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Zerubbabel

Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel and Cyrus (1650s) by Jacob van Loo; Zerubbabel (left) shows the Persian king Cyrus the Great the plan for a rebuilt Jerusalem
Leader of the House of David
PredecessorShealtiel, his father
SuccessorLine Lost
Governor of Judea
PredecessorSheshbazzar
SuccessorElnathan
Prince of Judah
PredecessorShealtiel, his father
SuccessorMeshullam
Bornc. 587–539 BC
Babylon
Diedunknown
IssueMeshullam
Hananiah
Shelomith
Hashubah
Ohel
Berechiah
Hasadiah
Jushab-hesed
Rhesa (New Testament)
Abihud (NT)
HouseHouse of David
FatherShealtiel[1]
or Pedaiah[2]

Zerubbabel[a] (/zəˈrʌbəbəl/) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a governor of the Achaemenid Empire's province of Yehud[3] and the grandson of Jeconiah, penultimate king of Judah.[4] He is not documented in extra-biblical documents, and is considered by Sarah Schulz of the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg as historically plausible, but probably not an actual governor of the province, much like Nehemiah.[5]

In the biblical narrative, Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the first year of Cyrus the Great, the king of the Achaemenid Empire.[6] The date is generally thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC.[7] Zerubbabel also laid the foundation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem soon after. In the New Testament he is included in the genealogy of Jesus.

  1. ^ Ezra 3:2, Ezra 3:8, Ezra 5:2, Nehemiah 12:1, Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:12, Haggai 1:14, Haggai 2:2, Haggai 2:23, Matthew 1:12, Luke 3:27
  2. ^ 1 Chronicles 3:19
  3. ^ Haggai 1:1
  4. ^ Silverman, Jason M. (2019). "Zerubbabel". In Stuckenbruck, Loren T.; Gurtner, Daniel M. (eds.). T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism. Vol. 2. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 840. ISBN 978-0-567-66095-4.
  5. ^ Schulz, Sarah (April 2023). "Between History and Theology—Zerubbabel and Nehemiah as Governors of Judah from the Perspective of Literary History". Religions. 14 (4: 531, Special Issue "The History of Literature and Theology in the Hebrew Bible"). MDPI. doi:10.3390/rel14040531.
  6. ^ Ezra 2:1–2, 64; 3:8; 5:2
  7. ^ Janet E. Tollington, Tradition and Innovation in Haggai and Zechariah 1–8 (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 132.


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