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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Tradition of Zechariah's Murder
  • Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 14:57:31 -0700

On 05/04/2004 12:12, CS Bartholomew wrote:

On 4/5/04 11:15 AM, "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org> wrote:


Edersheim (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol.II p.414 in my
1886 edition) refers to the murder of "Zacharias, the son of Baruch" as
reported by Josephus, War iv. 5.4, Maybe this is the correct Josephus
reference. But it seems to be to a death in the final siege of Jerusalem.


Looks right:

Here is the ancient WWinston translation:


The translator was not Winston, but William Whiston (1667-1752). He was a Fellow of my old Cambridge college, Clare, and Newton's successor as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He seems to have been a pioneer of geology, or at least Creation Science; and of speculative and controversial theology, for which he was deprived of his fellowship and expelled from the university. Translating Josephus seems to have been a sideline. See http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/w/william-whiston.html.

War.4.5.4. (334) And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of
barely killing men, so they had the impudence of setting up fictitious
tribunals and judicatures for that purpose; (335) and as they intended to
have Zacharias,2 the son of Baruch, ...


Thanks for this text. Well, it is clear that this is set in the time of Vespasian. And so, if Josephus is recounting a historical incident, it must be quite separate from the death of the prophet Zechariah, or the death recounted in 2 Chronicles 24. Edersheim gives detailed arguments why the passages in the Gospels cannot be references to this death. On the other hand, it is surely possible that this passage in Josephus was inspired, at least in the names chosen, by the long tradition of the death of Zechariah in the temple.



--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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