Bible Dictionaries
Zacharias

　　ZACHARIAS (mple at Jerusalem his week of service; and it fell to his lot to perform the very special duty of burning incense in the Holy Place, separated only by the veil from the Holy of Holies. It was a very notable occasion in a priest’s life, which did not come at all to many a priest (it is said there were 20,000 of them altogether about this period), and it was not likely the lot would ever fall on him again to offer it. The offering of incense was symbolical of prayer (Revelation 5:8); the people worshipping in the courts outside were praying while the smoke was rising from his censer within (Luke 1:10); it was impossible that he should not be praying too, and if only by the force of long habit, the old petition rose once more to his lips. Suddenly there stood in front of him, on the right side of the altar of incense (Luke 1:11), where no mortal man should be, an angel of the Lord. In the presence of the supernatural, Zacharias feared and trembled; but the angel reassured him, told him that his prayer was heard, that his wife Elisabeth should bear him a son, whom he should live to see, and name John (= ‘the grace of Jehovah’), which would be no barren title, but describe his character and mission: ‘he shall be great in the sight of the Lord’ (cf. Matthew 11:11, Luke 7:28). This son must be brought up as a Nazirite in the highest form of Levitical devotion (Numbers 6:4, Judges 13:4, Lamentations 4:7, Amos 2:12); he should, like another Elijah (1 Kings 18:37), turn many of the children of Israel unto the Lord, and be the forerunner, as foretold by Malachi, to Messiah Himself (Luke 1:15-17).

　　Zacharias had not the faith of Abraham, who staggered not through unbelief (Romans 4:19) at a promise of God exactly similar, ‘involving human generation, but prophetically announced and supernatural’ (Alford). He asked for a sign ( [Note: Alexandrian.] ), though accepted by Baronius, that this Zacharias was slain by Herod between the Temple and the brazen altar, has no historical basis; it is a mere guess to explain the difficulty, that whereas many of the prophets were martyred at a later date than Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 24:20), yet our Lord, summing up the list of such murders, begins with Abel and ends with Zechariah (Matthew 23:35). See Barachiah. Zacharias having been by this mistake made a martyr, his relies were forthcoming, and Cornelius a Lapide speaks of seeing and venerating his head in the Lateran basilica at Rome.

　　James Cooper.