Judas and the chief priests fulfilled this prophecy when he threw the money into the temple and they determined to use it to buy “the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers” who had died in Jerusalem, rather than put it into the temple treasury since it had been used to kill a Man (Matt. 27:3-10).  They likely knew of a very cheap piece of property near the city from which potters had been taking clay for years to make their pottery, thus now rendering it useless for nothing more than a graveyard, something worth no more than $15.… Read More Zechariah: Thirty Pieces of Silver

Matthew 26:9-10 says that Jeremiah had spoken the prophecy and does not mention Zechariah.  Some consider this a contradiction and thus proof that the Bible is not inspired of God.  “My Bible’s cross-reference says that Zechariah wrote this, but Matthew says Jeremiah said it.  That’s a contradiction!  The Bible must be a fraud!”  Such a conclusion is mistaken for several reasons. … Read More Zechariah: Did Matthew Make a Mistake?

God had indeed cared for His people under Moses’ covenant.  Whenever they had followed His ways, He had shown them grace and favor and had united them (cf. Josh. 24:14-20). Yet in the end they rejected Him.  Because of this, the Messiah would destroy “the three shepherds” – the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day who were leading the Jews away from God  – “in one month,” likely figurative of a very short amount of time (11:8a).… Read More Zechariah: The Wrong Kind of Shepherds