Berechiah (father of Zechariah)

• Matthew 23:35 says, “from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar”.
  Source evidence (1)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • MAT 23:13–36, engwebp

    ¹³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

    ¹⁴“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.

    ¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

    ¹⁶“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’

    ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

    ¹⁸And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’

    ¹⁹You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

    ²⁰He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it.

    ²¹He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living in it.

    ²²He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.

    ²³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

    ²⁴You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

    ²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.

    ²⁶You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.

    ²⁷“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.

    ²⁸Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

    ²⁹“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous,

    ³⁰and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

    ³¹Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.

    ³²Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

    ³³You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

    ³⁴Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,

    ³⁵that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

    ³⁶Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

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• Luke 11:51 says, “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary”, and does not name his father.
  Source evidence (1)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • LUK 11:37–54, engwebp

    ³⁷Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in and sat at the table.

    ³⁸When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.

    ³⁹The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

    ⁴⁰You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also?

    ⁴¹But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

    ⁴²But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

    ⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.

    ⁴⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

    ⁴⁵One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”

    ⁴⁶He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

    ⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

    ⁴⁸So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.

    ⁴⁹Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,

    ⁵⁰that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation,

    ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

    ⁵²Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”

    ⁵³As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him,

    ⁵⁴lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.

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• 2 Chronicles 24:20 says, “The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest”, and 24:21, “They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the LORD’s house.”
  Source evidence (1)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • 2CH 24:20–22, engwebp

    ²⁰The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you.’”

    ²¹They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the LORD’s house.

    ²²Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May the LORD look at it, and repay it.”

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• Zechariah 1:1 says that in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to “the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo”.
  Source evidence (1)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • ZEC 1:1–6, engwebp

    ¹In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,

    ²“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers.

    ³Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies.

    ⁴Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD.

    ⁵Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

    ⁶But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”

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Matthew 23:35 names Zachariah son of Barachiah, killed between the sanctuary and the altar; Luke 11:51 names Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary, and no father; 2 Chronicles 24:20–21 says that Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest was stoned in the court of the LORD’s house; and Zechariah 1:1 names the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. Both editions write Matthew’s two names otherwise than Zechariah 1:1’s (the Korean 사가랴 and 스가랴, 바라갸 and 베레갸; WEB Zachariah and Zechariah, Barachiah and Berechiah). 2 Chronicles 24:20 names another father, and Zechariah 1:1–6 tells nothing of the prophet’s death. This collection records the three apart and does not decide whether the Zachariah of Matthew 23:35 is one of the other two.