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Who is Zacharias?
        ZACHARI'AS
        , properly ZACHARI'AH (remembered by Jehovah). 1. Our Lord mentions a Zacharias, son of Barachias, as having been slain between the "sanctuary " (not "altar," but the inner shrine) and the temple, Matt 23:35; Luke 11:51; probably the person of that name whose death under such circumstances is mentioned in 2 Chr 24:20-22. It is true that not this Zachariah, but Urijah, was the last O.T. martyr, Jer 26:23; but inasmuch as Second Chronicles was the last book of the canon according to the Jewish arrangement, our Lord took an instance from it, as he took Abel from Genesis, the first. The principal objection to this identification is that this Zacharias is stated to have been the son of Jehoiada, and not of Barachiah; but the word "son" may be used in its usual lax sense, and Barachiah may have been his grandfather. 2. The father of John the Baptist, and husband of Elisabeth, which it is interesting to remark is the same name as "Elisheba," the name of the wife of Aaron. Ex 6:23. He was a priest of the course of Abia, which was the eighth of the twenty-four classes into which the descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, were divided. 1 Chr 24. Each of these ministered in the temple one week. But this fact does not enable us in any wise to determine the date of the occurrence mentioned in Luke 1. Of Zacharias and Elisabeth we read: "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they were both now well stricken in years." It was while Zacharias served one day in the temple that an angel appeared to him and prophesied the birth of a son. But, although for this he had long been praying, he did not believe that God would thus signally answer his prayer. He required a sign, and he received one - dumbness up to the time of the circumcision of the child. To the wonder of the attendant people he silently dismissed, but conveyed by action enough to let them know he had seen a vision, he was a deaf-mute until, in obedience to the angelic direction, he had named the infant born to him John. Then he not only spoke, but was filled with the Holy Ghost, and in a strain of the most devout gratitude and praise he poured out his soul. And, thus singing, he passes out of history.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'zacharias' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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