3269.— Jeremiah or Zechariah
How do you reconcile the statement in Matt. 27:9, "Spoken by Jeremy the prophet," when the quotation appears to be from Zech. 11:12? Who said this, Jeremiah or Zechariah? R. H. M. Perhaps both. For instance, if we had a quotation from Micah 4:2-5 attributed to Isaiah, and we were unable to find the expression in Micah, we would think there might be a mistake; yet the passage in Micah referred to above and Isa. 2:2-4 are very similar indeed. Jeremiah might have said this very thing that Zechariah did, but the writing may not have come down to us. There are not a few prophecies referred to in the Old Testament which have been lost to us. Secondly, some scholars have suggested that the last six chapters of Zechariah, 9 to 14, formed at one time the writings of Jeremiah, but when the manuscripts were gathered a mistake was made in placing them in the position they are. They think the language itself is more like Jeremiah's than Zechariah's. Zechariah repeatedly refers to "the word of the Lord" which came to him, in the first chapters. In later chapters, "the burden of the word of the Lord," which is used by Jeremiah and by none other of the prophets. Either of the above suppositions may be correct, and either would clearly explain the passage found in Matthew.