Exploring Zechariah, volume 1 : the development of Zechariah and its role within the Twelve

Abstract

During the past three decades the book of Zechariah has received increasing attention within the Hebrew Bible guild. This was due no doubt to the appearance of the influential commentaries of Eric and Carol Meyers as well as David Petersen beginning in the 1980s, but also to the increasing focus on the Persian period in historical and biblical scholarship. Research during this period has been diverse, focusing on the composition, the structure, and the reception of this ancient text and all points in between. The guild has been witness to a shift from dominantly diachronic methodologies to a diversity of diachronic, synchronic and a-chronic approaches, reflecting a (con)fusion of modern, postmodern and even premodern sensibilities. It was the book of Zechariah that provided me a fresh direction for research after spending my doctoral years focusing nearly all my attention on Ezra–Nehemiah. My dissertation on Neh 9 ended by giving attention to connections between that penitential prayer and Zech 7–8. Little did I realize that this conclusion was my invitation to two decades of focused attention on this “post-exilic” prophet. Shifting to Zechariah provided me a new challenge to engage deeply with a different genre and tradition (prophetic), but also the opportunity to build on my newfound knowledge of the Persian period. It was a perfect time to enter into the study of Zechariah since there was a growing community of scholars with whom I could converse, dialogue, and debate...