BARACHIA (Hebr. Berekhjāh[ā] = “Blessed by Yahweh”). — Name of eight biblical figures: a son of Zerubbabel (I Par. 3:20), the father of Asaph (ibid. 6:39; 15:17), a Levite of the family of Elkanah (ibid. 9:16), one of the four Levites who guarded the ark (ibid. 15:23), one of the four leaders of Ephraim who had the PHARES (v.) and accompanied them as far as Jericho (II Par. 28:12–15), the father of the builder Mosollam (Neh. 3:4, 30), the father of Zechariah called as a witness by Is. 8:2, and the father of the prophet Zechariah (Zach. 1:7).
In Mt. 23:35 a B. is mentioned as the father of Zechariah, certainly distinct from the prophet of that name. The question concerning the name of the father of the high priest Zechariah, who was the son of Jehoiada (II Par. 24:20–22), is an ancient one. Perhaps the phrase “son of B.,” which is absent from the Sinaitic Codex and from the parallel passage in St Luke (11:51), is a gloss that has infiltrated the text. Angelo Penna