Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 23:35

"that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar." — Matthew 23:35 (ASV)

The blood of Zacharias son of Barachias — A very memorable martyrdom is recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:20–22, in which a prophet named Zechariah was stoned in the court of the house of the Lord, at the commandment of the king.

However, that Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada. The only "Zechariah the son of Barachias" in the Old Testament is the minor prophet whose writings are the second to last of the prophetic books. We know nothing of his death, and it is unlikely that it would have gone unrecorded if he had been killed in the way described here.

On the other hand, the death of Jehoiada's son is not only recorded in 2 Chronicles 24, as mentioned above, but it also became the subject of popular legends. According to the Talmud, the prophet's blood would not dry up; it was still bubbling when Nebuzaradan, the Chaldean commander, took the Temple (Jeremiah 39:9). No sacrifices could stop it, not even the blood of thousands of slaughtered priests. As wild as this story is, it reveals the deep impression that this death made on people's minds—an impression also reflected in the so-called tomb of Zacharias. This explains why our Lord chose it as a representative example.

The substitution of "Barachias" for "Jehoiada" can be explained as a scribe's error, caused by the association of the two names. A similar mistake occurs with "Jeremy" for "Zechariah" in Matthew 27:9 (see note). In the Sinaitic manuscript, the words "son of Barachiah" are omitted, but this reveals the work of a later corrector trying to resolve the difficulty.

The following assumptions are clearly hypotheses invented for the situation, with no evidence to support them:

1. That Jehoiada may have also been known by the name Barachiah.
2. That Jehoiada may have had a son named Barachiah, making him the grandfather of the martyr.

Interestingly, Josephus (Wars, iv. 5, § 4) recounts the murder of a "Zecharias, the son of Baruch" (that is, Barachiah), which was carried out in the Temple by the Zealots just before the destruction of Jerusalem. It is possible that this event also had an influence, linking the two names together in people's minds and causing confusion about the older prophet's parentage.

The list of theories is not complete without adding one more: an apocryphal gospel, The Protevangelion of James (chapter 16), records the death of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. It says he was killed by Herod in the Temple near the altar, and some have suggested that he is the son of Barachias being referenced.

Between the temple and the altar — This refers to the area between the sanctuary (the Holy of Holies) and the altar of burnt offerings that stood outside it. The Greek word for "sanctuary" here is the same one used in Matthew 26:61 and John 2:19.