Historical Context
Zachariah prophesied during the Persian period, when the Achaemenid monarchs encouraged the rebuilding of the Second Temple as a measure of political stability among returned exiles. His prophecies emerged roughly five months after construction on the temple had resumed, and about two months after the final prophecies of Haggai, with whom his ministry is associated in the records of Ezra (5:1 and 6:14).
Two dating formulae in the Book of Zechariah anchor his activity to 520–519 BC during the second year of Darius I. The opening word came to him in the eighth month (corresponding to mid-October to mid-November 520 BC), and a further vision is dated to the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (mid-January to mid-February 519 BC).
The Book of Zechariah
The book attributed to the prophet addresses the return from Babylon and the rebuilding of the temple. Its first eight chapters describe a sequence of eight night visions, interpreted as a symbolic history meant to comfort the returned exiles: four horses; four horns and four craftsmen; a man with a measuring line; Joshua the High Priest; a gold lampstand with two olive trees; a flying scroll and a woman in a basket; and four chariots. The opening chapter calls the people to repentance before presenting these visions, and the first vision announces that the seventy-year period of withheld mercy has ended and that the restoration of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple are near.
The book emphasizes temple purity, the prominence of the priesthood, and God's intention to dwell again with the people of Jerusalem after cleansing them from sin, declaring that restoration comes 'not by might nor by power, but by his Spirit.' Scholars attribute the later chapters (9–14), which the prophet of the night visions does not figure in, to a later, anonymous author.
The Flying Scroll and the Title 'Sickle-Seer'
The sixth of the eight visions is that of a flying scroll (Zechariah 5:1–4), described by one scholar as 'the word of the Lord in materialized form.' The scroll serves as an instrument of divine judgment against specific transgressions — theft and false swearing — affirming that the covenant remains in force despite Israel's history of unfaithfulness. The vision draws a parallel to the scroll received by the prophet Ezekiel, though to different effect.
The epithet 'Sickle-Seer' given to Zachariah in Orthodox hymnody derives from the shape of this flying scroll, which was understood as resembling a sickle.
Messianic Prophecies
The closing chapters of the book carry prophecies that Christian tradition reads as foretelling the coming of the Messiah. Zechariah 9:9 describes a just and lowly king arriving in Jerusalem 'riding upon an ass,' a passage the New Testament identifies with Christ's triumphal entry (Matthew 21:5; John 12:15), continuing in verse 10 with a ruler who 'shall speak peace unto the heathen' and whose dominion extends to the ends of the earth.
Zechariah 11:12–13 names the price of thirty pieces of silver cast 'to the potter' — the price of a slave under the Law of Moses — which the Gospel connects to the betrayal of Christ by Judas (Matthew 26:15). The Ethiopian Synaxarium likewise records that Zachariah prophesied of the Lord entering Jerusalem upon a donkey.
Relics & Shrines
According to Orthodox tradition, Zachariah was born in Babylon during the exile and returned to Judea as an elderly man shortly before the dedication of the temple. He is said to have died in peace and to have been buried among the graves of the other prophets.
Miracles & Traditions
Traditional Accounts: Orthodox tradition holds that Zachariah, a Levite born in exile in Babylon, returned to Judea as an old man near the time of the temple's dedication and was sometimes identified with the prophet killed between the temple and the altar. He was called to prophetic service at a young age. These accounts rest on church tradition and hymnology rather than the historical record of his book.
