And Jeshua begot Joiakim, and Joiakim begot Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua.
This verse ends a short family line that began in the previous verse. It traces the high priests from Jeshua down to Jaddua. Why does a book about rebuilding a city wall keep such a list, and why does the line run past Nehemiah's own lifetime?
These names are not priests in general. They are the high priests, each son following his father. One writer walks through the chain. He also explains why one man turns up twice in this chapter under two names:
Eliashib, the son of Joiakim, served as a priest during the days of Nehemiah. He is the last high priest whom the Old Testament shows carrying out his duties. Joiada follows his father Eliashib, who according to Nehemiah 13:6 and 7 was still priest after the year 443 B.C. We are told nothing else about Joiada. Jonathan, or Johanan (vv. 11, 23), was the son of Joiada and the grandson of Eliashib. Verse 23 calls him Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, and so does Ezra 10:6. This follows a Jewish custom that appears very often. He was alive, though not serving as priest, when Ezra came to Jerusalem. Jaddua is the last priest named in the Old Testament.
This list was not kept for family pride. A man's right to serve at the altar depended on proving who his father was.
Once Israel was in the land, it mattered that the people kept their genealogies. The law required it, because each of the children of Israel was to enjoy the inheritance of his fathers. The inheritance must not move from tribe to tribe. Only the sons of Aaron could serve as priests, so they had to keep their genealogy. On the return from exile some could not show their descent from Aaron, and they lost their place in the priesthood.
With no king on the throne, the nation measured its years by another line. Jaddua, the last name here, appears in history outside the Bible as well:
From now on the Jewish people no longer dated their history by the reigns of kings. They dated it by the succession of the high priests. Jaddua is unquestionably the same man mentioned by Josephus, the Jewish historian. In his high priestly robes he met Alexander the Great as he besieged Jerusalem, and was the means of saving Jerusalem.
Jaddua held office long after Nehemiah died. So how did his name reach the end of this list?
He carried out his duties under the reign of Darius the Persian (336–330 B.C.). Additions like this appear often in the historical and prophetic books. Someone added this passage to the book of Nehemiah later, to complete the information the sacred writer gave. It is inspired like all the rest.
Gaebelein agrees. He says the Spirit of God sanctioned the addition, so that Jaddua's descent would be kept on record.
The list is honest about what it records. The men at its end are not its best.
In verses 10, 11 we have the succession of high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua. The history in the book does not carry us later than the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. It ends with the high priesthood of faithless Eliashib, and of the unworthy son of his son Joiada. It is a short record of humbling ways. It runs down to the last high priest that Old Testament Scripture mentions.
Even so, the register exists because God wanted it to. The point of these verses is not only information but honour.
Here we have little to remark on. The Lord takes pleasure in recording even the names of His servants. The special purpose appears to be connection. It ties the priests and Levites of Nehemiah's and Ezra's day to those who first returned from the captivity, and to the generation in between. He has been a dwelling place for His own in all generations. But there is more. He honours those who honour Him, and He records their names in His word now, just as He will glorify them in person in the great day that is coming quickly.
- Recorded — The Lord takes pleasure in writing down even the names of His servants. One day He will glorify the people whose names He has kept.
- Required — Descent was not a small matter for a priest. The priesthood belonged to Aaron's sons, and men who could not prove their line lost their place.
- Reckoned — With no king, the nation dated its years by the high priests. This list carries that line down to Jaddua, the last priest named in the Old Testament.
- Reaching further — Jaddua lived long after Nehemiah, so his name came into the list later. Commentators say the Spirit of God sanctioned that addition, to complete the record.
- Realistic — The same list that honours the faithful names the faithless. It runs from Jeshua's return down through Eliashib, a humbling account that God did not edit out.