pro- priety of observing these fast-days, now that the city and the Temple were rebuilt, the question was referred to "the priests which were in the house of Jehovah, and to the prophets" — a recognition not only of the joint authority, but of the harmony subsisting between the two bodies, without parallel in Jewish history. The manner, too, in Avhich Joshua the high-priest is spoken of in this prophecy shows how lively a sj'm pa thy Zech- ariah felt towards him.
Later traditions assume, what is indeed very probable, that Zechariah took personally an active part in provid- ing for the liturgical service of the Temple. He and Haggai are both .said to have composed psalms with this view. According to the Sept., Psa. cxxxvii, cxlv- cxlviii ; accortling to the Peshito, cxxv, cxxvi ; accord- ing to the Vulg., cxi, are psalms of Haggai and Zecha- riah. The triumphant " hallelujah," with which many of them open, was supposed to be characteristic of those psalms which were first chanted in the second Temple, and came with an emjjhasis of meaning from the lips of those who had been restored to their native land. The allusions, moreover, with which these psalms abound, as well as their place in the Psalter, leave us in no doubt as to the time when they were composed, and lend con- firmation to the tradition respecting their authorship. If the later Jewish acc(uints (the Talinudic tract Megil- l(tk, xvii, 2 ; xviii, 1 : Kashi ad Baha Balhra, xv, 1) may be truste<l, Zechariah, as well as Haggai, was a member of the great synagogue. The patristic notices of the
ZECHARIAH, BOOK OF 1069 ZECHARIAH, BOOK OF
prophet are worth nothing. According to these, he exercised his prophetic office in Chaldiea, and wrought many miracles there; returned to Jerusalem at an ad- vanced age, where he discharged the duties of the priest- hood, and where he died and was buried by the side of Haggai (I'seudepiph. De Proph. c. 21 ; Dorotheus, p. 14-1 ; Isidorus, c. 51).
2. The genuine writings of Zechariah help us but lit- tle in our estimation of his character. Some faint traces, however, we may observe in them of his education in Babylon. Less free and independent than he would have been had his feet trodden from childliood the soil
"Where each old poetic niouiit.iiu Inspiration breathed ai'ound,"
he leans avowedly on the authority of the older proph- ets, and copies their expressions. Jeremiali especially seems to have been his favorite, and hence the Jewish saying that "the spirit of Jeremiah dwelt in Zecha- riah." But in what may be called the peculiarities of his prophecy he approaches more nearly to Ezekiel and Daniel. Like them, he delights in visions; like them, he uses symbols and allegories rather than the bold figures and metaphors which lend so much force and beauty to the writings of the earlier prophets; like them, he behoUls angels ministering before Jehovah and fullilling his Ijehests on the earth. He is the only one of the prophets who speaks of Satan. That some of these peculiarities are owing to his ChakUean educa- tion can hardly be doubted. It is at least remarkable that both Ezekiel and Daniel, who must have been in- fluenced by the same associations, should in some of these respects so closely resemble Zechariah, widely as they differ from him in others.