Nehemiah 12:10

And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib, and Eliashib begat Joiada,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10, 11) Pedigree of certain high priests, with supplement from a later hand. The six generations stretch over 200 years—from B.C. 536 to B.C. 332.

Benson Commentary

Nehemiah 12:10-11. And Jeshua begat Joiakim — In these two verses is an account of the succession of the high-priests, from the return of the captivity till the time when they began to bear the greatest sway in the Jewish nation. For the Jaddua mentioned at the end of Nehemiah 12:11, is commonly thought to be that Jaddus, the high-priest, who went to meet Alexander the Great in his pontifical habit, as he came from the conquest of Tyre and Gaza, and procured great privileges for the Jewish nation. This catalogue of their high-priests was the more necessary, because their times were now to be measured, not by the years of their kings, as formerly, but by their high-priests.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-26 It is a debt we owe to faithful ministers, to remember our guides, who have spoken to us the word of God. It is good to know what our godly predecessors were, that we may learn what we should be.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The six generations of high priests covered a little more than two centuries (538-333 B.C.), or a little under thirty-five years to a generation. Jaddua was the high priest who (according to Josephus) had an interview with Alexander shortly after the battle of Issus.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Ne 12:10-47. Succession of the High Priests.

10. Jeshua begat Joiakim, &c.—This enumeration was of great importance, not only as establishing their individual purity of descent, but because the chronology of the Jews was henceforth to be reckoned, not as formerly by the reigns of their kings, but by the successions of their high priests.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Here follows a catalogue of the Jewish high priests; which was the more necessary, because their times were now to be measured, not by the years of their kings, as formerly, but by their high priests.

Eliashib; of whom see Nehemiah 3:1 13:4,5.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada, and Joiada begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua. This is an account of the high priests in succession in the second temple, the first six of them; and if Jaddua, the last mentioned, is the same with Jaddus, as Josephus (n) supposes, who went forth in his pontifical robes to meet Alexander the great returning from his conquests of Tyre and Gaza, from whom he obtained many favours, and whom he had into the temple, and showed him the prophecy of Daniel concerning himself; this paragraph must be written by another hand, and not Nehemiah, since it can hardly be thought he should live so long; and as to his times, this account of him, or the history of his own times, seems not to have gone through the priesthood of Eliashib, the third of those high priests, see Nehemiah 13:28, and to reach no further than to the thirty second of Darius Hystaspis, Nehemiah 13:6 this fragment therefore might be inserted by some godly man under a divine direction in later times, as we have several insertions in the books of Moses and Joshua of the like kind; and particularly in 1 Chronicles 3:19 where the genealogy of Zerubbabel is carried down beyond the times of the Maccabees, and so could not be placed there by Ezra.

(n) Antiqu. l. 11. c. 8. sect. 5.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib, and Eliashib begat Joiada,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10, 11. The lists of the high-priests in 1 Chronicles 6:3-15 concluded with Jehozadak, who ‘went into captivity when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.’ Jehozadak’s son was Jeshua (see Ezra 3:1), who returned from the captivity with Zerubbabel. The present list of the high-priesthood follows directly upon that given in 1 Chronicles 6.

Joiakim] From the special mention of this high-priest in Nehemiah 12:12; Nehemiah 12:26, we may conjecture that during his tenure of office the houses of the priests and Levites were registered or reconstituted.

Eliashib] The high-priest in Nehemiah’s period of governorship (Nehemiah 3:1; Nehemiah 13:4; Nehemiah 13:7; Nehemiah 13:28). His son Joiada, who is called Juda by Josephus (Ant. xi. 7. 1), is mentioned again in Nehemiah 13:28. A slight difficulty is presented by the name Jonathan. In Nehemiah 12:22, we find ‘Johanan’ stands between ‘Joiada’ and ‘Jaddua;’ and in Nehemiah 12:23, this Johanan is called the son of Eliashib. We must either suppose that Jonathan is here a mistake for Johanan, or that ‘Jonathan’ was high-priest for a short period, and was succeeded by his better known brother Johanan.

Jaddua] There is no reason to doubt that this is the same Jaddua, who was high-priest at the time that Alexander passed along the borders of Palestine on his march into Egypt. The probably legendary account of Alexander’s visit to Jerusalem, and his meeting with the high-priest Jaddua, attended by the priests in their most splendid robes, is narrated by Josephus (Ant. xi. 8. 5).

The occurrence of Jaddua’s name shows that the compilation of these books must be later than 340–333 b.c.

Between Eliashib (Nehemiah 13:28) who was high-priest in 432 b.c. and Jaddua who was high-priest in 333 b.c. there are thus only two names, or at the most three, recorded in this list, i.e. Joiada, Johanan or (? and) Jonathan.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Jeshua. The "Jeshua" of ver. 1, not of ver. 8 - the high priest of Zerub-babel's time (Ezra 3:2, 8; Ezra 4:3; Ezra 5:2, etc.). Begat Joiakim. The high priesthood of Joiakim falls into the interval between the first part (chs. 1-7.) and the second part (chs. 7-10.) of Ezra. He is only mentioned in this chapter (vers. 12, 26). Eliashib is first mentioned in Ezra 10:6, but he does not appear as high priest until after Nehemiah reaches Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:1). On his close connection with Tobiah see Nehemiah 13:4, 5, 28. Joiada is called Judas by Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 11:7, § 1). His term of office lasted, according to Syncellus and the Paschal Chronicle, thirty-six years. Nehemiah 12:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A note on the genealogy of the high-priestly line from Jeshua to Jaddua is inserted, so to speak, as a connecting link between the lists of Levites, to explain the statements concerning the dates of their composition, - dates defined by the name of the respective high priests. The lists given Nehemiah 12:1 were of the time of Jeshua; those from Nehemiah 12:12 and onwards, of the days of Joiakim and his successors. The name יונתן, as is obvious from Nehemiah 12:22 and Nehemiah 12:23, is a clerical error for יוחנן, Johanan, Greek Ἰωάννης, of whom we are told, Joseph. Ant. xi. 7. 1, that he murdered his brother Jesus, and thus gave Bagoses, the general of Artaxerxes Mnemon, an opportunity for taking severe measures against the Jews.