Zechariah, or Zakariya, is one of the many names which we find in the Bible of Christians and in the Qur’an of Muslims. The name means “The one God remembers.” But who was this man and why do we remember him today? Actually, about thirty people in the Bible wear the same name, which was evidently very popular among the Jews.
The Zechariah of the Old Testament
One of the most famous is the one Jews and Christians call “the prophet Zechariah,” the author of a book in the Old Testament that bears his name. This Zechariah began to preach about 520 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. (This was 300 years after the death of Elisha and 250 years after the ministry of Jonah.) Zechariah was a contemporary of another prophet named Haggai, and these two men had a similar mission.
About fifty years earlier, a large group of Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylon where their people had been taken into captivity. God had allowed this misfortune to overtake them because of their unfaithfulness toward Him. Despite the warnings given to them by the mouth of all the prophets, these Jews had constantly given themselves over to idolatry and every other kind of sin. This exile in the territory of modern Iraq lasted seventy years. But eventually God had pity on His people. When the Medes and the Persians overthrew the Babylonians and took possession of their empire, God, as He had promised in advance, touched the heart of the new king, Cyrus the Great, so that he allowed the Jews to make it back to Palestine and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, which the Babylonians had destroyed.
Those who returned from captivity found heaps of ruins, but they were happy to have returned to the land of their ancestors. Despite the difficult conditions, they began to rebuild houses and inhabit them. But several years later, one could see that they looked after their own homes while neglecting to rebuild the house of God—the One who brought them back from exile.
Very soon after their return from exile, they had laid the foundation for a new temple, but then they abandoned the work. Now, God ceased blessing them in order to awaken them to their duty. Since they were dragging their feet about building the place where God was to be worshipped, he raised up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who exhorted and encouraged them until they changed their attitude and recommitted to the work. The book of Zechariah tells of symbolic visions that God caused him to see and of which he spoke to his countrymen to motivate them. The work of these two men bore fruit and the temple was complete about four years later.
But in fact, this prophet Zechariah, whose book is often quoted in the New Testament because of the numerous predictions he made about Christ, is not the Zechariah spoken of in the Qur’an. The story of this Zechariah is found in the New Testament. He did prophesy once and his inspired words are written in the Bible, but we think of him more in his role as a priest. However, if this man is still remembered, it is because of his son. As it happens, he was the father of John the Baptist.
The Zechariah of the New Testament
Here is what the Bible tells us about that Zechariah:
“In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah’s division named Zechariah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord. But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years.
When his division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the hour of incense, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and overcome with fear. But the angel said to him:
‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. He will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.’
‘How can I know this?’ Zechariah asked the angel. ‘For I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.’
The angel answered him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. Now listen! You will become silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.’
Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them. Then they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept making signs to them, and remained speechless. When the days of his ministry were completed, he went back home.
After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived and kept herself in seclusion for five months. She said, ‘The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people.’” (Luke 1:5-25)
The account is interrupted to tell us about the announcement to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus, and about Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, who was her relative. From verse 57 we return to the story of Zechariah:
“Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she had a son. Then her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her His great mercy and they rejoiced with her. When they came to circumcise the child on the eighth day, they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother responded, ‘No, he will be called John.’
Then they said to her, ‘None of your relatives has that name.’ So they motioned to his father to find out what he wanted him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote: ‘His name is John.’ And they were all amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came on all those who lived around them, and all these things were being talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard about him took it to heart, saying, ‘What then, will this child become?’ For indeed, the Lord’s hand was with him.
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ‘Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, just as He spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us… And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation, through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’” (Luke 1:57-71, 76-79).
We draw near the end of the list of biblical prophets, and we can see that we are coming to a sort of climax in the story at the same time. All through the Bible, we find references to one who was to come to bless the world. God had said to Eve, the first woman, that among her descendants would be one who would “crush the head of the serpent,” meaning Satan. He said to Abraham that through his descendants He would bless all nations. He promised Moses that from among the Israelites, he would raise up a prophet like him whom everyone should listen to. He told King David that the reign of his son would be forever assured, and here Zechariah is referring directly to the son of David who is about to appear. In fact, the child of Zechariah would be, not the son of David, but the one who would prepare his way, the man who would prepare the people to receive with dignity the One for whom they had waited for so long.
This is why Zechariah prophesied in these terms concerning his newborn son:
“And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76,77)
So continue to our next study, which will look more closely at the mission of this precursor, John the Baptist.