לתשובת המינים

Who is the Priest on his throne?

Zechariah 6:13

"And he shall build the Temple of the Lord, and he shall bear glory. And he shall sit and rule on his throne, and the priest shall be on his throne. And a council of peace shall be between them [both]." (Judaica Press)

In this passage from the book of Zechariah Christian’s find support for their belief that the Nazarene’s reign as Messianic king would also be a priestly one, that the Messiah would be a [new kind of] priest in addition to being king. The NIV translates, "and he will be a priest on his throne." There is no change of subject as is found in the translation above.

The critical reader will have already noted from the full verse cited, irrespective of the divergent translations, that if we accept this passage as Messianic then the Temple has not yet been built nor has the Mashiach ruled as king. Even given the Christian understanding of this passage the only thing we have is the unobservable doctrine that the Nazarene is king and priest. The objective descriptions have not been met while the purported fulfillment is the Nazarene’s role in Christian estimation.

It would be a mistake, however, to understand this passage as "Messianic" in its primary sense. The prophecy, first and foremost, was directed at the prophets own audience and their contemporary situation. Zechariah was told to make crowns, plural, and to place one on the head of Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak, the High Priest. The other crown is, implicitly, for the one whom Zechariah describes to Yehoshua in our verse, the one who will build the Temple. This is none other than Zerubavel, "The hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this Temple and his hands will complete it" (Zech.4:9). Yehoshua and Zerubavel are the two anointed mentioned in Zechariah 4:14. God is assuring Yehoshua, through the prophet Zechariah. Zerubavel and Yehoshua each had their own authority, but they need not worry about power struggles. There would be peace between the two offices.

Just as the crowns are different crowns (see 6:11) and there are two anointed (4:14), the king who sits on his throne (Zerubavel) is different than the priest on his throne (Yehoshua). One can understand the throne of the priest is symbolic of his authority much as the crown mentioned earlier. Alternatively you could understand the second על to be understood in the sense of "before", the priest is before the [kings] throne. Either option is preferable to conflating the two positions in opposition to the preceding passages.