Zacharie, prêtre et prophète de la miséricorde de Dieu

Zachariah is presented in Luke’s Gospel as a priest and a prophet. As a priest he was serving in the Temple. As a prophet his function was to announce God’s mercy. The covenant God made with his people was broken by sin, but restored by Abraham. This covenant was a new creation that exceeds the first since it climaxes in the sign of the circumcision on the eighth day. Zachariah is the priest and the prophet to whom the Judaeo-Christians can identify themselves after the crisis provoked by the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. From the Temple they are invited to go to their houses to study the Scriptures which contain the message of God’s mercy.