Zechariah 9–14 and the Continuation of Zechariah during the Ptolemaic Period

Abstract

Despite its significance, the question of why the book of Zechariah was expanded with chs. 9–14 has largely been overlooked. By combining literary and sociohistorical insights, this article demonstrates that Zech 9–14 was composed as the continuation of Zechariah in order to bring the prophetic corpus up to date in light of the sociopolitical changes of the Ptolemaic period. As such, Zech 9-14 serves to enhance the authority of the prophetic revelation and to criticize these changes by means of a utopian/dystopian perspective.