David Baron

“ But in truth these full designations, " house of Judah and house of Joseph," or " Judah and Ephraim," or " Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem," are used by the prophet as all- inclusive terms, for the whole people, after both kingdoms had been overthrown, and the schism which had existed so long had ceased with the Captivity. " The entire nation," as I wrote in my note on chap. viii. 13, "which had previous to the Exile been divided for a time into two kingdoms, are now, after the partial restoration from Babylon, included in both parts of the book, in undivided unity in one common destiny." ”

“ That which is most peculiar in this prophet " (writes Ewald, of the supposed unknown author of the last six chapters of Zechariah) " is the uncommon high and pious hope of the deliverance of Jerusalem and Judah, notwith standing all visible greatest dangers and threatenings. At a time when Jeremiah, in the walls of the capital, already despairs of any possibility of a successful resistance to the Chaldees and exhorts to tranquillity, this prophet still looks all these dangers straight in the face with swelling spirit and divine confidence ”

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has been often stated, that diversity of subject is sufficient to account for differences of form and style where such exist. Headings and indications of authorship and date were necessary as introducing the series of visions at the beginning of the prophet s ministry, and to the address which formed the reply to the deputation from Bethel (chaps, vii., viii.) ; but no argument can be based on their absence from the oracles in the second part. ”

“ But it is a sad fact that the grounds, when closely examined, on which Eichhorn and the others, who, ad mitting a post-exilic origin of these chapters, yet deny that they were written by Zechariah, are neither " the geographical references " nor the historical or philological indications in the scripture in question, but the underlying presupposition on the part of these critics that " pure pre diction " is an impossibility, and the attempt to eliminate or explain away the supernatural element in the prophetic scriptures. ”

“ The ethical and spiritual character of a writing is not altogether indepen dent of its authorship and the circumstances in which it originated ; and then, too, as far as these chapters are concerned, it is not a question merely as to what " religious " value we can find in them for ourselves, or for the pro fessed people of God at the present day. The true believer and disciple is anxious above all to understand the meaning of the divine oracles, which holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ”

“ To put it in brief, the first part on the whole offers a somewhat awkward prosaic style ; whereas in the second, where there are no visions, exhibits in the discourses a spirit and a fire of enthusiasm such as one meets with elsewhere only in the early prophetic writings, but there all the oftener. ”

“ These are his words on the last three chapters :
" As regards the occasion of the prophecy it is impossible to do more than speculate. It is conceivable that in the post-exilic period where our history is a blank (B.C. 518 458; 432-300) the family of David assumed importance in Jerusalem, and supplied some of the leading judges and administrators, and that they had been implicated with the people of the capital in some deed of blood (xii. 1014) , on the ground of which the prophet depicts Jehovah s appearance in judgment. ”

“ In chap. i. 46, chap. vii. 12, reference is made to the former prophets generally. 1
" (3) In both divisions there are similar if not identical expressions to represent the whole people, such as the house of Israel and the house of Judah (viii. 1 3) , the house of Judah and the house of Joseph (x. 6) .
" (4) Chap. xi. I i is very similar to ii. 911, and the promise x. i to that of viii. 12. In both portions Jerusalem is bid rejoice (ii. 10, ix. 9) , and in both the only King of Israel mentioned is the Messiah. ”

“ The earliest critics of the traditional authorship of these chapters were learned English divines, men who believed in the plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture, whose actuating motive was to justify the inerrancy of the citation in Matt, xxvii. 9, 10, which ascribes to Jeremiah a prophecy found in Zech. xi. Thus Joseph Mede * (the very first who sought to establish a pre-exilic authorship of these chapters) says, in his note on the above passage in Matthew : " It
1 Joseph Mede, born in 1586 at Borden, Essex, author of the Cla-vis Apoca- liptica; died in 1638. ”

“ In illustration of these remarks of Keil, it may not be out of place to quote a striking instance of the elimination of any reference to a distant future, and, indeed, of any supernatural element from the prophetic scriptures on the part of modern critics. Before me lies the last edition of what is regarded by many as a. standard work on the
1 Keil, in the Introduction to his Commentary on Zechariah.
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Literature of the Old Testament. The author (Canon Driver) is esteemed as one of the more " moderate " of this school. ”

“ Together they are, during the Lo-ammi period, " scattered " and " a curse among the nations," and together (the prophet foretells) Jehovah shall " redeem " and gather them, " so that they shall be a blessing."
(iv.) The last of the internal grounds against the unity of Zechariah advanced by the critics, as summarised by Von Orelli, is that " the chief moral and religious faults presupposed in Part II. are pre-exilic. This part still contends chiefly against idolatry (x. 2) , and regards the extirpation of false prophets as still future ”