(iii) Turning to Jewish tradition, we find that legend has been active
in connexion with the murder in the Temple of a pre-exilic Zachariah who
can be no other than the son of Jehoiada. And it is noteworthy that the
two points dwelt on are just those which appear in the N.T. passage,
viz. (_a_) the exact spot in the Temple where the murder occurred (cp.
the precise localisation “between the sanctuary and the altar”) and
(_b_) the crying out of the blood from the ground for vengeance, like
that of Abel, and the terrible expiation required to still it. “R.
Johanan said,” we read,[432] “‘Eighty thousand of the flower of the
priesthood were slain on account of the blood of Zachariah.’ R. Judan
asked R. Aha ‘Where did they kill Zachariah? In the Court of the Women
or in the Court of Israel?’ He answered, ‘Neither in the Court of the
Women nor in the Court of Israel, but in the Court of the Priests.’” The
legend goes on to tell how the murder was rendered more heinous by being
committed on a sabbath and that the Day of Atonement, and how
Nebuzaradan when he entered the Temple saw the prophet’s blood welling
up from the floor, and of the holocaust of priests which hardly availed
to quench the stream.
(iv) Furthermore, there is evidence to show that the Rabbis, like the
author of the first Gospel, confused or, disregarding chronology,
identified the pre-exilic victim with Zechariah the prophet of the
Restoration. The Targum on Lam. ii. 20 (“Shall the priest and the
prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?”) runs, “Is it also fit
that they should slay a priest and prophet in the Temple of the Lord, as
ye slew Zacharias _the son of Iddo_ ... in the house of the Sanctuary,
on the day of Expiation?” (Lightfoot _l. c._). The Midrash (tr. Wünsche)
interprets the same passage of Lam. of Zechariah son of Jehoiada.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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