Zechariah - Introduction

You may be thinking we are spending a lot of time in the OT these days. This is true. The reason is I am getting close to having worked through the whole Bible and there are only two books in the NT that I haven't covered, 2 Thessalonians and Revelation, and now five books in the OT. Revelation will, appropriately enough, be the last book we cover.

Written around the same time as Haggai, probably after the temple building has resumed for the first eight chapters.

The final chapters consist of apocalyptic type prophecies, these were probably given some forty years later.

There are some who think that the final six chapters were written by someone else, largely because of the different nature of the material. However, single author is the simplest and best solution.

The prime initial purpose of Zechariah and Haggai was to rebuke and urge the people to complete the building of the temple.

Zechariah is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament.

Zechariah is called “son of Berekiah, son of Iddo” in 1:1 and 1:7. In Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 he is called “son of Iddo”. However, “son of” often just means descendent, a number of kings were called son of David when they were not immediate sons.

There is an Iddo who is listed as a priest along with Zerubbabel and Joshua (Nehemiah 12:4).

It should be noted that Zechariah was a very common name, with over thirty of them being named in the Bible, so some caution is needed in identifying him.

Zechariah means “the Lord remembers”, and this is a theme of the book.