Bible Error: Zechariah Who?

According to Bible critics Matthew made a mistake in having Jesus say that Zechariah son of Berechiah was murdered between the temple and the altar, since that was Zechariah son of Jehoaida (cf. 2 Chron. 23:20-22).

This alleged discrepancy dissipates with a little digging.

Dr. David H. Stern, a Jewish Christian, explains:

35 Hevel (Abel). See Genesis 4:8.

Z’kharyah Ben-Berekhyah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. There is a discrepancy. According to 2 Chronicles 24:20–21, Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada was killed “in the court of the house of Adonai”; while Zechariah 1:1 identifies the writer of the book as the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, but the Tanakh does not indicate how he died. Possibly Jehoiada had the additional name Berechiah (it was not uncommon to add names); or Jehoiada, who lived to be 130 (2 Chronicles 24:15), was Iddo’s father or was Iddo himself (Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 speak of Zechariah as the “son of his grandfather Iddo; see 1:1N on “son of”). Josephus speaks of Zechariah the son of Barach as having been killed in the temple, and Targum Yonatan assigns the same kind of death to Zechariah the prophet. Others would explain the discrepancy as a copyist’s mistake. (Jewish New Testament Commentary, published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. 1992], p. 139; emphasis mine)

More on the targums.

Here’s what the late Dr. Gleason L. Archer wrote:

How could Zechariah son Berechiah be the last of the martyrs? And wasn’t he really the son of Jehoiada?

In Matthew 23:34-35, Jesus says to the scribes and Pharisees who are plotting His death, “Therefore behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify,…that upon you may fall all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” It is generally supposed that Jesus was actually referring to Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who was stoned to death in the court of the temple at the order of King Joash, because Zechariah had the temerity to rebuke the government and the citizenry for their cultivation of idolatry. This is recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:20-22. But once this apparent error concerning the name of the martyr’s father has been explained away as a textual error, then it is observed that Zechariah ben Jehoiada, who died 800 B.C., was by no means the last of the Old Testament martyrs; hence he makes a poor balance to Abel, who certainly was the first.

The obvious solution is to start all over again and assume that Matthew 23:25 correctly reports the words of Jesus, and that He knew what He was talking about. If so, then we discover that the Zechariah He was referring to was indeed the son of Berachiah (not Jehoiada), and that he was indeed the last of the Old Testament martyrs mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. In other words, Christ is recalling to His audience the circumstances of the death of the prophet Zechariah, son Berechiah (Zech. 1:1), whose ministry began around 520 and ended a bit later than 480 B.C. The Old Testament contains no record of events during the first few decades of the fifth century B.C. until about 457, the date of Ezra’s return to Jerusalem. But it may very well have been that sometime between 580 and 570 Zechariah the prophet was martyred by a mob in much the same way Zechariah the son Jehoiada was some three centuries earlier. Since Jesus referred to Zechariah as the last of the Old Testament martyrs, there can be no legitimate doubt that it was the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets He had in mind. Therefore we can only conclude that the later Zechariah died in much the same way the earlier one did, as a victim of popular resentment against his rebuke of their sins.

Since there are about twenty-seven different individuals mentioned in the Old Testament bearing the name Zechariah, it is not surprising if two of them happened to suffer a similar fate. In other words, if we take Matthew 23:35 just as it stands, it makes perfect sense in its context; and it offers no contradiction to any known and established facts history. In the absence of any other information as to how the prophet Zechariah died, we may as well conclude that Jesus has given us a true account of it and add to the roster of the noble martyrs of biblical times. (Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties [Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 1982], pp. 342-343; emphasis mine)

Now in corroboration of Archer’s statements we find a statement in the Aramaic Targums, which expressly state that Zechariah son of Berechiah was indeed murdered in the temple on Yom Kipporim (“the day of atonements”):

חֲזֵי יְיָ וּתְהֵי מִסְתַּכֵּל מִן שְׁמַיָּא לְמַן אִיסְתַּקִיפְתָּא כִּדְנַן אִם חֲזֵי לִבְנָתָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל לְמֵיכַל פֵּירֵי בִטְנֵיהוֹן עוּלְמַיָּא רְגִיגְתָא דַהֲווּ מְלַפְפִין בִּסְדִינִין דְמֵלָתֵיהּ עֲנַת מִדַּת דִינָא וְכֵן אֲמָרַת אִם חֲזֵי לְמִקְטַל בְּבֵית מוּקְדְּשָׁא דַייָ כַּהֲנָא וּנְבִיָּא כְּמָה דִקְטַלְתּוּן יָת זְכַרְיָה בַּר עִידּוֹ כַּהֲנָא רַבָּא וּנְבִיָּא מְהֵימָן בְּבֵית מוּקְדְשָׁא דַייָ בְּיוֹמָא דְכִפּוּרַיָּא עַל דְאוֹכַח יַתְכוֹן דְלָא תַעַבְדוּן דְבִישׁ קֳדַם יְיָ:

See, O Lord, and observe from heaven against whom you have turned. Thus is it right for the daughters of Israel to eat the fruit of their wombs due to starvation, the lovely boys wrapped in fine linen? The Attribute of Justice replied, and said, “Is it right to kill priest and prophet in the Temple of the LORD, as when you killed Zechariah son of Iddo, the High Priest and faithful prophet in the Temple of the Lord on the Day of Atonement because he admonished you not to do evil before the Lord?” (Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 2:20)

This Zechariah son of Iddo is the same son of Zechariah since Iddo was the father of Berechiah, making him the paternal grandfather of the prophet:

“And the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.” Ezra 5:1

“And the elders of the Jews were building and succeeding through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. So they built and completed it according to the decree of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.” Ezra 6:14  

“In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, ‘Yahweh was very wrathful against your fathers.’” Zechariah 1:1-2

Both Old and New Testaments use the expressions “father of,” “son of,” in a broader sense to refer to someone’s descendant or ancestor.

Hence, there is no contradiction and God’s Word stands vindicated once again.