Zechariah

The contribution of this commentary to the understanding of the book of Zechariah is mainly in four areas. The first is close attention to philological detail, with a special focus on textual criticism, lexical semantics, and literary wordplay. A second area of interest is in the history of interpretation of the book, and takes into account a wide range of exegetical material, from rabbinic and patristic times to the present. A third area of interest is in intertextuality. Many passages become fully intelligible only when they are understood as alluding to earlier Scripture. Finally, the commentary has an interest in Christian theological interpretation. The commentary is also remarkable in that it breaks with the traditional division of the book into two parts, and argues that it consists instead of three independent and quite different parts, each of which is attributable to the prophet after whom the book is named.