However, even if we were to concede that the Zechariah
mentioned by Jesus is the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles 24, Beckwith’s case still
is not proven. Jesus could mean “from the first martyred prophet is one of the
first canonical books to be written to the last martyred prophet in one of the
last books to be written.” The NT generally assumes the books of the Pentateuch
were the first books, written by Moses himself (e.g., Matt 8:4; Mark 1:44; Luke
20:28; 2 Cor 3:15). Certainly Chronicles is one of the last OT books to be written.
Scholars could date a few books later or contemporary with it (e.g., Ezra-Nehemiah;
Daniel is assumed in the NT to be earlier [Matt 24:15]). In these last books to
be written, Zechariah is the last martyr mentioned.
OF course, one could argue that Chronicles is the first
book in the Writings (as in the Aleppo and Leningrad codices) and Jesus
means to say “every martyr from the last section of Scripture to the last” and
cites the first martyr in the first book in the first section and the last
martyr in the first book in the last section. But this would argue that the
order of books in these medieval codices is more ancient than that given in the
Talmud, a doubtful proposition. In fact, the argument that Chronicles was in a
third section of the canon in the first century is not supported by any source.
This is especially true in the NT, which never depicts Jesus as elsewhere referring
to the three-part canon of the Talmud or of the codices. Instead, in the one
instance where he mentions a three-part canon, the third part contains only the
book of Psalms . . . (Andrew E. Steinmann, The Oracles of God: The Old
Testament Canon [Saint Paul, Miss.: Concordia Publishing House, 1999], 100-1)
