Zachariah the Prophet

Zachariah was a prophet of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah, and like Ezekiel was of priestly extraction. His prophetical career began in the second year of Darius, king of Persia (B.C. 520), about sixteen years after the return of the first company from their Babylonian exile. He was contemporary with Haggai. In the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as stating that Zechariah son of Barachiah was killed between the altar and the temple. A similar quotation is also found in the Gospel of Luke. Although there is an indication in Targum ####Lamentations that "Zechariah son of Iddo" was killed in the Temple, scholars generally understand this as a reference to the death of a much earlier figure, Zechariah ben Jehoiada. On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, his feast day is February 8. He is commemorated with the other minor prophets in the calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31.