Matthew 23:34 ¶ Wherefore,
behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of
them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in
your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous
blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these
things shall come upon this generation. 37
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house
is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say
unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Stephen was the first Christian martyr.
Acts 7:59 And they stoned
Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
James will also be murdered.
Acts 12:2 And he killed
James the brother of John with the sword.
Paul will be whipped repeatedly.
2Corinthians 11:24 Of the
Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Jesus, of course, will be crucified. There are many others whose
circumstances we are told nothing about.
Revelation 2:13 I know thy
works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest
fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas
was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
You remember Abel’s murder from Genesis, the first religious
murder. Zacharias from the Greek was spelled Zechariah from the Hebrew.
Zechariah, the son of Barachias, is one of the minor prophets with Barachias
from Greek being Berechiah from Hebrew.
Zechariah 1:1 ¶ In the
eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
We have the murder of Zechariah, called here the son of Jehoida as
a reference to his lineage and connection to the priesthood according to some Jewish
sources, here.
2Chronicles 24:20 And the
Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood
above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the
commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the
LORD, he hath also forsaken you. 21 And
they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of
the king in the court of the house of the LORD.
So, it can also be considered logical that Jesus is speaking of
Zechariah the son of Jehoiada as Jehoiada, as other Jewish personalities I’ve
talked about, could have had two names. This would not disturb the text at all.
But, there are several different Jewish opinions on the identity of the
Zacharias Jesus mentions including some later murders that occurred in the time
between the Testaments, as John Gill explains.
God, whom Jesus Christ represents in the flesh as God Himself,
talks of how patiently and lovingly God would have restored the Jews to
fellowship with Him but they would have none of it. By rejecting their Messiah
they would not see Him again until the end of history.
Matthew 24:30 And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Perhaps, at some point in the Tribulation to come Christ will
reveal Himself to the suffering Jews like Joseph revealed himself to his
brothers in Genesis, and they will accept Christ then and likely martyrdom.
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