BARACCHIA (Hebrew Berekhyâh[fà] = “Blessed by Jahweh”). — Name of eight biblical figures: a son of Zorobabel (1 Chron. 3, 20), the father of Asaph (ibid. 6, 39; 15, 17), a Levite of the family of Elcana (ibid. 9, 16), one of the four Levites charged with guarding the ark (ibid. 15, 23), one of the four chiefs of Ephraim who secured the release, at the hands of Phacee (q.v.), of the prisoners of Juda and accompanied them as far as Jericho (2 Chron. 28, 12-15), the father of the builder Mosollam (Neh. 3, 4, 30), the father of Zacharias cited as a witness by Is. 8, 2, and the father of the prophet Zacharias (Zech. 1, 7).
In Mt. 23, 35 mention is made of a B. the father of Zacharias, certainly distinct from the prophet of the same name. The question of the name of the father of the high priest Zacharias, who was the son of Joiada (2 Chron. 24, 20-22), is an old one. Perhaps the parenthesis “son of B.”, which is lacking in the Sinaitic codex and in the parallel passage of St Luke (11, 51), is a gloss that has crept into the text.