Zacharias

(Greek form of Zechariah).

• Father of John the Baptist. (Luke 1:5) etc. He was a priest of the course of Abia. the eighth of the twenty-four courses who ministered at the temple in turn. He probably lived at Hebron. His wife's name was Elisabeth. John was born to them in their old age, and the promise of this son was communicated to Zacharias by an angel while he was offering incense and praying in the temple.

• Son of Barachias, who, our Lord says, was slain by the Jews between the altar and the temple. (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:61) There has been much dispute who this Zacharias was. Many of the Greek fathers have maintained that the father of John the Baptist is the person to whom our Lord alludes but there can be little or no doubt that the allusion is to Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, (2 Chronicles 24:20,21) and he may have been called "the son" of Barachias from his grandfather. (B.C. 838.) He is mentioned as being the martyr last recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (as Abel was the first) -d Chronicles being the last book in their canon.