Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 03/08/2005 15:05, Heard, Christopher wrote:

> If we follow the storyline of the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, wouldn't  
> the high priest at that time be Eliashib (Neh 3:1, 20; 13:28)?
>
>  
Ah, yes, I missed Eliashib and Joiada in my list of high priests. I note 
now also a genealogy in 1 Chronicles 6 ending with Hilkiah, Azariah, 
Seraiah then Jehozadak at the time of the Exile. Then in Ezra 3:2 and 
Haggai we have Joshua son of Jehozadak. Nehemiah 12:10 gives us a 
further genealogy Jeshua - Joiakim - Eliashib - Joiada - Jonathan - 
Jaddua. This may be the very latest historical record in the Hebrew 
Bible, at least if we don't discuss Daniel.

So Ezra "son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah" would 
have been closely related but not the actual High Priest. And Seraiah 
can hardly have been his actual father, some generations must have been 
omitted. We also have in Nehemiah 12:1 another Seraiah, as well as 
apparently another Ezra, who returned to Jerusalem in 538 BCE, when 
Jeshua was high priest. So the whole issue becomes rather complex, with 
the same names recurring multiple times in the priestly families and 
genealogies being incomplete. Maybe Ezra was in some ways acting as High 
Priest in Nehemiah's time because Eliashib was collaborating with the 
enemy Tobiah (Nehemiah 13:4,7, if this is the same Eliashib).

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/