The year was October 539 B.C., Cyrus the Great (Kurush or Koresh in Persian) of Persia had conquered what was recognized as the greatest city on earth, Babylon, the capital of an empire covering modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. An ancient capital of science and scholarship, it was one of the most powerful religious centers in the world. The fall of Babylon meant the collapse of the capital of modern techno-science of the ancient world, and opened of a new era of globalism and diplomacy.

A wise diplomat and statesman, Cyrus, lord of the peoples of modern Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iran plus regions bordering on Pakistan and India, began an era of nation rebuilding to begin around the then known world. In 536 B.C., the Jewish people were invited to return to the land of their forefathers and begin the rebuilding of their city, Jerusalem.

Ezra 1:1-4 - "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and A view over the ruins of Persepolis put it also in writing, saying:

A view over the ruins of Persapolis from the Tomb of Artaxerses II, which is

Carved into the rock of the mountain known as Kuh-e Rahmat.

( Photo by Henri Stierlin)

'Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, the God of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all His people – his God be with him – let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And whosoever is left in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill-offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.'"

The wording on this decree appears to be authentic as it depicts the God of Israel as the God who lives in Jerusalem, wording that was atypical of a Jewish writer, who believed that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the God of the whole earth.

This great monarch became the first great multiculturalists, a ruler pledged to the coexistence and peaceful cohabitation of people from every region of the world, while retaining and preserving their own unique cultural and religious identities. Not since the emergence of the United States, the charter of the United Nations and now the theme of the 21^st century War on Terror have the emergence of an empire dedicated to multiculturalism and globalism occurred.

The Palace Gate at Persapolis

Admired as a liberator, Cyrus the Great became the founder the first empire dedicated to ethical government in human history, a government based on moral excellence on the fundamental philosophy of “Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds.” After conquering three other empires, the Medes, the Lydians and the Babylonians, a global community was inaugurated from the Mediterranean to India.

Grandson of the emperor of the Medes, Astyages, in the province of Persia (modern day Fars) in southwest Iran about 590 B.C., he lived a life of the hunted. Similar to Abraham, whose life as a babe was threatened to be snuffed out by Nimrod in ancient Sumer (Book of Jasher), or Moses, whose life as a babe was destined to die at the hands of the Egyptian Pharaoh, yet as a prince, he was later driven into exile. Cyrus’ death was ordered by his grandfather, who in a dream saw that his grandson would overthrow him someday in the future. He ordered the execution of the babe Cyrus to a court official, who in mercy gave him to a shepherd and his wife with orders to put him to death. Instead they reared him as their son, and the rest was history when Cyrus later did return to conquer and overthrow his own grandfather and absorbed the empire of the Medes with the Persian Empire.

Clearly a military leader par excellence, what thrust Cyrus to the ranks of the all time admired leaders of the world was the exceptional toleration of religions and customs of other peoples and the tendency to avoid the brutality and cruelty that characterized the Assyrian and Babylonian rulers that preceded him.

Persapolis, the Capital of Cyrus’ Persian Empire

Here we see the massacre of thousands of Israelites and the genocide and deportation of whole populations of peoples by the Assyrian, with the exile and deportation of the people of Jerusalem, and the brutal massacre of the sons of the king of Jechoniah, just prior to gouging out his eyes.

So along comes Cyrus, who within fifty years after the fall of Jerusalem, sets into motion the restoration of the House of Judah and the elevation of the Jewish prime minister of Babylon, Daniel, to be one of his chiefs of state. Two hundred fifty years later, when Alexander the Great carrying the torch of Greek Idealism, he went forth to conquer and when he met the Persians, he not only destroyed, but obliterated the capital city of Persapolis, until its ruins were uncovered by the archeologists within the past two centuries.

Compared with the religious toleration of Cyrus the Great (280-337 A.D.), we also see Constantine the Great, the great British general, who became the Roman emperor and imperialized the Christian Church. In doing so, he set off the greatest and the longest official religious persecution of any national and religious body of people in the history of mankind, the Jews.

Modern Reenactment of the Culture of Persapolis

The persecution, genocide, pogroms of the Romans, the Roman Papal Church, the European Crusades, the Russians, the Christian German Nazis, the Islamic nations, and now the world community in the United Nations, have now been imprinted in the psychic of all mankind in what is called anti-Semitism. Yet Cyrus was unique, he did not conquer and destroy, he conquered and restored. Maybe this is the reason the prophets proclaimed:

Isaiah 44:28 – “Who says to Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built,’ and to the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”

Isaiah 45:1 – “Thus sayest the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held – to subdue nations before him (Luristan and Elam at Susa, Lydia of the famed King Croesus, Media at Ecbatana (now Hamadan) and with it Uratu (present day Armenia), Cappadocia and Cilicia in central Turkey, the fabled city of Babylon), and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut;

‘I will go before you (like HaShem did to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt) and make the crooked places straight; I will break the pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. (The city of Babylon had one hundred gates of bronze) I will give you the treasure of darkness and hidden riches of secret places (allusion to the fabled wealth of Sardis captured in 546 BCE), that you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.

For Jacob My servant’s sake (to reestablish the children of Jacob back into Jerusalem), and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named your name (called by name in the time of Isaiah about 750 BCE, about 150 years prior to the birth of Cyrus 11), though you have not known Me (Cyrus was aware of the oracles of Isaiah, but was a monotheistic believer in the prophet Zarathustra who worshipped the one god Ahuramazda). I am PERSEPOLIS the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”’

Re-construction of the Palace at Persapolis

What is so unique about the Oracles of Zechariah and its prophetic implications to the world community during the time of the end? To the BibleSearchers, not only does it appear that the events in the time of the end will walk step by step as commanded or foretold to the returning Jews in the time of the Persian kings, but where the prophecies were not totally fulfilled in the 6^th century BCE, there is a distinct possibility that they will be totally fulfilled at the time of the end.

The first unique feature is the nature of the geopolitical world of the Persian Empire and the parallels with the present world global community led by the United States in what many believe to be the time of the end.

A study of this great statesman and ruler, Cyrus the Great initiated mini-drama in the ancient world and impelled us to ask the question, “What if we can now see through the writings of the Prophet Zechariah the literal unfolding of the geo-politics of the modern world. This was a world, 2500 years ago that was promoting a world and global community based on ethics, a government of ethics with the goal of peace and global harmony we see espoused by the very charter of the United Nations. Is this but an illusion? Probably not. The biblical prophets envisioned that at the time of the end there would be an era in which all the nations of the world would cry, Peace, Peace, yet then sudden destruction would come over the face of the earth.

So are we in a progressive stage of human evolutionary development in which utopian goals will be instituted, such as democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of expression, human rights, cultural tolerance, freedom of religion, open trade agreements, open borders, cultural exchange programs, economic and political globalism, religious ecumenism, and open communication between all peoples on this earth? Probably not! We have been there before yet is it not unique that in the era when the Jewish people were restored back to their homelands in the 6^th century BCE, we once again see this same political and cultural world return to the international scene at the same time that the Jewish people are once again restored back to their homeland in 1948 by the charter of the League of Nations and the Articles for the restoration of the Nation of Israel by the United Nations? By all appearances the Persian empire of Cyrus the Great is being resurrected in the modern United States and the United Nations as part of the future One World Order.

There is also a unique feature of Hebrew history in how they view the progression of historical time. The Greeks brought to human culture linear time where human life moves forward in time and is progressive. The past is history but we cannot return back in time. Iran - Gilan & Mazandaran - Masule Village The culmination of this is the modern concepts of the evolutionary advances of mankind. Humanism, modernism, and New Ageism all promote the progressive advances of human society and development.

Masule Village in Gilan and Mazandaran

The Eastern (Hindus, Buddhists, Confucius’s philosophies) depict a cyclical time, the Grand Periods, or the Great Cycles of Time. These cycles may take up to 25,000 years to complete, but eventually, where you came from you will eventually return. Time always returns back to the origin, the beginning of time. This is the philosophic goal of the New Age, with the blending tentacles of Gnosticism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

The Hebrew concept of time is cyclical and progressive. Life to them returns over and over in grand patterns of life, like a vortex or the spiral of a tornado. It does not go in a circle; neither does it go in a straight linear progressive fashion. We can see this in the Festivals of the Lord as they were reenacted yearly in the Temple of the Lord. Imbedded in these festivals were prophetic elements, which predicted the ministry of Jesus in the spring festivals. Also in these festivals the returning of the Messiah, Yahshua ben Joseph was portrayed in the fall festivals.

We see this same pattern in the history of the going into Egypt with the House of Jacob and the redemption from Egypt of the children of Israel. These patterns were replayed over and over in the exiles and restorations of the House of Judah and the predicted future restoration of the House of Israel. The prophecies of the prophets of old were patterns to be played over and over, a progressive cycle until the time of the end in which all the prophecies will culminate or be replayed in a Grand Finale as the Great Day of the Lord approaches.

This is the source of research by the BibleSearchers. We are looking for patterns in the prophecies of the ancients to give us clues to the future in what many feel are the perilous times of the future and present tribulation before the predicted Great and Awful Day of the Lord.

If the biblical prophets are to be believed after an era of peace and global harmony, there will be the restoration of the House of Israel as the House of Joseph or Ephraim. The building of a Temple of the Lord in the Land of Israel will occur according to the prophets, Iran - Gilan & Mazandaran - forests of Gilan and then a conquering world and global power will take over. In this context, the Antichrist or the anti-Messiah will take over the Holy of Holiest to be used as his seat of power during the time of the Abomination of Desolation.

Forests of Gilan

Do we once again see a parallel?

Global Persian One World Order with peace and harmony under Cyrus the Great (a type of messiah) as a global government

Global One World Order bringing harmony and peace with great security with the Anti-Messiah and a global government.

Greek (Mother of democracy) global dominance under Alexander the Great.

American purveyor of Grecian democracy as a global economic dominant power under the Anti- Messiah.

Antiochus Epiphanies IV, the Greek ruler, desecrating the altar in the Temple of Zerubabbel in Jerusalem.

The Anti-messiah “stopping” the sacrifices of a Tribulation Temple and making his seat of power and authority (“Abomination of Desecration”) in the Holy of Holiest.

For the final era, we will see the resurrection of a global autocrat bent on the destructive forces of power, greed and control. What was most admired by Cyrus the Great is the comparison of a true global statesman, a messiah, compared with the hundreds of mini-autocrats in our world in the last century, raised to power by the philosophy of the Italian political philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) in his book, “The Prince”, which is used as the primer of modern dictators and heads of state, who gain and keep power by deceit, cunning and stealth political gerrymandering, lies, and the ruthless use of power. When asked in chapter 17, whether the prince should be loved or feared, he gave the reply:

Niccolo Machiavelli - "The reply is that one ought to be both feared and loved, but...it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting ...for love is held by a chain of obligation which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purposes, but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails."

Let us visit now the era of Cyrus the Persian and the life of a Jewish Levite, who wrote one of the most poignant and enigmatic prophetic books of the Bible, Zechariah, the son of Iddo.

On a Clay Cylinder, Cyrus recorded his Charter to the Rights of Nation in the script of the nations, cuneiform. Discovered in 1870, this clay cylinder now resides in The British Museum in London. It states:

“... I am Cyrus, King of the world. When I entered Babylon... I did not allow anyone to terrorize the land... I kept in view the needs of people and all its sanctuaries to promote their well-being... I put an end to their misfortune. The Great God has delivered all the lands into my hand; the lands that I have made to dwell in a peaceful habitation...”

The Clay Cylinder of Cyrus

This great monarch became the first great multiculturalist. He was a ruler pledged to the coexistence and peaceful cohabitation of every nationalist group of people from every region of the world, while retaining and preserving their own unique cultural and religious identities.

It was not the Jews alone that were freed and sent back to their homelands, but multiple national groups brought to Babylon were freed to reestablish their own national identity.

Not since the emergence of the United States, the charter of the United Nations and now the theme of the 21^st century War on Terror have the emergence of an empire dedicated to multiculturalism and globalism occurred. Starting in the early 1920’s, there was a ground swell around the world for the restoration of national identities of dozens of national ethnic groups. The world of the imperial rule of Britain, France, Spain and Portugal was coming to a close and independence of these various colonial states were reestablished as individual nations. The British and the French Mandates in the Middle East were responsible in establishing ethnic nations for both the Islamic and the Jewish peoples.

All the “nation building” was completed prior to World War 2 except the establishment of a home for the Jews. After the Holocaust of the Jews by the Third Reich and the Nazi regimen of Adolf Hitler, in 1948, the Jews finally were able to see in reality their own homeland, the Land of Israel. On May 15, 1948, the Nation of Israel was born.

In the 5^th century BCE, of about 150,000 Jews living in Babylonia, about a fourth of them eventually were restored back to the city of Jerusalem. In all, it took four waves of immigrations for the final restoration to be completed.

The Return of the House of Judah

In the classical history of the Persians, the first wave of immigrants was under the leader of Sheshbazzar (Sanabassar in 1 Esdras 2), a claimant of the House of David and heir to the Throne of David soon after the decree in 537 or 536 BCE. The whole company of returning exiles numbered 42,360 plus the 7,336 male and female slaves, and two hundred male and female singers. (Ezra 2:64-66)

Since the Lord of hosts convinced Cyrus I to assist in the building of the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, the first act he did was to deliver the sacred vessels of the Temple of Solomon to Mithradates, the Persian secretary for inventory and to pack them up for delivery back to Jerusalem. This included:

Ezra 1:9-11 1 Esdras 2:13-14

30 gold basins 1000 gold cups

1000 silver basins 1000 silver cups

29 various vessels 29 silver censers,

30 golden bowls 30 gold bowls,

410 silver bowls 2410 silver bowls

1000 other vessels 1000 articles for the temple services.

5400 vessels of gold and silver 5469 golden and silver vessels

What is of interest is the apparent increased precision in the temple vessel inventory in the historical text or translation of the Apocryphal book of 1 Esdras as compared to the standard canon book of Ezra. Once the Jews returned to Jerusalem, the first immigration of Jews under the command of Sheshbazzar rebuilt the altar of incense and reestablished the sacrificial system on the former site of Solomon’s Temple.

The second wave of immigrants came with Zerubabbel, about 520 BCE who was appointed governor of Judah, by the king of Persia. With him also came Joshua called Yehoshua or Jesus (“Jehovah is salvation”) the high priest, son of Jehozadak (“Jehovah the Iran - Gilan & Mazandaran - Dohezar valley, Tonekabon Righteous”).(Haggai 1:12) Finally in 515 BCE, 71 years after the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in 586 BCE, the Temple was restored and dedicated. Thus the 70 year prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled.

Forests of Gilan

In the meantime, the Jews in Jerusalem were harassed and persecuted by the leaders in Shomron (Samaria). Throughout the re-building of the Temple, they had to carry a sword with one hand and build the altar and temple with the other. Here we meet Sanballat the Horonite, the Persian governor of Shomron probably from Beth-Horon, who like Arafat, represented the amalgamated population in the area of the West Bank.

Then there was Tobiah the Ammonite (Jordanian) official, who was probably Sanballat’s secretary or confidential advisor who represented the interest of the Ammonites (Genesis 19:38), who in the time of Nehemiah had pushed west into the land vacated by Judah. How classic are the parallels to this modern era of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, who have sought to maintain defacto control of the West Bank area of Israel, seizing the land given by the League of Nations to the Jews, before the Jewish people actually had time to reclaim the land in 1948.

Achaemenid golden bowl with lion imagery

And finally we read about Geshem the Arabian, who even in that era may have held the purse strings to the political war chest of the citizens of Shomron (West Bank or Samaria). He was very much like the late King Faisal and his son, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, keeping the world hostage by their oil, while being the chief financiers of the present day radical Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, and the Palestinians, as Hamas and Fatah continue the present day Intifada.

In 458 BCE, Ezra led an additional 1,800 Jews seeking aliyah in the Land of Israel, returning from Babylon, carrying with them many valuable treasures. Yet, they refused military escort.

Finally in 440 BCE, Nehemiah became the newly appointed governor of Judah by Artaxerses I, emperor of Persia. He was the personal cupbearer to King Artaxerses, who by Jewish tradition was the son of Xerses I (Ahasuerus) and the Jewish Queen Esther. Here we have a Persian ruler who was Jewish by his mother’s descent and thereby legitimately of the House of Judah, sending back to the Land of Israel one of his royal household officials who was of royal descent of the House of David. Nehemiah was personally sent with the mission to rebuild the fortifications around the city of Jerusalem and to organize a defensible shield against their terrorizing neighbors in the Shomron (West Bank) region.

A Griffin enbelom, one of the symbols of the Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great

The building of a defensive shield was paramount to the security and protection of Jerusalem, for without it, the citizens of Jerusalem could not independently pursue their national agenda with gates open to the enemies and the walls which could be penetrated by the suicidal terrorists who were bent on their destruction. Even so the Upper City remained unprotected.

Nehemiah 4:11-12 - "They that built the wall and they that bore burdens laded themselves, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held his weapon; and the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so buildeth. And he that sounded the horn was by me.”

Ezra 6:15 - "And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king."

Achaemenian court art a rhyton from Ecbatana –

Tehran, National Museum

Once the fortifications were completed, the governor Nehemiah made a direct order that the city be filled with citizens, which included the nobility class and at least 10% of the rural population. (Nehemiah11:1) At this time, an entire monetary system was reorganized. As in the days when the Jubilees were kept, the debts were absolved to free the citizens from the bondage of monetary serfdom.

With the restoration of a protective shield about 428 BCE, Ezra the Scribe began a spiritual reformation and reestablished Torah living within the land of Israel. The Temple was now completed and dedicated, mixed marriages were dissolved and the scribes, teachers, and experts of the Torah, the Mosaic Law, were given equality in professional status with the nobility and priests. At this time the preeminence of Jerusalem as the spiritual center of Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora in Egypt, Babylon and Assyria (Asia Minor) became undisputed.

Within the city of Jerusalem, the exiles returning from the Diaspora had selected centers or buildings to use as a house of prayer (Beit Tefilla), the house of learning (Beit Midrash) and also a house of assembly (Beit Knesset). By this time the city of Jerusalem was recognized as a city dedicated to universal education, freedom of assembly, and self-government in all Jewish communities and a religion of standardized prayers and liturgy.

By the end of the Persian imperial age, Jerusalem was once again noted as a thriving metropolis and fully autonomous in the empire. Even so, with political autonomy, they still did not have a royal house or a king, but they did have a high priest.

During this era, the rule of the High Priest was balanced by the rule of the Great Assembly called the HaKnesset HaGadola. All business transactions ceased on the Sabbaths (Shabbats) which also included the Sabbaths of the festivals and feasts. The Sabbatical Shmitah occurred every seven years with the cessation of agricultural planting and the resting of the land. Then there were the Jubilee years every fifty years when the remission of debts was observed. Also the equal contributions of a third of a shekel tax to the Temple, and to render first fruits to the priest and tithes to the Levites was enforced. By 350 BCE, Judah was known as Iudea (Judea) and recognized as the Nation of Jews to the Greeks.

In a quick review let us look at a time-table of the events relating to the Jewish people by the Persian rulers that affected their lives and their national identities.

Medo-Persian Empire.

Traditional Persian Imperial Chronology

The Achaemenians (Hakhâmanišiya) were the royal dynasty of ancient Persia, named after the legendary Achaemenes. (Hakhâmaniš). Their rule lasted until 331 BCE.

Cyaxares 628-588 BCE

Astyages 588-553 BCE

Cyrus (Ruler of Medes & Persians) 559/2 to November 530 BCE

(Ruler of Babylon) 539-530 BCE

First Decree to Return to Israel (Ezra 5:13) 538 BCE

First Return to Jerusalem to rebuild Temple 537 BCE

50,000 Jews with Zerubabbel (Ezra 1:5, 6; 3:1-10)

Cambyses II before August 31, 530 but after April 18, 522 BCE

Bardiya (Smerdis) March 11, 522 to September 29, 522 BCE

Darius I (Hystaspes, the Great) September 29, 522 BCE

Confirmed original decree of Cyrus

Decree to complete the Zerubabbel Temple (Ezra 6:1, 15) 515 BCE

Persian Army defeated by Athenians at Marathon 490 BCE

Xerses I (Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther) Before December 1, 486 BCE

The Great Feast (1:3) April 14, 483-Apr 2, 482 BCE

Command to “gather together all the fair young virgins” 482/481 BCE

Xerses’ forces were defeated in Greece at the Battle of Salamis 480 BCE

General Mardonius defeated at Plataea 479 BCE

Persians leave Europe permanently 479 BCE

Esther summoned (2:12) Jan 1, 479 – Jan 30, 479 BCE

Esther made queen (2:16) Dec 22, 479 – Jan 19, 479 BCE

Haman casts lots in the twelfth year (3:7) Apr 5-May 3, 474 BCE

Haman’s decree (3:12) April 17, 474 BCE

Mordecai’s decree (8:9) June 25, 474 BCE

Purim (3:13, 8:12; 9:1, 17-19) March 6, 473 BCE

Assassination of Ahasuerus was 465 BCE

eight years later by courtier, Artabanus.

Artaxerses I Longimanus or Makrocheir

Between 4 and 8 August, 465 and after December 24, 424 BCE

Second Return to Jerusalem under Ezra 458 BCE

Letter of protest from the Samaritans from Beshlam, Methredath, Tabel and companions was written and translated in Aramaic.

Third Jewish Return to Jerusalem under Nehemiah 444 BCE

Xerxes II 423 BCE

Sogdianus 423 BCE

Darius II (Nothus) before February 13, 423 to April, 404 BCE

Artaxerses II 405/4-359/8 BCE

The Medo-Persian Empire

Traditional Royal Family Tree of the Medes and the Persians

Achaemenes
      |
       Teispes
__________________|_______________
|                                                                   |
   Cyrus I                                                       Ariaramnes
|                                                                   |
Cambyses I                                                   Arsames
|                                                                  |
|                                       ____________   |
|                                       |                          |
   Cyrus the Great         Pharnaces           Hystaspes
|____________                                          |
|                       |                                          |
Cambyses II       Smerdis                         Darius I
                                                                  |
                                                               Xerxes I
                                                                  |
                                                               Artaxerxes I
_________________________________|
|                                  |                              |
Sogdianus                 Xerxes II             Darius II
                                                                  |
_________________________________|
|                                   |                              |
Artaxerxes II            Cyrus                      Ostanes
|                                                                  |
Artaxerxes III                                            Arsames
|                                                                  |

Artaxerxes IV Darius I

Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo

Iran - Fars (Shiraz) - Ghashghai women weaving carpet Ghashghai women weaving a carpet weaving carpet

Zechariah, the next to the last book in the Old Testament canon, is called the “Apocalypse of the Old Testament”. Its theme is to set forth the program of God, the Plan of Salvation, and its relationship to the remnant of God’s (Hashem’s) chosen people, the Israelites. This theme is also the same theme of the Book of Revelation by the Apostle John. Some scholars think that in Zechariah, the children of Israel are the central focus, while in the Book of Revelation the Gentile nations are in the central focus. Yet, the Book of Revelation appears also to be a literal account of HaShem in the last days with the central focus being Jerusalem and the chosen people, the Jews, as they are assembled in the Land. With this in mind, BibleSearchers, in this study, will relook at the Book of Zechariah as a literal account of the time of the end events with Israel as the central focus.

According to the traditions of the Hebrews, the names of the authors have a special significance. And so in this prophetic book, we see the following meanings unfold:

Zechariah (Zekaryah) is known as “Jehovah remembers”, or “Jehovah has remembered.”

Berechiah, the father of Zechariah, means, “God blesses”

Iddo, his grandfather’s name means “At the appointed time”.

So what is the message?

God remembers and God blesses at the appointed Time

As Hebrew is translated from right to left, then, we might also consider the meaning:

At the Appointed Time, God blesses and God remembers

The Prophet and builder of the House of the Lord

So who was this Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo? At the time of the restoration of the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem, Ezra exclaimed:

Ezra 5:1 – “The prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.”

This was the catalyst that spurred on the leadership of the restored Jews back to the land.

Ezra 5:2, Nehemiah 12:10 - “So Zerubabbel the son of Shealtiel and Yahshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.”

According to the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerses, kings of Persia, the Temple was completed “on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius, about 516 B.C.

Darius II the Great

We also see Zechariah, the son of Iddo again in the Book of Nehemiah. During the reign of the Persian emperor, Artaxerses I Longimanus, the Jews were once against allowed to return to the Land of Israel and not only rebuild and complete the house of the Lord, but to finish the walls around the city of Jerusalem.

At this time, about 440 BCE, Nehemiah, a prominent courtier in the court of Artaxerses, wrote about Zechariah, son of Iddo, in his memoirs about his aliyah (return to the Land of Israel). At that time the priests and Levites returned with Zerubabbel and Yehoshua, the High Priest. (Nehemiah 12:12) in the year of 520 BCE, the second year of Darius 1, king of Persia. This time, Zechariah was recognized as part of the priests and as the head of the fathers’ house of Iddo. (Nehemiah 12:16)

With the fall of Jerusalem in the 586 BCE and the restoration of the Temple to the Lord in 516 BCE, there is a high probability that Zechariah would have been alive prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and participated in the Levitical life in the Temple compound of the Temple of Solomon. Yet is there any evidence?

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai (Zech 1:1, Haggai 1:1), and his works were known to Ezra (Ezra 5:1, 6:14). It has been assumed that Zechariah was born in Babylonia and that his ministry began about 520/519 BCE or about 16-17 years after the First Degree to Return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple with Zerubabbel in 537 BCE. (Ezra 1:5, 6; 3:1-10)

Zechariah 1:1 – In the eighth month of the Second year of Darius,

the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berachiah,

the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

The eighth month was called Bul before the fall of Babylonian captivity. (I Kings 6:38) After the Babylonian exile, it was renamed Marcheshvan or Heshvan. Since the religious year began in the month of the Passover, the first month of Abib, the eighth month fell in the months of October-November, 521 BCE.

Outline of the Book of Zechariah

At the beginning of the first chapter we find our first outline of the book. Here is the first summary of the Book of Zechariah.

Section One – “The Lord is very angry with your fathers.” (Zechariah 1:2) This is a summary of the first six verses.

Section Two – “Return to Me“ (Zechariah 1:3b) this is the theme from chapter 1 verse 7 to chapter 6, verse 15, showing how HaShem will deliver His people.

Section Three – “I will return to you”. (Zechariah 1:3d) This theme covers chapters 7 through 14.

Zechariah 1:2 - “The Lord has been very angry with your fathers.

Yes, God does get angry and when He does, dramatic things begin to happen on this earth. The word “angry or wroth” in Hebrew Qasaph, literally translated means “to be wroth”. (Deuteronomy 9:19, Isaiah 47:6)

This historical drama is set in the Persian Empire and is centered over the return “to the Land” and the physical rebuilding of the Temple. The Lord was angry because the Jewish forefathers in the era before the exile had broken their covenant with HaShem. The reformation that was so powerfully started in the day of good King Josiah was quickly reversed in the era of King Manasseh thereby resulting in God (HaShem) having to withdraw His protective forces around Jerusalem. The eventual destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon came in 586 AD. Does God get angry? According to mystical Judaism, the most awesome attributes of the Divine are not in the physical attributes, but in the attributes of God’s (Hashem’s) personality. The wrath of God is seen as the presence of the Divine coming close to His people and providing His protective hand over them and then having to withdraw His presence away from them and removing His protective shield from around His people.

Zechariah 1:3 – Therefore say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,”

says the Lord of hosts.

This is