23:35: Until the blood of Zachariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you
murdered between the temple (house) and the altar.
1. The murder of Zechariah b. Jehoiada in 2 Chr 24:20ff. in rabbinic
tradition.
The oldest report is in y. Taʿan. 4.69A.56: R. Yohanan († 279) said, “80,000
young priests were killed because of the blood of Zechariah.” R. Judan (ca.
350) asked R. Aha (ca. 320), “Where was Zechariah killed? In the forecourt of
the women or in the forecourt of the Israelites?” He answered, “Neither in the
forecourt of the Israelites nor in the forecourt of the women, but rather in
the forecourt of the priests (so near the altar of burnt offerings); and they
did not deal with his blood as with the blood of a ram and as with the blood of
a gazelle. There it is written, ‘He shall pour out its blood and cover it with
earth’ (Lev 17:13); but here it says, ‘Their blood is in their midst, on a bare
rock (cf. Judg 9:5) it (the blood city Jerusalem) made it flow, not poured onto
the earth so that the dust covered it’ (Ezek 24:7). Why all this? ‘In order to
bring up wrath, in order to take violent vengeance, I have made their blood
stray onto naked rocks so that it may never be covered’ (Ezek 24:8). The
Israelites committed seven transgressions on that day (of the murder of Zechariah):
they killed a priest and prophet and judge, they shed innocent blood, they
defiled the forecourt, and it happened on a Sabbath and the Day of Atonement.
When Nebuzaradan came up there, he saw how the blood welled up תוסס. He said to them, ‘What is this?’ They
answered, ‘It is the blood of bulls and lambs and rams that we presented on the
altar as an offering.’ Immediately he had the bulls and rams and lambs brought
and slaughtered above it, but the blood still welled up. Since they did not
confess to him, ropes (תלי תליין??)
were hung up on the place of execution (to hang the priests). Then they said,
‘It pleases God to require his blood from our hands!’ They said to Nebuzaradan,
‘It is the blood of a priest and prophet and judge, who prophesied against us
all what you have done to us, and we rose up against him and killed him.’
Immediately he had 80,000 young (i.e., capable of service) priests brought and
slaughtered above it (above the blood of Zechariah); but still the blood welled
up. In that hour he turned on it and said, ‘Do you want your whole people to be
destroyed because of you?’ Immediately God was filled with pity and said, ‘If
this man who is flesh and blood and cruel is filled with pity for my children,
how much more must this apply to me, of whom it is written, “Yahweh your God is
a merciful God. He will neither leave you, nor destroy you, nor forget the
covenant with your fathers that he swore to them” (Deut 4:31).’ Immediately he
gave the blood a nod, and then it was swallowed up in its place.” ‖ The parallel
in b. Giṭ. 57B is as follows: R. Hiyya b. Abun (a contemporary of Raba, so ca.
330) said that R. Joshua b. Qarha (ca. 150) said, “An old man from the
inhabitants of Jerusalem recounted the following to me: ‘In this valley (this
refers to Biqʿath-Jadajim near Betar) Nebuzaradan, the head of the guard,
killed 211 myriads and in Jerusalem he killed 94 myriads on one stone until
their blood came and touched the blood of Zechariah, in order to fulfill what
is said: “Blood touches blood” (Hos 4:2). He found the blood of Zechariah, as
it welled up and rose up. He said, “What is this?” They answered, “It is blood
from sacrificial offerings that has been poured out.” He sent for the like; but
it was not like the former. He said to them, “If you tell me, good; but if not,
I will comb off your flesh with iron combs.” They said, “What should we tell
you? There was a prophet among us who rebuked us (in punishment) in divine
things. Then we rose up against him and killed him, and behold, who knows how
many years it has been that his blood has not been mollified.” He answered, “I
will mollify it.” He took the great Sanhedrin and the small Sanhedrin and
killed them above it (the blood of Zechariah); but it was not mollified. He
took youths and virgins and killed them above it, but it was not mollified. He
took schoolchildren and killed them above it, but it was not mollified. Then he
said to it, “Zechariah, Zechariah, the best among them I have destroyed; so you
want me to destroy them all?” When he said this, the blood was mollified. In
that hour he inwardly thought of repentance. He said, “If this happened to them
because of one human life, how much more will it happen to this man (i.e., me)
who has killed all this human life!” Then he departed. He sent a testament (שטר פרטתא) to his family and converted to
Judaism.’ ” In a baraita it has been taught: Naaman (2 Kgs 5) was a
resident alien proselyte גר תושב;
Nebuzaradan was a real proselyte גר צדק.—A
similar text with small variations can be found in b. Sanh. 96B. ‖ In the
Midrash literature, the report in Pesiq. 122A follows the Jerusalem Talmud
closely; there is a connection of the tradition of both Talmuds in Midr. Lam.
2:2 (64B); 4:13 (76A); Midr. Eccl. 3:16 (21A); Midr. Lam. Introduction #23
(36A) and Midr. Eccl. 10:4 (46B); in the last two passages, the killing of
Zechariah is partly grounded in his pride.—In Midr. Lam. Introduction #5 (30B)
we find only the question of R. Judan to R. Aha concerning the place where
Zechariah was slaughtered. ‖ Targum Lamentations 2:20: “You killed Zechariah,
the son of Iddo, the high priest and reliable prophet, in the sanctuary of
Yahweh on the Day of Atonement, because he rebuked you (in punishment) that you
should not do what is evil before Yahweh.”—In more detail, we read in Tg. 2
Chr. 24:20f.: “The spirit of prophecy from Yahweh dwelt (rested) on Zechariah
b. Jehoiada, the priest. When he saw the sin of the king and of the people, how
they kindled incense to the idol in the sanctuary of Yahweh on the altar on the
Day of Atonement and how the priests of Yahweh neglected to present burnt and
drink offerings and the offering of the day together with the additional
offerings, as is prescribed in the book of the Torah of Moses, he stepped
before the people and said, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Why do you transgress the
commandments of Yahweh, so that you no longer have fortune? Since you have
abandoned the service of Yahweh, he will abandon you.” ’ And they rose up
against him and stoned him according to the order of the king in the forecourt
of the sanctuary of Yahweh.” ‖ Josippon 80: Before the holy temple in your
midst the righteous and pious prophet Zechariah was slaughtered נשחט; and he lay there without a grave, and the
earth did not cover his blood, but rather still rises up and cries out
(literally: chirps) in your midst.”—Here the text probably has in mind the
prophet Zechariah, son of Berekhiah, named in Zech 1:1. See also Midr. Lam.
2:20.
2. Other murders in the sanctuary.
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities
11.7.1: “When the high priest Eliashib had died, his son Judah took over the
high priesthood. After him his son John received the high priestly dignity,
because of whom Bagoses, the field commander of the second Artaxerxes,
desecrated the temple and laid a tribute on the Jews: they were to pay 50 drachmas from the temple treasury before
presenting the daily (Tamid) offering for every lamb. The cause of this was as
follows: John had a brother, Jesus. Since he was his friend, Bagoses had
promised the latter the high priesthood. Confident in this, Jesus provoked his
brother in the temple so that the latter killed him.… When Bagoses learned of
this, he said full of anger, ‘In your temple you have dared to commit a
murder?’ and infiltrated the temple.” ‖ Tosefta Yoma 1.12 (181): It once
happened with two priests that they ran up the ramp (to the altar of burnt
offering) equally fast (in order to obtain the privilege of removing the
ashes). Then one of them pushed his companion four cubits back; but he took a
knife and drove it into the heart of the former. Then R. Zadok (ca. 60, himself
a priest) came and set himself at the entrance to the forehall (of the temple
building) on the temple mount and said, “Hear me, our brothers, house of
Israel! It says, ‘If a slaughtered person is found on the soil that Yahweh your
God will give you to possess, lying on the field, without it being known who
slaughtered him, your elders and judges shall go out and measure to the cities
that are around the murdered person’ (Deut 21:1f.). Come and let us measure for
whom it is obligatory to bring the calf to the place, the temple or the
forecourt!” Then all people broke out weeping. Then the father came and said,
“My son still twitches (is still alive) and the knife has not yet become
unclean (by touching a corpse)!” This teaches that the impurity of the knife
seemed worse to them than bloodshed.—Parallel passages include t. Šebu. 1.4
(446); SNum 35:34 § 161 (62B); y. Yoma 2.39D.13; b. Yoma 23A. ‖ Here the report
of Josephus about the murder of Zechariah b. Barukh may also find a place to
which some interpreters of Matt 23:35 refer. Josephus, Jewish War 4.5.4: “They (the zealots at the beginning of the Jewish
war against Rome) had planned to kill one of the most respected men, Zechariah
b. Barukh. It angered them that the man extremely hated every evil thing and
loved freedom. He was also rich, so that they might hope not simply to usurp
his fortune, but also to do away with a man who was in a position to contribute
to their own elimination. They summoned seventy ordinary people as a college of
judges and accused Zechariah without proof that he betrayed the land to the
Romans. But with courageous words he undermined the complaints brought against
him and accused his opponents of their numerous acts of lawlessness. Despite
the raging of the zealots the judges acquitted him. Then two of the zealots in
the middle of the temple fell upon Zechariah and killed him, crying out to him
scoffingly, ‘Here you have also our voice and a reliable acquittal!’ Then they
cast him down from the sanctuary to the chasm next to it.” (Hermann
L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the
Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and
Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2022], 1:1079-82)
