Barachias, Berechiah

Barachias (the Greek form of the Hebrew Berechiah, meaning blessed by Jehovah or whom Jehovah has blessed) was the father of the prophet Zechariah and the son of Iddo (Zechariah 1:1, 7). He belongs to the post-exilic priestly lineage, and his son Zechariah was both a prophet and a priest who ministered alongside Haggai in encouraging the rebuilding of the temple after the return from Babylon.

The name Barachias appears in Matthew 23:35 in a textually disputed context where Jesus speaks of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. The identification here is debated: it may refer to the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles 24:20–21 (son of Jehoiada), the Zechariah of the prophetic book, or another person of the same name. The verse has generated significant scholarly discussion given the difficulty of reconciling the parentage given in Matthew with the Chronicles account.