The Book of Zacharias (Zechariah)

In the Catholic Bible the prophecy of Zacharias comes after Aggeus (Haggai) and before Malachias (Malachi), the last book of the minor prophets. Aggeus roused the discouraged exiles to build. Zacharias gave them visions of angels, horsemen, lamps and crowns, then looked beyond the second Temple to Christ, and the evangelists quote him in the story of the Passion. Each chapter page sets the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims.

Who wrote the Book of Zacharias?

The Church has always received the book as the work of the prophet named in its first verse: "In the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet" (Zacharias 1:1). His name means "the Lord remembers".

Esdras confirms his ministry: "Now Aggeus the prophet, and Zacharias the son of Addo, prophesied to the Jews that were in Judea and Jerusalem" (1 Esdras (Ezra) 5:1). Haydock explains that Addo was his grandfather, or else that Barachias adopted him. Addo is named among the priests who came back with Zorobabel (2 Esdras 12:4), and a generation later the head of that priestly house is listed as "Of Adaia, Zacharia" (2 Esdras (Nehemiah) 12:16); the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia judges this Zacharia "most likely the Prophet". He was thus a priest as well as a prophet, and probably young when he began, if, as commonly understood, he is the "young man" of 2:4.

Nor is he, in all probability, the "Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar" of Our Lord's reproach (Matthew 23:35). The Catholic Encyclopedia takes that martyr to be Zacharias the son of Joiada, stoned "in the court of the house of the Lord" (2 Paralipomenon (2 Chronicles) 24:20–21), since the Jews of Zorobabel's day heeded our prophet rather than killed him.

The unity of the book was never doubted in the Synagogue or the Church, and the manuscripts and ancient versions agree. In 1653 the Englishman Joseph Mede proposed to give chapters 9 to 11 to Jeremias, because St Matthew quotes the thirty pieces of silver under that prophet's name (Matthew 27:9). Haydock thinks the name in Matthew more likely a copyist's slip, and St Augustine treats the difficulty in The Harmony of the Gospels (III, 7).

Many modern scholars assign chapters 9 to 14 to other writers. The Catholic Encyclopedia answers that "solid reason, and not mere conjecture" is needed to shake the traditional view. It points to the same Messianic themes and shared phrases in both parts, and explains the change of style by the change from prose visions to poetic oracles written years apart. The Pontifical Biblical Commission issued no decision on this book.

When was the Book of Zacharias written?

The first part is dated to the day. Zacharias began to preach "in the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius" (1:1). This was Darius I of Persia, and the year was 520 BC, two months after Aggeus delivered his first oracle (Aggeus 1:1). The night visions followed early in 519 BC (1:7). The question about fasting came "in the fourth year of king Darius" (Zacharias 7:1), late in 518 BC.

Cyrus had let the Jews go home in 538 BC, and the foundations of the Temple were laid soon after (1 Esdras 3), but the Samaritans opposed the work and it stopped. Aggeus and Zacharias stirred up the governor Zorobabel and the high priest Jesus (Josue) to begin again, and the Temple was finished in the sixth year of Darius (1 Esdras 6:15), in 516–515 BC. Chapters 9 to 14 carry no date. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests he wrote them later in life, toward the end of Darius' reign or under Xerxes. The Roman Martyrology, on 6 September, says that he came home from Chaldea already old, died there, and lies buried beside the prophet Aggeus.

What is the Book of Zacharias about? A summary

In chapters 1 to 8 the prophet sees visions about the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. Chapters 9 to 14 are two "burdens", or oracles, about the King to come, the rejected Shepherd and the last battle for Jerusalem. St Jerome, quoted by Haydock, calls it the most obscure and longest of the twelve.

The call to conversion (chapter 1:1–6)

The book opens with a single plea: "Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you" (Zacharias 1:3). The fathers who would not listen went into exile: "Your fathers, where are they?" (1:5).

The eight night visions (chapters 1:7–6:8)

In one night the prophet sees eight visions, explained by "the angel that spoke in me".

1. The horseman among the myrtles (1:7–17). A man on a red horse reports that the earth is at rest. Challoner takes him to be an angel, "probably Michael, the guardian angel of the church of God". God answers: "my house shall be built in it" (1:16).
2. The four horns and four smiths (1:18–21). The powers that scattered Juda, and those God raises up to cast them down.
3. The man with the measuring line (chapter 2). Jerusalem shall be "inhabited without walls", for God will be "a wall of fire round about" (2:4–5).
4. Jesus the high priest and Satan (chapter 3). Satan accuses the high priest, clothed in filthy garments. He is clothed anew, and the promise follows: "I WILL BRING MY SERVANT THE ORIENT" (3:8).
5. The golden candlestick and the two olive trees (chapter 4). The lamp is fed by "two sons of oil" (4:14), the high priest and the prince Zorobabel, to whom God says: "Not with an army, nor by might, but by my spirit" (4:6).
6. The flying volume (chapter 5:1–4). A huge scroll carries the curse on thieves and false swearers.
7. The woman in the vessel (5:5–11). Wickedness, shut under a lid of lead, is carried away to "the land of Sennaar", Babylon.
8. The four chariots (chapter 6:1–8). They go out to the four winds; Challoner sees in them the empires that followed one another.

The crowning of the high priest (chapter 6:9–15)

The prophet is told to make crowns of gold and silver and set them "on the head of Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest". He is to say: "BEHOLD A MAN, THE ORIENT IS HIS NAME... and he shall be a priest upon his throne" (6:11–13). The crown goes to the priest, not the prince, for the One foretold, says Challoner, "shall unite in himself the two offices or dignities of king and priest".

The question of fasting (chapters 7–8)

In chapter 7 envoys sent "to the house of God" ask whether they must still fast in the fifth month, when the Temple had been burnt. God answers: "did you keep a fast unto me?" (7:5). He asks for justice: "shew ye mercy and compassion every man to his brother" (7:9). Chapter 8 heaps up promises to Jerusalem, "The city of truth". Its fasts will become "joy, and gladness, and great solemnities" (8:19). At the end the Gentiles take hold of "the skirt of one that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you" (8:23).

The first burden: the humble King and the rejected Shepherd (chapters 9–11)

After judgment on Syria, Tyre and the Philistines, chapter 9 tells Sion: "BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass" (9:9). In chapter 10 God turns against the false shepherds and promises to gather His scattered people. In chapter 11 the prophet, shepherd of "the flock of the slaughter", breaks his staves Beauty and Cord; for his wages they weigh him "thirty pieces of silver", and he casts them "into the house of the Lord to the statuary" (11:12–13).

The second burden: the Pierced One and the Day of the Lord (chapters 12–14)

In chapter 12 God defends Jerusalem against the nations and pours out "the spirit of grace, and of prayers: and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son" (12:10). Chapter 13 opens "a fountain... for the washing of the sinner" (13:1) and calls the sword against the Shepherd: "strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (13:7). Chapter 14 is the last battle. The Lord's feet "shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives" (14:4), and living waters shall go out from Jerusalem (14:8). The nations shall go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

The main message of Zacharias and the Catholic reading

God remembers His people. The message lies in the prophet's name. The Lord has not forgotten Sion, "I am zealous for Jerusalem" (1:14), and the humble rebuilt Temple belongs to His promise: "who hath despised little days?" (4:10).

Christ the Orient, Priest and King. Where the Hebrew calls the Messiah "the Branch", the Vulgate and Douay read Oriens, "the Orient". Challoner explains that Christ "is called the Orient from his rising like the sun in the east to enlighten the world". It is the O Oriens of Advent, and the word of the Benedictus: "the Orient from on high hath visited us" (Luke 1:78). The crowned high priest, who bears the very name of Jesus, is His figure. The stone with seven eyes (3:9), says Challoner, is graved on "the day of the passion of Christ... cut and pierced with whips, thorns, nails, and spear".

The Passion foretold. On Palm Sunday Christ fulfilled 9:9 to the letter (Matthew 21:5; John 12:15). The thirty pieces of silver of Judas were cast down in the Temple and bought the potter's field (Matthew 27:3–10); "the statuary" of 11:13, Challoner notes, can also mean "a potter". Our Lord applied "I will strike the shepherd" to His own arrest (Matthew 26:31). St John, who saw His side opened, writes: "They shall look on him whom they pierced" (John 19:37). He echoes them again in Apocalypse 1:7. The fountain opened "for the washing of the sinner" (13:1) belongs with that open side and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We treat the whole mystery in The Passion of Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist. "For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?" (9:17). Challoner: "His most excellent gift is the blessed Eucharist, called here The corn, that is, the bread of the elect". The Church sings it as the Offertory of the Mass of St Margaret Mary Alacoque.

The angels and the accuser. No prophet shows more of the ministry of angels, down to the rebuke "the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan" (3:2), which St Michael echoes in Jude 9. Challoner sees St Michael the Archangel in the first vision.

The Church and the last things. Challoner reads the Jerusalem "without walls" as "the church of Christ", and the "living waters" of 14:8 as "the gospel of Christ". The last chapter looks to the end, "the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him" (14:5), which belongs with The Four Last Things.

Famous verses of Zacharias

• Zacharias 2:8: "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of my eye." (Zacharias 2)
• Zacharias 4:6: "Not with an army, nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." (Zacharias 4)
• Zacharias 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion... Behold thy king will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass." (Zacharias 9)
• Zacharias 11:12: "And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver." (Zacharias 11)
• Zacharias 12:10: "They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced." (Zacharias 12)
• Zacharias 13:6: "What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands? And he shall say: With these I was wounded in the house of them that loved me." Christian readers have long applied it to the wounds of Christ. (Zacharias 13)

Its place in the Bible and the liturgy

Zacharias is in every Bible, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, a protocanonical book never disputed. The Council of Trent (Session IV, 1546) names it among the twelve minor prophets, "Aggeus, Zacharias, Malachias". The Douay-Rheims keeps the Latin name; the King James and modern versions write Zechariah, with the same chapters. St Jerome translated the Hebrew for the Vulgate, the text from which the Douay-Rheims was made.

In the traditional liturgy:

• Breviary. The book is begun at Matins on the Friday after the fifth Sunday of November (Incipit Zacharias Propheta), as the liturgical year closes.
• Advent and Christmas. The Communion of Ember Friday in Advent is 14:5–6, "Behold, the Lord shall come, and all His saints with Him". Zacharias 9:9 is the Offertory of Ember Saturday in Advent and the Communion of the Mass at Dawn on Christmas Day.
• Palm Sunday and 17 October. The Gospel of the blessing of palms (Matthew 21:1–9) quotes 9:9 as fulfilled, and 9:17 is the Offertory of St Margaret Mary.
• Ember Saturday of September. Zacharias 8:14–19, on the fast of the seventh month turned to joy, is among the lessons.

You can pray the Office in our Breviary and follow these days in the liturgical calendar.

How to read the Book of Zacharias

Read Aggeus first; it sets the scene in a quarter of an hour. Then read Zacharias in two sittings. Take chapters 1 to 8 one vision at a time, letting the angel's explanations guide you. Read chapters 9 to 14 with the Passion narratives open beside you: Matthew 26–27 and John 19. Watch the Latin too: Oriens in 3:8 and 6:12 is where English versions differ.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Book of Zacharias (Zechariah) about?

It encourages the Jews back from Babylon to rebuild the Temple and return to God. Chapters 1 to 8 give eight night visions and an answer on fasting; chapters 9 to 14 foretell the humble King riding on an ass, the Shepherd sold for thirty pieces of silver, the One whom they have pierced, and the final reign of God over all the earth.

Who wrote the Book of Zechariah?

The Church has always received it as the work of the prophet Zacharias, "the son of Barachias, the son of Addo" (1:1). A priest, he preached in Jerusalem with Aggeus from 520 BC (1 Esdras 5:1). The unity of all fourteen chapters was never questioned until the seventeenth century.

When was the Book of Zechariah written?

The first part is dated from the second year of Darius I (520 BC) to his fourth year (518 BC). The second Temple was finished in 516–515 BC. Chapters 9 to 14 are undated. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia places them later in the prophet's life, in the early fifth century BC.

What is the main message of the Book of Zechariah?

"Turn ye to me... and I will turn to you" (1:3). God remembers His people and asks for justice and mercy rather than empty fasts. Beyond the rebuilt Temple, the book announces the Messiah, the "Orient", Priest and King, who comes humbly, is rejected and pierced, and reigns over all nations.

Who is Zerubbabel in the Book of Zechariah?

Zorobabel (Zerubbabel), son of Salathiel and heir of David, was governor of Juda after the exile and founded the second Temple. In Zacharias 4 God promises him: "The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundations of this house, and his hands shall finish it" (4:9). With the high priest he is one of the "two sons of oil".

Who is Joshua the high priest in the Book of Zechariah, and who is the Branch?

The Douay calls him "Jesus the high priest", son of Josedec, named Josue (Joshua) in Esdras; he is cleansed in chapter 3 and crowned in chapter 6. The "Branch" of modern versions is rendered "the Orient" in the Vulgate and Douay (3:8; 6:12). It designates Christ, Priest and King.

Is the Book of Zechariah about John the Baptist's father?

No. The prophet lived in the sixth century BC. St John the Baptist's father was Zachary, a priest "of the course of Abia" in the days of Herod (Luke 1), some five hundred years later.

How many chapters are in the Book of Zechariah?

The Book of Zacharias has fourteen chapters, from chapter 1 to chapter 14. It is the longest of the minor prophets, with the same chapters in Catholic and Protestant Bibles.

Where is the Book of Zechariah in the Bible?

It is the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament, between Aggeus (Haggai) and Malachias (Malachi). In Catholic Bibles the Machabees follow.

Read the whole Book of Zacharias verse by verse, in Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision, with Challoner's notes) and Clementine Vulgate: Zacharias 1–14; Aggeus 1; 1 Esdras 5–6; 2 Esdras 12; 2 Paralipomenon 24; Matthew 21, 23, 26, 27; Luke 1; John 12, 19; Apocalypse 1. St Jerome, Commentary on Zacharias; St Augustine, De consensu evangelistarum III, 7; Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546); Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Zacharias"; Haydock, Catholic Bible Commentary (1859), preface to Zacharias; Roman Martyrology, 6 September; Missale Romanum (1962), Ember Friday and Saturday of Advent, Christmas (Mass at Dawn), Palm Sunday, Ember Saturday of September, St Margaret Mary (17 October); Breviarium Romanum (1962), Friday after the fifth Sunday of November.