Zechariah 9-14 ebook

International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (IECOT)

Edited by

Walter Dietrich, David M. Carr,

Adele Berlin, Erhard Blum, Irmtraud Fischer,Shimon Gesundheit, Walter Groß, Gary Knoppers,Bernard M. Levinson, Ed Noort, Helmut Utzschneider andBeate Ego (Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books)

Cover:

Top: Panel from a four-part relief on the “Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III” (859–824 BCE) depicting the Israelite king Jehu (845–817 BCE; 2 Kings 9f) paying obeisance to the Assyrian “King of Kings.” The vassal has thrown himself to the ground in front of his overlord. Royal servants are standing behind the Assyrian king whereas Assyrian officers are standing behind Jehu. The remaining picture panels portray thirteen Israelite tribute bearers carrying heavy and precious gifts. Photo © Z.Radovan/BibleLandPictures.com

Bottom left: One of ten reliefs on the bronze doors that constitute the eastern portal (the so-called “Gates of Paradise”) of the Baptistery of St. John of Florence, created 1424–1452 by Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378–1455). Detail from the picture “Adam and Eve”; in the center is the creation of Eve: “And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” (Gen 2:22) Photograph by George Reader

Bottom right: Detail of the Menorah in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, created by Benno Elkan (1877–1960): Ezra reads the Law of Moses to the assembled nation (Neh 8). The bronze Menorah was created in London in 1956 and in the same year was given by the British as a gift to the State of Israel. A total of 29 reliefs portray scenes from the Hebrew bible and the history of the Jewish people.

All rights reserved

© 2012 W. Kohlhammer GmbH Stuttgart

Production:

W. Kohlhammer Druckerei GmbH + Co. KG, Stuttgart

Printed in Germany

Print:

ISBN 978-3-17-021651-8

E-Book:

pdf: ISBN 978-3-17-024370-5

epub: ISBN 978-3-17-025408-4

It will be argued that Zechariah 9–14 consists of four collections of traditional eschatological hope (9:1–17; 10:3b–12; 12:1–4a, 5, 8–9; and 14:1–13, 14b–21). Of the collections, the first three included hopes vital during the first half of the Persian period. The fourth collection (chapter 14) seems to have arisen later than the other three (though still before the time of Nehemiah) and expressed much more pessimism. These variations were then supplemented by a collection (12:6–7; 12:10–13:6) that is pro-Judean vis-à-vis Jerusalem and by the shepherd materials, which contradict the hopes of the first two collections. This final stage probably arose after the time of Nehemiah, i. e. after the city grew strong enough to raise the ire of Judeans outside the power structure. It is plausible to conclude, therefore, that the redactor of Zechariah 9–14 assembled the four collections and revised them by means of the supplements in 12:6–7, 12:10–13:6 and the shepherd materials.

Dr. Paul L. Redditt is Professor emeritus at Georgetown College, Kentucky.

Contents

Editors’ Forward

The International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (IECOT) offers a multi-perspectival interpretation of the books of the Old Testament to a broad, international audience of scholars, laypeople and pastors. Biblical commentaries too often reflect the fragmented character of contemporary biblical scholarship, where different geographical or methodological sub-groups of scholars pursue specific methodologies and/or theories with little engagement of alternative approaches. This series, published in English and German editions, brings together editors and authors from North America, Europe, and Israel with multiple exegetical perspectives.

From the outset the goal has been to publish a series that was “international, ecumenical and contemporary.” The international character is reflected in the composition of an editorial board with members from six countries and commentators representing a yet broader diversity of scholarly contexts.

The ecumenical dimension is reflected in at least two ways. First, both the editorial board and the list of authors includes scholars with a variety of religious perspectives, both Christian and Jewish. Second, the commentary series not only includes volumes on books in the Jewish Tanach/Protestant Old Testament, but also other books recognized as canonical parts of the Old Testament by diverse Christian confessions (thus including the Deuterocanonical Old Testament books).

When it comes to “contemporary,” one central distinguishing feature of this series is its attempt to bring together two broad families of perspectives in analysis of biblical books, perspectives often described as “synchronic” and “diachronic” and all too often understood as incompatible with each other. Historically, diachronic studies arose in Europe, while some of the better known early synchronic studies originated in North America and Israel. Nevertheless, historical studies have continued to be pursued around the world, and focused synchronic work has been done in an ever greater variety of settings. Building on these developments, we aim in this series to bring synchronic and diachronic methods into closer alignment, allowing these approaches to work in a complementary and mutually-informative rather than antagonistic manner.

Since these terms are used in varying ways within biblical studies, it makes sense to specify how they are understood in this series. Within IECOT we understand “synchronic” to embrace a variety of types of study of a biblical text in one given stage of its development, particularly its final stage(s) of development in existing manuscripts. “Synchronic” studies embrace non-historical narratological, reader-response and other approaches along with historically-informed exegesis of a particular stage of a biblical text. In contrast, we understand “diachronic” to embrace the full variety of modes of study of a biblical text over time.

This diachronic analysis may include use of manuscript evidence (where available) to identify documented pre-stages of a biblical text, judicious use of clues within the biblical text to reconstruct its formation over time, and also an examination of the ways in which a biblical text may be in dialogue with earlier biblical (and non-biblical) motifs, traditions, themes, etc. In other words, diachronic study focuses on what might be termed a “depth dimension” of a given text – how a text (and its parts) has journeyed over time up to its present form, making the text part of a broader history of traditions, motifs and/or prior compositions. Synchronic analysis focuses on a particular moment (or moments) of that journey, with a particular focus on the final, canonized form (or forms) of the text. Together they represent, in our view, complementary ways of building a textual interpretation.

Of course, each biblical book is different, and each author or team of authors has different ideas of how to incorporate these perspectives into the commentary. The authors will present their ideas in the introduction to each volume. In addition, each author or team of authors will highlight specific contemporary methodological and hermeneutical perspectives – e.g. gender-critical, liberation-theological, reception-historical, social-historical – appropriate to their own strengths and to the biblical book being interpreted. The result, we hope and expect, will be a series of volumes that display a range of ways that various methodologies and discourses can be integrated into the interpretation of the diverse books of the Old Testament.

Fall 2012

The Editors

Author’s Preface

My first article on Zechariah 9–14 appeared in 1989 as “Israel’s Shepherds: Hope and Pessimism in Zechariah 9–14.”1 That study employed insights from the field of anthropology to define the milieu from which and for which those chapters emerged. I defined the group as basically, but not uncritically “pro-Judean, with a place for a purified Jerusalem, and antiestablishment.” In addition, I described it as “antipriestly, nonmessianic, and opposed to [false] prophets of its own time.” I argued that “its hope for the future rested squarely on a pessimistic reading of Israel’s past, and it radically revised its received tradition.” I see little to revise in those sentences today. What has transpired in research on those chapters over those intervening decades, however, is an ever-increasing emphasis on their location in the Hebrew Bible, in particular their place and role in the formation of the Book of the Twelve. Two scholars have contributed the most to my own understanding of the place of Zechariah 9–14 within the Twelve: James Nogalski and Aaron Schart.

Whether one agrees with them (and I surely do) that the Book of the Twelve was intentionally edited over years to form a single work with deliberate internal dialogue and plot or one disagrees (as does Ehud Ben Zvi2 ) and argues that the Twelve is simply an anthology containing the work of twelve named prophets, it is or should be possible to agree that Zechariah 9–14 is a highly literary work that draws deliberately and skillfully on much of what is now held to be the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, both agreeing with and correcting those writings. I will pay careful attention to a number of those sources and their reuse and modification in Zechariah 9–14. I will attempt to extend the conversation about those chapters and their sources without making that the dominant issue. Indeed, by the design of the International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament series, the growth of the Twelve will be dealt with by Aaron Schart.

I wish to thank a number of people whose insights and encouragement have been helpful to me. Nogalski and Schart have already been mentioned, but I would like to add the names of others. The first is that of Robert R. Wilson, who taught me how to apply insights from anthropology to the Old Testament. The second is Trent C. Butler, a decades-long friend who listened to the thinking that went into early articles on Zechariah 9–14 and helped me probe my thoughts, and who has advised and supported me in the years since. Third, is John D. W. Watts, who invited me to join (and ultimately serve on the steering committee of) the SBL Consultation of the Book of the Twelve in the early 1990’s. Other scholars to whom I am particularly indebted in this commentary include Paul D. Hanson, David L. Petersen, Carol L. Meyers, and Eric M. Meyers, all of whose work over the years has provided the bedrock on which I have tried to build. More recently I would point to Mark J. Boda, Byron G. Curtis, and Marvin A. Sweeney as scholars whose work on Zechariah 9–14 and the Persian period has been very helpful in (re)shaping my thinking. I am indebted to pastor/professor William J. Bryan and to my Georgetown College colleague Vince Sizemore in Information Technology Services for their help with computer software. Of course, I also wish to thank editor Helmut Utzschneider for inviting me to undertake this project and Aaron Schart for his role in that invitation, as well as the American editor David Carr for his patience in working with me. I do not know, but owe a great debt to editors and others at Kohlhammer GmbH for their work on this volume.

Finally, I want to thank my wife Bonnie, whose patience and support was unfailing. She listened as I talked about what I have been thinking, and she helped proof read the early drafts this work underwent. To her this volume is dedicated.

Paul L. Redditt

Georgetown, Kentucky

September, 2012

Introduction

The book of Zechariah contains visions and other sayings ascribed to Zechariah ben Berechiah ben Iddo. The name Zechariah means “Yhwh has remembered.” It is a common name in the Hebrew Bible, which perhaps explains why the name of his father and grandfather are added to identify the Zechariah intended. The name appears in 1:1, 1:7, and 7:1, each time followed by a date in 520 or 518 BCE. Zechariah flourished, therefore, in the early post-exilic or Persian period. Modern scholars, however, have long noted the differences between the preponderantly visionary accounts in chapters 1–8 and the more oracular messages of Zechariah 9–14, and many have concluded that those last six chapters derived from a different hand than the first eight. That issue will be the starting point for this introduction to Zechariah 9–14. Next, these pages will also offer an overview of synchronic and diachronic readings of those chapters. Throughout this book, and not merely this introduction, the designation “synchronic analysis” will focus on the text as it stands, and the designation “diachronic analysis” on how the text came to its present state. Finally, this introduction will examine the issues of the date and historical background of Zechariah 9–14, the identities of the mysterious “shepherds” and “merchants” who play a prominent role in chapter 11, the structure of Zechariah 9–14, and the relationship of Zechariah 9–14 to the rest of the Book of the Twelve.

The Relationship of Zechariah 9–14 to Zechariah 1–8

Review of Scholarship.

The book of Zechariah stands eleventh in the Book of the Twelve. The prophet Zechariah is the titular author of the whole book, the accuracy of which attribution continues to have its proponents among traditional scholars including E. J. Young and R. K. Harrison.1 Joyce G. Baldwin agrees with P. R. Ackroyd’s conclusion that the linking of the fourteen chapters proves “some recognition of common ideas or interests” between Zechariah 1–8 and 9–14, as does Anthony R. Petterson.2 That comment, though true, does not eliminate the possibility that a later author wrote to correct or update something Zechariah had written.

Recently, several critical scholars have taken positions similar to Baldwin’s. Byran G. Curtis, for example, has argued on the basis of “social location trajectory analysis” that the whole book of Zechariah was produced within a single generation, and might well have had one author: Zechariah himself.3 Ronald W. Pierce recognizes the stylistic and other differences that distinguish Zechariah 9–14 from 1–8, but questions that the two sections of Zechariah arose from different hands. He sees the “vivid picture of a flock doomed for slaughter (Zechariah 11)” as the focal point of the entire Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi corpus, and dates it between 520 and 480.4 Edgar W. Conrad reminds readers that what is accessible to them is a literary work whose purported author is Zechariah. He proposes, then, to read Zechariah as one collection, without ignoring differences between the two parts.5

A reading dependent on Conrad and like-minded scholars might run as follows. The primary indication of authorship in the book is the threefold use of the date formula in Zech 1:1, 1:7, and 7:1, dividing the book into three sections. The first, Zech 1:1–6, reminds readers of the “former prophets.” The second, Zech 1:7–6:15, contains visions and exhortations concerning the rebuilding of the temple. The third, Zech 7:1–8:23, admits that things have not turned out as expected, but concludes by holding out hope for the future Jerusalem as the place where people from many nations will come to worship God. Two additional oracles (Zech 9–11 and 12–14), with no attribution to another author, continue working with that hope. Each is introduced with the word (often translated “oracle”).