ἕως αἵματος Ζαχαρίου. His murder by Joash is described in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21, and also filled a large place in Jewish legends. The words “the son of Barachiah,” in Matthew 23:35, are probably an erroneous gloss which has crept from the margin into the text. The murdered Zacharias was the son of the High Priest Jehoiada; the Prophet Zechariah was a son of Barachiah, but died, so far as we know, a natural death; and the Zechariah son of Barachiah, who was murdered by the Zealots, did not die till forty years later than this time. The allusions are all the more striking from the direct references to retribution in these two instances, and from the fact that they are drawn from the first and last historical books of the O. T. (Genesis 4:10; 2 Chronicles 24:22). The religion of the Pharisees was a mere religion of intellect and of ritual, and “la religion de tête se lie presque toujours à la haine de la piété vivante, de la religion de l’esprit, et devient aisément persécutrice.” Godet.

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Old Testament