At the time of the usurper Herod, John the Baptist was the son of Zechariah, who was the High Priest of the Temple. He inherited the High Priesthood from his father, as had been the tradition from the time of Moses in Egypt, when Aaron passed his High Priest’s Mantle to Eleazar.  The beginning of the High Priesthood comes to us with Aaron from Egypt. Aaron was of the house of Tsdq, translated as Zadok or Zecharia, which was to have exclusive control of the High Priesthood, John’s birth saved the true High Priesthood. This is the divine order as it was created by the covenant with God.

Aaron is Orion: Eleazar is Osiris and Zechariah is Seker.

Meanwhile Herod appointed his own High Priest which was Ananias. 

Herod is the Herut serpent and Ananias is an antichrist

Mary was, like Zechariah and Elizabeth, a descendant of Aaron. The Virgin Mary was the ''exalted sister of the high priest'', ''sister'' of Zechariah, a position passed down from Miriam. The Virgin Mary was not a descendant of David as claimed in pro-Judaic gloss. Just as Osiris was flanked by his two sisters - Isis and Nephthys, likewise Zechariah had his two ''sisters'' - Elizabeth and Mary.

From Herod’s point of view, it would have been necessary to murder the true high priest and his family in order to appoint his own people.

Since Judah’s descendants were all Canaanites, which included Herod and the present powers which had held control since the expulsion of the family of Saul, they were not even technically Israelite, and therefore if Jesus had been the descendant of David, he would not have been able to claim the position of High Priest of the Israelites due to his tainted blood. In Matthew, Jesus is even heard denying that he is the son of David. The Messiah could not possibly come from the House of David, and it was this issue alone which explains the tampering with the bible by the Jews from Old Testament to New. They still eagerly await their Messiah from the seed of David, which is in reality a barren, delusional prophecy that has not and will never be fulfilled.

Since Saul was the first and last King anointed by God, only the successors of Saul would be legitimate, and even then, God only appointed a king in order to teach his children a lesson as to why they shouldn’t wish to have a King. God was to be the only King. From the time of the Christening of Saul as King to replace Samuel as High Priest, and his overthrow by David and his band of extortionists, the groundwork was laid for the records to be written or over-written rather, by the tribe of David, the victors of that particular struggle for Jerusalem. For this reason the scholars of the Oxford Study Bible admit that the gloss and overlay is propaganda to enhance the role of the tribe of Judah from the time of Samuel onward. Old Testament overlays and purposeful mistranslations have given credit to Judah for Rueben’s willingness to be imprisoned in place of Benjamin. It was also Rueben who saved Joseph’s life by suggesting he be put into the well and sold to merchants, rather than just killing him as Judah had wanted to do in the disputed text.

The description of the tribe of Judah as the Lion is a clear mistranslation. The Lion description was given to the tribe of Benjamin and still is, but it is mistranslated as ‘ravening wolf’. So whereas the tribe of Benjamin is the Lion, Judah is described as a Lion’s whelp, or the sucking of a lion, a little puppy dependent on it’s mommy for milk.

There is evidence that Aaron was not of the tribe of Levi at all, but rather the tribe of Benjamin, whom utilized Levites as their assistants. Since the Temple was to be in the land of Benjamin, it is logical that the House of Zadok, the Order of Melchizedek, the family of the High Priests, of Zechariah and John the Baptist and Elizabeth and Mary were all Benjamites. Even the Jewish encyclopedia hints of how Joseph was killed by the poison of the serpent, and how the fact of the Benjamite high priesthood would be concealed by falsifying scripture. 

The followers of Saul went elsewhere, and archaeology records a mass abandonment of the towns around Jerusalem around this time long before the exile. One Benjamite family had to remain in Jerusalem, the family of Zechariah. The name has the three sounds: TS, D, K. This can be written Tsadoquites, the Order of Maleki Tsadek, (Melchizadek or King Zadek, King Zacharias or Zecharia, etc). Malachi comes from the noun מלאך ( mal'ak ), messenger, which in turn comes from the verb לאך ( la'ak ), to act masterly or deal masterly with. 

The family of the High Priesthood stayed in Jerusalem in order to carry out their duties while the family of Saul, the Benjamites and other tribes fled Jerusalem and in nearby Samaria continued non-centralized worship as it had been prescribed by Isaiah.

In the modern translations, the tribe of Judah claims affiliation with Benjamin as a way of justifying their occupation of Jerusalem which is within the inheritance of Benjamin, not Judah. Benjamin has always been an ally, not of Judah, but of the two tribes of Joseph on whose inheritance the land of Samaria lay, since these were all children of the same mother, Rachel.

The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known in the East as The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, is a liturgical feast celebrated on November 21 by the Catholic, Orthodox Churches, and some Anglo-Catholic Churches.

The feast is associated with an event recounted not in the New Testament, but in the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James. According to that text, Mary's parents, Joachim and Anne, who had been childless, received a heavenly message that they would have a child. In thanksgiving for the gift of their daughter, they brought her, when still a child, to the Temple in Jerusalem to consecrate her to God. Later versions of the story (such as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary) indicate that Mary was taken to the Temple at around the age of three in fulfillment of a vow. Tradition held that she was to remain there to be educated in preparation for her role as Mother of God.

The account of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple is principally based on the Protoevangelium of James, which has been dated by historians prior to the year 200 AD. The story relates that in thanksgiving for the birth of their daughter Mary, Joachim and Anne decide to consecrate her to God, and bring her, at the age of three years, to the temple in Jerusalem. Mary’s presentation in the temple draws parallels to that of the prophet Samuel, whose mother Hannah, like Anne, was also thought to be barren, and who offered her child as a gift to God at Shiloh.

Mary remained in the Temple until her twelfth year, at which point Joseph was assigned to be her guardian. According to Coptic tradition, her father Joachim died when Mary was six years old and her mother when Mary was eight. It is from this account that arose the feast of Mary's Presentation.

The Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos

The Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on November 21 each year. The Feast commemorates when as a young child, the Virgin Mary entered the Temple in Jerusalem.

When Mary was three years old, Joachim and Anna decided that the time had come to fulfill their promise and to offer her to the Lord. Joachim gathered the young girls of the neighborhood to form an escort, and he made them go in front of Mary, carrying torches. Captivated by the torches, the young child followed joyfully to the Temple, not once looking back at her parents nor weeping as she was parted from them.

The Holy Virgin ran toward the Temple, overtaking her attendant maidens and threw herself into the arms of the High Priest Zechariah, who was waiting for her at the gate of the Temple with the elders. Zechariah blessed her saying, “It is in you that He has glorified your name in every generation. It is in you that He will reveal the Redemption that He has prepared for His people in the last days.”

She embraced Zechariah and Zechariah blessed her.

Then, Zechariah brought the child into the Holy of Holies—a place where only the High Priest was permitted to enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. He placed her on the steps of the altar, and the grace of the Lord descended upon her. She arose and expressed her joy in a dance as wonder seized all who saw this happen.

Note that it does not say how much time went by from when she was presented to Zechariah and when she was taken into the Holy of Holies, placed on the steps and she did her dance... (most likely 9 years). Zechariah would have been the High Priest, and this would have been the Day of Atonement (Autumn Equinox). The Grace (Charis) of the Lord. She danced, but the only one whom would have seen her dance would have been Zechariah since he was the only one permitted to enter into the holy of Holies! And this is likewise the same Holy of Holies where Gabriel announced John's immaculate conception to Zechariah on the Autumn Equinox as well! 

The Virgin Mary dwelt in the Temple for nine years until, reaching an age for marriage, she was taken from the Temple by the priests and elders and entrusted to Joseph as the guardian of her virginity.

She dwelt at the Temple with her ''uncle'' Zechariah from 3-12 years of age before being handed over to an old man (Joseph)? Further, Gabriel appeared to her on the Spring Equinox regarding her immaculate conception... since Zechariah presided over the Autumn Equinox ceremonies, he must have likewise presided over the Spring Equinox ceremonies as well.

The common denominators regarding the two immaculate conceptions are the equinoxes, the Temple and Zechariah.

The Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple, Commemorated on November 21
Troparion & Kontakion

According to Holy Tradition, the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple took place in the following manner. The parents of the Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Anna, praying for an end to their childlessness, vowed that if a child were born to them, they would dedicate it to the service of God.

When the Most Holy Virgin reached the age of three, the holy parents decided to fulfill their vow. They gathered together their relatives and acquaintances, and dressed the All-Pure Virgin in Her finest clothes. Singing sacred songs and with lighted candles in their hands, virgins escorted Her to the Temple (Ps. 44/45:14-15). There the High Priest and several priests met the handmaiden of God. In the Temple, fifteen high steps led to the sanctuary, which only the priests and High Priest could enter. (Because they recited a Psalm on each step, Psalms 119/120-133/134 are called “Psalms of Ascent.”) The child Mary, so it seemed, could not make it up this stairway. But just as they placed Her on the first step, strengthened by the power of God, She quickly went up the remaining steps and ascended to the highest one. Then the High Priest, through inspiration from above, led the Most Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest entered once a year to offer a purifying sacrifice of blood. Therefore, all those present in the Temple were astonished at this most unusual occurrence.

Zechariah presented Mary to God

After entrusting their child to the Heavenly Father, Joachim and Anna returned home. The All-Holy Virgin remained in the quarters for virgins near the Temple. According to the testimony of Holy Scripture (Exodus 38; 1 Kings 1: 28; Luke 2: 37), and also the historian Josephus Flavius, there were many living quarters around the Temple, in which those who were dedicated to the service of God dwelt.

The earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos from Her infancy until She was taken up to Heaven is shrouded in deep mystery. Her life at the Jerusalem Temple was also a secret. “If anyone were to ask me,” said Saint Jerome, “how the Most Holy Virgin spent the time of Her youth, I would answer that that is known to God Himself and the Archangel Gabriel, Her constant guardian.”

The same ''constant'' guardian whom went before Zechariah to announce the conception of John?

But there are accounts in Church Tradition, that during the All-Pure Virgin’s stay at the Temple, She grew up in a community of pious virgins, diligently read the Holy Scripture, occupied Herself with handicrafts, prayed constantly, and grew in love for God. From ancient times, the Church has celebrated the Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Indications that the Feast was observed in the first centuries of Christianity are found in the traditions of Palestinian Christians, which say that the holy Empress Helen (May 21) built a church in honor of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, in the fourth century, also mentions this Feast. In the eighth century Saints Germanus and Tarasius, Patriarchs of Constantinople, delivered sermons on the Feast of the Entry.

The Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple foretells God’s blessing for the human race, the preaching of salvation, the promise of the coming of Christ.

DISCOURSE ON THE FEAST OF THE ENTRY OF OUR MOST PURE LADY THEOTOKOS INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES
by Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica

Now, when Righteous Joachim and Anna saw that they had been granted their wish, and that the divine promise to them was realized in fact, then they on their part, as true lovers of God, hastened to fulfill their vow given to God as soon as the child had been weaned from milk. They have now led this truly sanctified child of God, now the Mother of God, this Virgin into the Temple of God. And She, being filled with Divine gifts even at such a tender age, ... She, rather than others, determined what was being done over Her. In Her manner She showed that She was not so much presented into the Temple, but that She Herself entered into the service of God of her own accord, as if she had wings, striving towards this sacred and divine love. She considered it desirable and fitting that she should enter into the Temple and dwell in the Holy of Holies.

Therefore, the High Priest, seeing that this child, more than anyone else, had divine grace within Her, wished to set Her within the Holy of Holies. He convinced everyone present to welcome this, since God had advanced it and approved it. Through His angel, God assisted the Virgin and sent Her mystical food, with which She was strengthened in nature, while in body She was brought to maturity and was made purer and more exalted than the angels, having the Heavenly spirits as servants. She was led into the Holy of Holies not just once, but was accepted by God to dwell there with Him during Her youth, so that through Her, the Heavenly Abodes might be opened and given for an eternal habitation to those who believe in Her miraculous birthgiving.

So it is, and this is why She, from the beginning of time, was chosen from among the chosen. She Who is manifest as the Holy of Holies, Who has a body even purer than the spirits purified by virtue, is capable of receiving ... the Hypostatic Word of the Unoriginate Father. Today the Ever-Virgin Mary, like a Treasure of God, is stored in the Holy of Holies, so that in due time, (as it later came to pass) She would serve for the enrichment of, and an ornament for, all the world. Therefore, Christ God also glorifies His Mother, both before, and also after His birth.

We who understand the salvation begun for our sake through the Most Holy Virgin, give Her thanks and praise according to our ability. And truly, if the grateful woman (of whom the Gospel tells us), after hearing the saving words of the Lord, blessed and thanked His Mother, raising her voice above the din of the crowd and saying to Christ, “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps Thou hast sucked” (Luke 11:27), then we who have the words of eternal life written out for us, and not only the words, but also the miracles and the Passion, and the raising of our nature from death, and its ascent from earth to Heaven, and the promise of immortal life and unfailing salvation, then how shall we not unceasingly hymn and bless the Mother of the Author of our Salvation and the Giver of Life, celebrating Her conception and birth, and now Her Entry into the Holy of Holies?

Now, brethren, let us remove ourselves from earthly to celestial things. Let us change our path from the flesh to the spirit. Let us change our desire from temporal things to those that endure. Let us scorn fleshly delights, which serve as allurements for the soul and soon pass away. Let us desire spiritual gifts, which remain undiminished. Let us turn our reason and our attention from earthly concerns and raise them to the inaccessible places of Heaven, to the Holy of Holies, where the Mother of God now resides.

Therefore, in such manner our songs and prayers to Her will gain entry, and thus through her mediation, we shall be heirs of the everlasting blessings to come, through the grace and love for mankind of Him Who was born of Her for our sake, our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory, honor and worship, together with His Unoriginate Father and His Coeternal and Life-Creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

In Matthew 23, Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. He concluded His rebuke with some especially strong statements.
“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” (Matthew 23:31–35)
Jesus clearly stated that Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, was murdered between the temple and the altar.

Chronicles reveals that Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, was stoned “in the court of the house of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 24:20–21).

By citing the first and last martyrs of the Old Testament, Jesus essentially assigned guilt of the murder of every prophet to the scribes and Pharisees. 

The most frequently occurring personal name in the Bible is Zechariah (also spelled Zachariah or in the New Testament as Zacharias). At least thirty kings, princes, priests, prophets, servants, sons, trumpet players, and gatekeepers claim this name, which means “Jehovah remembers.” We should not be surprised to find some confusion about the biblical Zechariahs given that the name over a thousand years and fifty-five separate verses. It appears that the Gospel of Matthew may have confused two Zechariahs. Chapter 23 mentions the ninth-century high-priestly martyr Zechariah but incorrectly assigns him a different father M Barachias, the father of the sixth-century. Where Matthew mixed up the two Zechariahs, the parallel account found in Luke 11:51 did not.

Matthew 23:35

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Luke 11:50–51

That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple.

First Century AD—Zacharias, Father of John the Baptist

Unfortunately, the confusion between these two Zechariahs was not limited to Matthew 23:35. The matter became further entangled in the second century AD, when much Christian literature came forward to satisfy the early Christians’ hunger for more details about Jesus’ early life. One of these pieces, the noncanonical Protevangelium of James, elaborates on the miraculous birth narratives of Mary, John the Baptist, and Jesus.

Portions of this book may date to AD 150, although the section on Zacharias emerges later. Although the book claims the name and authority of one of the biblical Jameses, Apocrypha scholar Wilhelm Schneemelcher regards it as “pious fancy . . . ignoran[t] of Palestinian geography and of Jewish customs.” Another authority on the Protevangelium of James, J. K. Elliott, sees it as an “elaboration of the canonical infancy narratives” and attributes it to the “doctrines of Mariology.” The oldest titles of the book included “Birth of Mary” and “Birth of Saint Mary, Mother of God.” In the sixteenth century, publishers first printed it with the name Protevangelium, or “pre-Gospel,” to imply that the events supposedly occurred prior to those recorded in the four Gospels of the New Testament. According to Schneemelcher’s analysis, later versions of the Protevangelium developed a story which further misconstrued the identity of the Zacharias in Matthew 23:35. These later versions contended that the Zechariah slain near the temple altar was neither the ninth-century high priest “Zechariah, son of Jehoiada” nor the sixth-century prophet “Zechariah, son of Berechiah,” but a first-century Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. The Protevangelium incorrectly introduces the priest Zacharias, husband of Elisabeth, as the reigning high priest: “And the high priest went in, taking the robe with the twelve bells into the holy of holies. . . . And behold an angel of the Lord stood by him, saying unto him: Zacharias, Zacharias, go out.” Following his vision, the text unfolds his murder:

And when Herod knew that he had been mocked by the Magi, in a rage he sent murderers, saying to them: Slay the children from two years old and under. And Mary, having heard that the children were being killed, was afraid, and took the infant and swaddled Him, and put Him into an ox-stall. And Elisabeth, having heard that they were searching for John, took him and went up into the hill-country. . . . And Herod searched for John, and Herod was enraged, and said: . . . [Zacharias’] son is destined to be king over Israel. And he sent . . . [to the temple] again, saying: Tell the truth; where is thy son? for thou knowest that thy life is in my hand. And Zacharias said: I am God’s martyr, if thou sheddest my blood; for the Lord will receive my spirit, because thou sheddest innocent blood at the vestibule of the temple of the Lord. And Zacharias was murdered about daybreak . . . [his] clotted blood beside the altar . . . turned into stone. . . .The priests consulted as to whom they should put in his place; and the lot fell upon Simeon. For it was he who had been warned by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death until he should see the Christ in the flesh. 

This apocryphal text interpreted the Matthew 23:35 phrase “Zacharias son of Barachias” as a reference to John the Baptist’s father, who shared the same name, but not the same paternity or priesthood position. This additional confusion compounds the problem of separating the sixth-century prophet from the ninth-century martyred high priest in Matthew 23:35.

In addition to this misinterpretation of the Zacharias in Matthew, this excerpt from the Protevangelium also contradicts the Lucan and Matthean nativity narratives in at least five other ways. First, Luke 1:5 introduces Zacharias as a priest “of the course of Abia,” which was one of the twenty-four courses of Aaronic priests that David organized. The course of Abia included hundreds of priests who rotated between the twenty-four Aaronic courses for their five weeks of temple service each year. Joachim Jeremias (a Second Temple scholar), estimated that eighteen thousand common priests and Levites lived in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth. Luke portrayed Zacharias as one of these common priests, not as the one reigning high priest—which office had deteriorated to a short-term, arbitrary political appointment made from among the chief priests. Furthermore, the common priests received the honor of lighting the incense altar each morning and evening, not the high priest. Luke1:8–19 described the angel Gabriel visiting Zacharias as he fulfilled his duty in the Holy Place—not the Holy of Holies. Yet the Protevangelium claims that Zacharias was the high priest, a position whose duties would be performed in the Holy of Holies.

Second, Matthew describes Herod’s troops going to Bethlehem to kill the “young child” Jesus, but the Protevangelium adds that “Herod searched for John” as well. Unlike the biblical narratives, the Protevangelium expands the story with several tangents about John and his family. In so doing, it twists details from both nativity narratives and concludes that the infant John (not Jesus) “is destined to be king over Israel.” The apocryphal account elevates John to take over Jesus’ role as king. Furthermore, Herod’s search for John stretched the story to include Zacharias’ martyrdom, which is not biblical.

Third, the Protevangelium disregards the passage of time between the Lucan and Matthean accounts. Unlike Luke’s text, which describes the night of Jesus’ birth in a stable, Matthew recounts a year or two later, when Jesus is a “young child” (paidion) and the holy family lives in a house (see Matthew 2:13). The apocryphal version ignores that timing. When Herod’s troops come to Bethlehem, the Protevangelium claims that Mary is still without housing and attempts to hide the infant Jesus in “an ox stall,” with no reference to Joseph’s dream to flee to Egypt. 

Fourth, in contrast to Matthew 2:16, the apocryphal work claims that Herod’s slaughter of the baby boys extended far beyond the sparsely populated pastoral community of Bethlehem to include a broader swath across the hill country of Judea and Jerusalem. As part of that larger geography, the Protevangelium includes that “Herod searched for John,” contradicting the biblical account. This search supposedly led to Herod killing Zacharias because he would not divulge his son’s whereabouts.

Fifth, the Protevangelium connects the “devout Simeon” from the temple scene in Luke 2:25, 34, with Zacharias. Luke shares a few details about Simeon but never includes any exchange between the two aged men. In fact, Luke 2:26 insinuates that after Simeon saw “the Lord’s Christ,” the old prophet would be free to leave his mortal existence. Yet the Protevangelium does not have him die but instead asserts that Simeon succeeded Zacharias as the high priest. Both points are not biblical and contradict the documented lists of high priests in Jerusalem at that time: 5–4 BC, Matthias ben Theophilus; 4 BC, Joazar ben Boethus; 4–3 BC, Eleazar ben Boethus; 3 BC, Joshua ben Sie; in or before AD 6, Joazar ben Boethus; and AD 6–15, Ananus ben Seth. 

Partially because of its lack of historicity and authority, western popes attacked the Protevangelium. Nevertheless, because the stories venerated the Virgin Mary, they spread among the Eastern Orthodox, Ebionite, Syrian, Coptic, and Armenian churches. Leaders like the Orthodox patriarch Peter I of Alexandria (300–311) and a spokesman for the Syrian Christians, Bishop Solomon of Bassoria (1222), perpetuated the tale that the martyred Zacharias cited in Matthew 23:35 was actually the father of John the Baptist. 

Other Christian and Muslim Legends of Zacharias

Other early Christians also wondered what happened to John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, but they related different answers. For example, Origen (184–253), Gregory of Nyssa (335–395), and Cyril of Alexandria (376–444) passed on different versions of the story—still within the temple setting and still emphasizing Mary’s virginity. The narrative blamed the Jews for Zacharias’s death, as he supposedly allowed Mary to stand in a part of the temple reserved exclusively for virgins. The Jews felt Mary’s presence violated the sanctity of the temple because, from their perspective, Mary’s maternity disproved her virginity. The Jews stoned Zacharias for allowing her to enter.

Even a Muslim legend described what happened to Zacharias (spelled Zakariya), the father of John the Baptist. The account depicts Zakariya escaping from his pursuers by hiding in a tree. The tree miraculously opened to admit and enclose him. Unfortunately, the hem of his priestly cloak protruded from the base of the trunk. When his pursuers recognized it, they sawed the tree and Zacharias into pieces. Noble to the end, Zacharias did not utter even a faint cry as he died a martyr’s death. Clearly, the question of what happened to John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, interested many.