Nehemiah 12:10-11

The Genealogy Of Jeshua The High Priest Who Went Up With Zerubbabel (Nehemiah 12:10).

Central to the success of the new Israel, and the establishment of the holy city as holy, was the succession of High Priests. Jeshua (Joshua), along with large numbers of priests, had already been able to demonstrate his genealogy, as Nehemiah 7:64 assumes. As the son of Jozadak (Ezra 3:2), or Jehozadak, his genealogy is given in 1 Chronicles 6:1, and was therefore clearly available. The succession from Jeshua is therefore now outlined, although it is not stated that they all actually acted as High Priests (we have to consider those who might have been excluded by some disability but who might have passed on heirship to their sons).

Nehemiah 12:10

‘And Jeshua begat Joiakim, and Joiakim begat Eliashib, and Eliashib Joiada, and Joiada begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begat Jaddua.'

Joshua arrived with Zerubbabel in around 538 BC, and was still High Priest in 520 BC, whilst Eliashib was High Priest in the days of Ezra/Nehemiah in and around 445 BC. If the genealogy is complete (which may not be so for genealogies regularly omitted names) this would indicate a long tenure for Joiakim (although we do not know when Jeshua died). This is not, however, impossible, and is supported by the fact that his tenure is related to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah in Nehemiah 12:26.

Following Jeshua Joiakim was High Priest, and he is the one who is important for what immediately follows (Nehemiah 12:12. See also Nehemiah 12:24). He was then followed by Eliashib who was High Priest when the walls were rebuilt (Nehemiah 3:1). Eliashib was a grandfather by the time of Nehemiah's second visit, and at that stage had an adult grandson (Nehemiah 13:28). He was succeeded by Joiada, one of whose sons married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite (Nehemiah 13:28). This indicates that Joiada's eldest son Jonathan was apparently a mature adult whilst Sanballat the Horonite, the contemporary of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:10; Nehemiah 2:19), was still alive.

If the genealogy is complete Jonathan begat a son Jaddua, who would presumably have been born by the time of the listing, and could thus have been known to an ageing Nehemiah as the heir-apparent to the High Priesthood. It is not stated that he was High Priest at the time of writing (or indeed that he ever became High Priest). Thus it is not impossible that this genealogy was recorded by Nehemiah. Alternately, if Nehemiah was the author of the whole book, the words ‘and Joiada begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begat Jaddua' may have been added at a later date in order to update the sequence. A slight indication of this may be that ‘begat' is missing after Eliashib in the MT (although included in some manuscripts), which may suggest that at one stage the genealogy only reached Joiada. (This assumption is, however, not strictly necessary for them to fit into Nehemaic authorship). But the important point in context is that this list demonstrates the legitimacy of the continuing High Priesthood.

Note On Jaddua.

The importance of identifying Jaddua lies in the light that that identification would throw on the earliest date by which the Book Of Nehemiah could have been completed as it now stands. It could not have been completed before Jaddua was born. On the other hand the main part of the book may have been written earlier, with the reference to Jonathan and Jaddua being added later.

But on the face of the genealogy here, assuming no gaps, this Jaddua was probably born around 432 BC. He was the first-born son of Jonathan who was a mature adult at the time spoken of in Nehemiah 13, when his younger brother had already married Sanballat's daughter, that is around the thirty second year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 13:6), thus around 432 BC. At this stage Nehemiah was certainly still alive and active. Nehemiah would thus have seen Jaddua grow up.

Furthermore the High Priest at the time of one Elphantine papyrus dated 407 BC speaks of Johanan as High Priest, and there is no real justification for equating Jonathan with Johanan. How Johanan fits in with the above genealogy we have therefore no way of knowing. Perhaps he was the son of Jaddua. Or Jonathan may have had some impediment preventing him from being High Priest so that his uncle Johanan became so instead (Nehemiah 12:23), he then being followed by Jaddua.

A complication is introduced by a reference in Josephus to a Jaddua, son of Johanan, who was High Priest in 351-331 BC when Alexander the Great had contact with Jerusalem. But in view of our lack of knowledge of the genealogy of the High Priests after this time there is no real reason why that Jaddua may not have been the grandson of the Jaddua mentioned here in Nehemiah 12:11. Indeed, if he had lived to a great age, he could even have been this Jaddua, with ‘son of Johanan', simply signifying that he took over the High Priesthood from Johanan.

End of note.