AN EXAMINATION OF MODERN CRITICISM 269
But it is a sad fact that the grounds, when closely examined, on which Eichhorn and the others, who, ad mitting a post-exilic origin of these chapters, yet deny that they were written by Zechariah, are neither " the geographical references " nor the historical or philological indications in the scripture in question, but the underlying presupposition on the part of these critics that " pure pre diction " is an impossibility, and the attempt to eliminate or explain away the supernatural element in the prophetic scriptures. And since, as an instance, there is too marked and striking a resemblance between the historic events connected with the march and conquest of Alexander the Great through Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, with the description in chaps, ix. and x., they cannot be prophetic of these events (for that would be admitting the possibility of " pure prediction "), but must be " a reflection," or, in other words, a description of the events after they had taken place.
But to come back to Ewald and those who ascribe a pre-exilic origin to the second part of Zechariah, it must be pointed out that the prophecy, had it preceded the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, could not have been earlier than the reign of Jehoiakim, since the mourning for the death of Josiah is spoken of as a proverbial sorrow of the past. But in that case the prophecy which " anticipates " a miraculous interposition of God for the deliverance of Jerusalem would have been in direct contradiction to Jeremiah, " who for thirty-nine years in one unbroken dirge predicted the evil " which should come upon the city ; and the inventive prophet would have been " one of the false prophets who contradicted Jeremiah, who encouraged Zedekiah in his perjury, the punishment whereof Ezekiel solemnly denounced, prophesying his captivity in Babylon as its penalty ; he would have been a political fanatic, one of those who by encouraging rebellion against Nebuchad nezzar brought on the destruction of the city, and in the name of God told lies against God.
" It is such an intense paradox that the writing of one
