Brown, Lisle G.  “Tamid: Zacharias and the Second Temple.”  In Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference “The Temple on Mount Zion” 22 September 2012, e`dited by William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely, 241-77.  Temple on Mount Zion Series 2.  Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation / Eborn Books, 2014. [Israel/Herod/Priesthood/Ritual/Sacrifice]

I think the best summary of this article is Brown’s own at the conclusion of the article: “This paper has briefly described the episodes leading up to Zacharias burning incense on the Inner Altar in the second temple.  I have covered the probable events of Zacharias’s temple service from his investiture as a priest to his vision of Gabriel when he burned the incense in the Holy Room.  I have shown that the act of burning incense by Zacharias was a once-in-a-lifetime event – one that under even normal circumstances Zacharias would have remembered and cherished throughout the rest of his life.   But on this extraordinary occasion in Zacharias’s life, there came an even more astounding event–th vision of Gabriel and his singular message to the elderly priest and his wife, Elizabeth, about their son, John.  It is truly an extraordinary story, yet so briefly recounted by Luke, who simply focused on Gabriel’s visitation and important message.  It becomes even more memorable when one comes to see the “rest of the story.” (pp. 260-261)

Brown’s descriptions of the priesthood, it courses, the examination Zacharias would have gone through to qualify as a priest, and the details of the rituals during the morning Tamid are very helpful in understanding how the ceremony took place.  However, he does not deal with the purpose of burning incense nor its relationship to prayer.  The paper is well documented with 111 footnotes occupying 15 more pages!