We will not move on in the book of Zechariah. Chapters 9-14 are completely different and seem to have no connection to the previous chapters in style or content. In chapters 1-8, we saw two different types of text, one first person, one third person point of view. The portions of the text written in third person are harsher in tone and do not flow with the rest of the text. If I was to guess, I would assume the first person portions of the text to be authentic. It seems to have been written just before the building of the second temple. It also appears to be predicting a wonderful future for the Israelites returning to their homeland. God will return to them, everyone will prosper, the nations around will be envious.
The high priest Joshua will be given a supreme position of honor and authority, for god will have cleansed him of any sin that he incurred before he arrived in Jerusalem. He will be responsible for the construction of the new temple, with the help of other returning exiles, after Zerubbabel has laid the foundation. When it is finished, Zerubbabel will set in the capstone. All the sin present in Jerusalem will be packed up and carried off to Babylonia. Exiles from the four corners of the earth will return. People will live to old age, and children will play safely in the streets. Yahweh will save them and make them a blessing. It's a very pleasant and optimistic prophecy, very much like a pep talk for the first waves of returning exiles.
We know that optimism was misplaced. Ezra-Nehemiah, writing later and looking back, outlined the many troubles the exiles had rebuilding the temple and the city walls. It also details the poor relations the Jews maintained with the locals, which was the cause of most of the trouble. No wonder. We are told that the Jews refused their help in rebuilding the temple, scorned their worship of yahweh, and eventually instituted a policy of separation and segregation. They even insisted on divorcing wives who were locals, and what became of their children? Can we blame the locals for sabotage and enmity in those circumstances?
Just as the book of Haggai does not mention Zechariah, Zechariah does not mention Haggai. Zechariah's tone is gentler and more optimistic than book of Haggai. Zechariah was also far more inclusive and ecumenical. I imagine that first half of the book of Zechariah could have formed the basis of a hope for the Jews after the destruction of the second temple and the new diaspora that resulted. Maybe there would be another High Priest Joshua to rebuild the temple. It happened before, why not again?
If we look back at the book of Jude, it does not use Zechariah as a basis for optimism. Jude cherry picks verses from Zechariah 3 and other old testament books to prove his own point, which appears to be that he thinks ungodly men are trying to corrupt Judaism (Christianity, if you believe Jude is a christian book). Jude sounds very much like a fundamentalist sounds today. He sees people of his tribe doing and saying non-traditional things. He is throwing up his hands in horror at their audacity and proclaiming them condemned men. He is telling his friends to strengthen their faith and remain loyal to it.
Someone very likely did not like the name Joshua/Jesus included in the passage about the archangel and Satan, in Jude 1:9. So, they changed Joshua to Moses. If it had remained Joshua, it would automatically have been associated with the high priest Joshua, who was proclaimed The Branch by Zechariah. This may have thrown doubt on the christian claim that a first century Jesus/Joshua was the one the branch the prophesies of old were referring to, not a post exile high priest.
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