Authorship and Dating

It is mentioned three times in Zechariah that the “word of Yahweh came to Zechariah” during the reign of the Persian king Darius (1:1, 7; 7:1). Since the chronology of the Persian monarchy is well-established, the dates of Zechariah’s prophecies in chapters 1–8 can be precisely dated using historical information from outside the Bible (Boda, Haggai, Zechariah, 23–32).

• The superscription for the first section of the book (1:1–6), “the eighth month of the second year of Darius” (1:1), would fall sometime October—November of 520 bc.

• The superscription for the second section (1:7–6:15), “the 24th day of the 11th month … in the second year of Darius” (1:7), can be dated to February 15, 519 bc.

• The superscription for the third section (7:1–8:23), the “fourth year of King Darius … on the fourth day of the ninth month” (7:1), can be dated to December 7, 518 bc.

These three superscriptions agree with Ezra 5–6 in attributing a public ministry to Zechariah at the beginning of Darius’ reign. Since the completion and dedication of the temple are not actually mentioned in Zechariah, chapters 1–8—the section of Zechariah bearing the prophet’s name—were likely compiled sometime before the second temple was completed in 515 bc (compare Ezra 6:14–22).

The prophet Zechariah is identified in the book’s first superscription as “the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo” (1:1). The use of two family titles raises questions about Zechariah’s identity—Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 give his ancestry using only the single patronym “the son of Iddo.” Blenkinsopp has argued that the ancestry given in Zech 1:1 has been mistakenly combined with a different Zechariah whose father’s name was Jeberechiah (compare Isa 8:2) rather than Iddo (Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy, 203–04). It is likely that Berechiah is the name of Zechariah’s father, while Iddo is the name of his grandfather. Ezra probably highlights Zechariah’s descent from Iddo in order to link him with a priestly family that returned to the land with Zerubbabel and Joshua (Neh 12:4, 16). As in other biblical genealogies, consecutive uses of the Hebrew construct phrase “son of” in Zech 1:1 may denote a relationship between a patriarch and a more remote male descendant instead of a biological son (e.g., Gen 11:31; Deut 6:2; Matt 1:1). Though more than 30 men in the Old Testament are named Zechariah, it is probable that the Zechariah mentioned in the book’s superscriptions is the same individual who ministered alongside the prophet Haggai. The relevance of Zechariah’s visions in chapters 1–8 for the early postexilic community in Jerusalem reinforces the likelihood of this identification. Given the numerous links between them, Meyers and Meyers contend that the book of Haggai and Zech 1–8 are a composite work which is distinct from Zech 9–14 (see Meyers and Meyers, Zechariah 1–8; Zechariah 9–14).