In my last post, I talked briefly about how Zechariah 1-8 is typically viewed as a unified composition dated to around the reign of the Persian emperor Darius, and that Zechariah 9-14 are less unified additions of an unknown date.  Part of the reason that I make this argument is that it is the argument advanced in the introduction to Zechariah in the New Interpreter’s Bible (and also in the introduction to the book in my copy of the NRSV), but it is also a division that is pretty straightforward to find in the text.  These first chapters are often referred as First Zechariah, with chapters 9-14 then being Second Zechariah.  We will be looking at Second Zechariah much more closely than First Zechariah, but it does make sense to discuss First Zechariah, if for no other reason than to demonstrate briefly why this division is commonly accepted, and to discuss the basic theme of First Zechariah.  

In terms of dating First Zechariah, helpfully the first verse of the first chapter reads “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah…” which makes ascribing the work to the reign of the Persian emperor Darius fairly easy.  It is also the case that the rest of First Zechariah supports that dating, in the sense that there are no factual errors or other inconsistencies to suggest that it is actually a later composition attributed to a more ancient past as a way of lending it credibility (which is something ancient authors often did). 

One theme of First Zechariah is outlined in vv. 2-6:

The LORD was very angry with your ancestors.  Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.  Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, “Thus say the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” But they did not hear or heed me, say the LORD.  Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?  But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your ancestors? So they repented and said, “The LORD of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he planned to do.”¹

Many parts of the Hebrew Bible make the argument that the Babylonian exile was God’s punishment for the inadequate fidelity of Israel and Judah. This passage takes up that argument and reframes it slightly to adjust for the fact that the Hebrew aristocracy was being repatriated, with the restoration of the temple apparently promised and funded by Darius.  This latter fact is discussed in vv. 14-16:

So the angel who talked with me said to me, Proclaim this message: Thus says the LORD of hosts; I am very jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.  And I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse. Therefore, says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.  

The ultimate result in this is described in Zechariah 8:3-8:

Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts shall be called the holy mountain.  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age.  And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets.  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even though it is impossible to the remnant of the people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, say the LORD of hosts? Thus says the LORD of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem.  They shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and righteousness. 

Here we see that in First Zechariah, the restoration of the Temple will lead to a utopian era in which the covenant with God is renewed.  The rest of chapter 8 continues in this vein, and concludes by saying in verse 23 that “in those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard God is with you.’” 

In between the first and last chapters of First Zechariah, there is a lot of imagery that the New Interpreter’s Bible describes as “protoapocalyptic,” which is to say that they have the same sort of lurid imagery as books like Daniel and Revelations, but this imagery has not been fully developed the way that it has in later apocalyptic works.  It is mostly the case that the metaphors underlying the imagery are clearer than is sometimes the case in Revelation, for example, and these metaphors mostly describe the impending reconstruction of the temple as God’s will, and describe God as protecting Jerusalem with supernatural power.  

Here we see the first argument that First Zechariah is a unified composition, originally independent from the latter chapters of Zechariah, which is simply that there is a clear beginning, middle, and end within Zechariah 1-8.  There are some other arguments for its unified composition, including: it is all prose, whereas Zechariah 9-14 contains long passages of poetry, there are consistent patterns of dating to the reign of King Darius in chapter 1 and again in chapter 7.  Generally speaking, the imagery, language, and theme within First Zechariah are quite unified, and as we shall see in the next post, they are quite different from Second Zechariah. 

Footnotes

[1] This and subsequent quotes in this post are taken from the NRSV translation (this is the study Bible that I use). <back to top>