(1) One of the "chiefs of the people" who with Nehemiah sealed the covenant, thus signifying their voluntary acceptance of the law and their solemn promise to submit to its yoke (Nehemiah 10:21 (Hebrew 22)).

(2) Son of Jonathan or Johanan, and great-grandson of Eliashib, the high priest in Nehemiah's time (Nehemiah 12:11,22). He is the last of the high priests mentioned in the Old Testament, and held office during the reign of Darius the Persian, i.e. Darius III Codomannus, the last king of Persia (336-332 BC), who was overthrown by Alexander the Great. It is doubtless to him that Josephus refers in his romantic account of Alexander's entrance into Jerusalem (Ant., XI, viii, 4 f; vii, 2; viii, 7).

James Crichton

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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