Zechariah's name itself demonstrates conclusively the fact that ancient Judaism and Hinduism were one and the same religion. The name of the Jewish prophet Zechariah in Peshitta Aramaic is Zakharya [from sections 5835-5839 of the Peshitta Aramaic web site on the web], which is simply the term acharya with a Z. An acharya is a Hindu holy teacher, one who knows the rules or divine laws.

    It is precisely because Zechariah knew the original rules of Judaism, which including treating all creatures as sacred creations of Deity, that orthodox Christian and Jewish scholars describe his language as allegorical or symbolical. Orthodoxies don't want you to accept scriptures literally that denounce animal sacrifices, which is exactly what the book of Zechariah does. Shiva like Krishna is known among Hindus as Pasupati, Lord of Creatures. Shiva and both are also known as Protector of Cattle. And the number seven that permeates the book of Zechariah was his personal attempt to indelibly mark himself and his words as the teacher of the ways of Shiva, the compassionate Lord of Creatures. The name Sheba, a transliteration of Shiva, means seven in ancient Hebrew.  Sheba is the etymological root of the Shabbath, the Sabbath.

    The Z preceding acharya in Zakharya's name is the seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet, Zayin, and its symbol is a form of Egyptian scepter.  The figure Z is also seen as a double seven. Jesus' statement, "I bring not peace but a sword," and his cleansing of the temple in order to manifest his mission to abolish the animal sacrifices, should be juxtaposed with Zechariah's extremely strong denunciation of animal sacrifices. Both men demonstrated the Animal Liberation attitude that was typical of the pure Jewish remnant, beginning with Cain, who killed an oppressor of God's creatures (that was the original story) and that we shall trace throughout the Old Testament, and that manifested itself in a particularly strong fashion in the  the Essenes, Nazarenes, Ebionites and Canaaneans (the zealots) in Jesus' time.

   Zechariah regarded those raising cattle to be slaughtered as offending God's command to be compassionate to other creatures.  While reading the following condemnation of animal sacrifices, be prepared to understand that Cain shared the same compassionate view of creation, and felt the same righteous indignation that was later felt by Zechariah, just as Isaiah did when he said "He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man."  You will feel less disinclined to redeem the name and person of Cain when you realize that he was regarded as El Kana incarnate originally, and that the person of Cain was influential in extremely positive ways by promulgating vegetarianism and agricultural knowledge throughout the world.  Sitchin has much research documenting Cain's influence in the Yucatan.  And Marge Beckwith's Myths and Legends of Hawaii speaks of the immense influence of Kane, a supreme male deity of Hawaii and Polynesia.  There is little doubt that Cain or Kane named Hawaii after his mother Eve, (or Hawwah in ancient Hebrew,) and that the Hogman and Shark deities of the ancient Hawaiians were a manifestation of Krishna's incarnations as a boar and sea creature. And the kahunas, the priests of ancient Hawaii, are named after the cohen, the priests of ancient Israel.  And the Napali area on the north-east of Kauai was no doubt named after the tribe of Napthali.

   And we can see the logic of Cain's militance towards the bad shepherd Abel in the following quotations from Zechariah.

Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," says the Lord of hosts.  "Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered."  13: 7.

My anger is hot against the shepherds...10: 3.

...and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.  I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God.  9: 6-7.

And on that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit.  And if any one again appears as a prophet, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, `You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord'...13: 2-3.

All of the later prophets see agriculture, not cattle-raising, as humanity's true labor.

On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; he will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive, but he will say, "I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil..."  13: 4-5.

But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts.  For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.  8: 11-12.

On that day the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his people...they shall shine on his land...Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens.  9: 16-17.

Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, who gives men showers of rain, to every one the vegetation in the field.  10: 1.

"Thus said the Lord my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.  Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, `Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich'; and their own shepherds have no pity on them." 11: 4-5.

 
   The number seven occurs numerous times in the Book of Zechariah, and we know that Shiva's name in ancient Hebrew actually means seven, that Shiva is known as Lord of the Seven Worlds.  Shiva's names in ancient Hebrew include Sheba, Seba, and Saba.  Looking ahead to the study of Christianity, St. Saba was even the name of a Christian saint in the early days of Christianity. When Christianity was introduced to China it was done so using a Shiva Lingam, a pillar, which shows that the earliest Christians recognized themselves as Shaivites (or as Shaivites and Vaishnavas).  Jesus' name to the Tibetans and Hindus and Muslims was Issa. Issa aka Isa is a name of Shiva. Shiva Pasupati was Lord of the Creatures and commanded compassion towards all of them.

   The pure remnant of Judaism obeyed the command to be compassionate to all creatures. Those who sacrificed animals broke Shiva's command. But since they wanted people to believe that their brutality and profit making was sanctioned by God, they revised the scriptures so that it appeared that God himself desired animal sacrifices, and that is what most of the scriptures in the Pentateuch assert, even though these scriptures directly contradict what even the orthodox admit: That vegetarianism was God's first dietary covenant, as is indisputably seen in "Genesis" 1: 29-30, which commands vegetarianism not only for humans but for all creatures.  In other words, animals are not seen as "creatures of instinct, meant to be killed and eaten," but as conscious creatures with freedom of choice. This itself is constantly ignored, because these scriptures reveal a Hindu belief that other creatures have will and sentience, and not the general belief of orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims, namely, that animals have no souls, and only instincts, and no free will.