"Teaching God's Word to God's World"
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Dear Brother Faull,
Jesus says in Matthew 23:35-36, "35 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. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."
Yet, in a sermon, you said that Abel was the first martyr in Genesis and Zacharias was the last martyr in the Hebrew Old Testament. Then you pointed out that the Old Testament was laid out differently, the Book of II Chronicles being the last book in their Bible. But the Zacharias of II Chronicles 14 was Zacharias the son of Jehoiada. I think we have a problem.
Yes, we certainly do have a problem. It has been a source of disagreement for many years. What is the answer?
1. Origen says that it was Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, who was slain in the temple, but there is no other mention in either the Bible or history that this occurred. It is unwarranted to take this position, as it seems a mere convenience to explain the problem.
2. Some made him Zechariah, the Son of Berechiah, the Minor prophet, but no mention is made of his martyrdom in Scripture or in history, so that seems an unwarranted conclusion.
3. Josephus mentions a Zacharias, but it cannot be the one Jesus referred to, for he was not slain till 68 A.D. His name was Zacharias, the son of Baruch. Since Jesus spoke before this, people would not have known of it. It is spoken of as a past event, not a prophecy. If it were a prophecy he too had the wrong father’s name. So this is not plausible.
4. What then? I still believe that I referred to the right man.
A. The man in Chronicles was slain at the right place.
II Chronicles 24:20-22, "20 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah 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. 21 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. 22 Thus Joash the king remembered 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].
B. Note: He asked that "the Lord would require it!!"
C. It would be the last Biblical record of a priest in the Old Testament to suffer martyrdom because of their arrangement of the Old Testament books. It seems "from the first to the last martyr," is what Jesus intended to convey. He and Abel are the two martyrs upon whom God’s vengeance is mentioned.
D. It was his death that was the last death before the destruction of the first temple. Jesus is speaking of the destruction of the second temple, so it would be a pertinent reminder to Jesus’ listeners.
E. Why did they use the wrong name? Jesus may have just said "Zecharias" and the name of the father was an interpolation by a scribe. The name is definitely not in Luke’s Gospel.
F. The Matthew account of the Siniatic manuscripts does not have the Father’s
G. Jerome said that the Gospel of the Nazarene specifically says "the son of Joiada."
Conclusion:
Thanks for your interest and earnestness. I hope this satisfies you as it does me.