Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/810

 ZACHARIAS

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ZACHARIAS

they are driven; and the one that goes to the north takes the vengeance of Yahweh upon the nations of the North who have kept His chosen people in cap- tivity. It is to be noted that this series of eight visions begins and ends with similar pictures, — the horses of varied hues whose riders bring back word that all the earth is at rest and whose drivers, in hke manner, are the bearers of the message of Yahweh.

(2) As a sequel to the eight visions, especially to the fourth and fifth, Yahweh bids Zacharias take of the gold and silver brought from Babylon by a depu- tation of Jews of the captivity, and therewith to make crowns; to place these crowns upon the head of Jesus the high priest, and then to hang them as a votive-offering in the Temple (vi, 9-15). The critics generally insist that it was Zorobabel and not Jesus who was to be crowned. They err in missing the prophetic symbohsm of the action. It is the liigh priest rather than the king that is the tji^e of the priest of the Mes.sianic kingdom, "the Man WTiose name is the Sprout" (Heb. text), WTio shallbuild up the Temple of the Church and in Whom shall be united the offices of priest and king.

(3) The prophecy of the fourth day of the ninth month of the fourth year of the rule of Darius in Babylon (vii and viii). Almost two years after the eight visions, the people ask the priests and Prophets if it be required still to keep the fa.sts of t_he exile. Zacharias makes answer as revealed to him; they should fast from evil, show mercy, soften their hard hearts; abstinence from fraud and not from food is the service Yahweh demands. As a motive for this true service of God, he pictures to them the glories and the joys of the rebuilt Jerusalem (vii, 1-9). The Prophet ends with a Messianic prediction of the gathering of the nations to Jerusalem (viii, 20-2.3).

B. Part Second: ix-xiv: the two burdens. — Many years have gone by. The temple of Zorobabel is built. The worship of Yahweh is restored. Zachar- ias peers into the far away future and teUs of the Messianic kingdom.

(1) First burden, in Harlrach (ix-xi) : (a) The com- ing of the king (ix-x). — The nations round about will be destroyed; the lands of the Syrians, Phoeni- cians, and Philistines will fall into the hands of invaders (ix, 1-7). Israel will be protected for the sake of her king. Who will come to her "poor and riding upon an ass". He Who was spoken of as the Sprout (iii, 8; vi, 12) will be to the new Jerusalem both priest and king (iii, S; vi, 3). (b) The shepherds of the nations (xi). — The hteral, and typical meanings of this passage are very obscure, and variously inter- preted by commentators. The spohation of the pride of the Jordan, the destruction of the land from the cedars of Lebanon to the oaks of Basan, south of the Sea of Galilee (verses 1-3) seems to refer to an event long passed, — the breaking-up of the independ- ence of the Jewish state 586 B. c, — in the same way as does Jer., xxii, 6, 7. The allegory of the three shepherds cut off in one month (verses 4-8) is remark- ably like to Jer., xxii and xxiii. Probably these wicked rulers are: Sellum, who was deported into Egypt (Jer., xxii, 10-12); Joakim, son of Josias, who was "buried with the burial of an ass" (ibid., 13-19); and his son Jechonias who was cast out into the land of the stranger (ibid., 24-30). The foolish shepherd (verses 1.5-17) is probably Srdecias. In verses 9-14 we have Zacharias impersonal ing the shepherd of Juda and Israel, trj-ing to be a good shrplierd, failing, outcast, sold for tliirty i)ieces of silver, and in all tliis typifying the (lood Sliephcrd of the Messianic kingdom.

(2) Second burden, tlie a))oralypt ic vision of Jerusa- lem's f\ilure (xii-xiv): (a) The nations shall be gath- ered against Jerusalem (xii, 1-3); b>it Yahweh shall smite them in His power, by means of the house of David (verses 4-9) ; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will mourn a» one moumeth for an only son (verses

10-14). The prayers of the people of Jerusalem to Yahweh, Who says "they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced " ; and their grief at the wTongs that they have done Him are all typical of the Messianic kingdom, — Yahweh is the tj'pe of Jesus, the prayers and mourning of Jerusalem are the type of the prayers and mourning that Jesus will inspire in the Church while its members look upon Him Whom they have pierced (cf. John, xix, 37). As a result of Yahweh's victory over the nations, idolatry will be stamped out of Juda (xiii, 1-6). (b) The theme of the shepherds is taken up again. — Yahweh's shepherd shall be smitten; the sheep shall be scattered; two- thirds of them shall perish; one-third shall be gath- ered, to be refined as silver and tested as gold (xiii, 7-9). The prophetic scene suddenly shifts. Zach- arias vividly depicts the details of the destruction of Jerusalem. In the first part of his burden, he had foreseen the transference of the Holy City from Scleucids to Ptolemys and back again, the hellenizing and paganizing of Judaism under Antiochus Epi- phanes (168 b. c), the profanation of the temple by Pompey and its sacking by Crassus (47 b. c). Now, after the casting out of the shepherd of Yahweh, the city is again in the power of the enemy; but, as of old, Yahweh is still her protector (xiv, 1-7). There- after "the Lord shaO be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one". The punishment of the foe shall be terrible (verses 8-19). All things shall be holy to Yahweh (verses 20-21).

II. Canonicity. — Zacharias is contained in the canons of both Palestine and Alexandria; Jews and all Christians accept it as inspired. The book is found among the Minor Prophets in all the canonical lists dowTi to those of Trent and the Vatican. The New Testament WTiters often refer to the prophecies of the Book of Zacharias as fulfilled. Matthew (xxi, 5) says that in the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the details were lirought to pa,ss that Zacharias (ix, 9) had predicted; and John (xii, 15) bears like witness. Although, in xx\-ii, 9, Matthew makes mention of Jeremias only — yet he refers to the fulfilment of two prophecies, that of Jeremias (x.xxii, fJ-9) about the purchase of the potter's field and that of Zacharias (xi, 12, 13) about the thirty pieces of silver, the price set upon the type of the Messias. John (xix, 37) sees in the Crucifixion a fulfilling of Zacharias's words, "they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced" (xii, 10). Matthew (xxvi, 31) thinks that the Prophet (xiii, 7) fore- told the scattering of the Lord's disciples.

III, Author. — In the foregoing analysis of the contents of Zacharias, we have stated the author, time, place, and occasion of the book. The author of the entire prophecy is Zacharias. The time of part first is the second and fourth years of the reign of Darius in Babylon (.520 and 522 B. c). The time of part second is probably toward the end of the reign cf Darius or the beginning of that of Xer.xes (485 B. c). The place of the entire prophecy is Jerusalem. The occasion of the first part is to bring about the building of the second Temple; that of the second part is perhaps the approach of the Prophet's death. The traditional view taken by Catholic exegetes on the unity of authorship of the book is due in part to the witness of all manuscripts of the original text and of the various versions; this unanimity shows that both in Judaism and tlie Church there has never been a serious doubt in the matter of the unity of authorship of Zacharias. Solid reason, and not mere conjec- tures, are necessary to shake confidence in this tradi- tional view. No siich .-solid rea.-^ons are forth-coming. Internal evidence is appealed to; but internal evidence does not here favour divisive criticism. Quite the reverse; scoiie and style are one in the prophecy.

A. Unity of scope.— The entire prophecy has the