person · P0051
Zechariah (the prophet) זכריה בן ברכיה
Second of the three last prophets — Zechariah ben Berechiah ben Iddo, the visionary of the night visions, of Jerusalem rebuilt "as open regions," and of the future day when God will be one and His name one. Prophesied alongside Chaggai in the second year of Daryavesh, and is a named member of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah in Rambam's listing. Not to be confused with the earlier Zechariah ben Yehoyada.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- זכריה בן ברכיה
- Also known as
- Zechariah ben Berechiah, Zechariah HaNavi, Zechariah
- Era
- second-temple
- Received the mesorah from
- Baruch ben Neriah
- Colleagues
- Chaggai, Malachi
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3390–3448 AM (prophesied from the second year of Daryavesh, 3408 AM)
- Academic
- fl. 520–518 BCE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈58 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| A member of the court of Ezra — the Men of the Great Assembly — in Rambam's enumeration, which received the Oral Torah from Baruch ben Neriah and his court.
Confidence is for the chain as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| "In the eighth month of the second year of Daryavesh, the word of God came to Zechariah ben Berechiah ben Iddo the prophet."
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| "When the last prophets — Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi — died, the ruach hakodesh departed from Israel." | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| His prophecy begins in the second year of Daryavesh — 3408 AM in traditional reckoning, 520 BCE academically; the two systems diverge by roughly 166 years in the Persian period and are stated separately. Scholars additionally assign Zechariah 9–14 to a later hand ("Deutero-Zechariah").
Schematic traditional dating; composition question recorded honestly. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |