Zerubbabel

ZERUBBABEL, or Zorobabel, Son of Salathiel, of the Royal Race of David. St. Matthew¹ and the Chronicles, make Jeconiah King of Judah, to be Father to Salathiel; but they do not agree as to the Father of Zerubbabel. The Chronicles will have Pedaiah to be Father of Zerubbabel; but St. Matthew, St. Luke, Esdras and Haggai, constantly make Salathiel his Father. We must therefore take the Name of Son in the Sense of Grandson, and say that Salathiel having taken care of the Education of Zerubbabel, he was always afterwards looked upon as his Father. Some think that Zerubbabel had also the Name of Sheshbazzar, and that he is pointed out by this Name in Ezra. See the Article SHESHBAZZAR, before. Josephus,² and the First Book of Esdras, will have Zerubbabel to have been one of the three famous Body-guards of Darius Son of Hystaspes; and that in the Dispute they had to know which of these four Things was the most powerful and prevalent, the King, Women, Wine, or the Truth? Zerubbabel maintained it was the Truth, and obtained the Victory in the Judgment of the King and his Counsellors. But this Story must be looked upon as very Apocryphal. Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem a long time before the Reign of Darius the Son of Hystaspes. He returned immediately after the Beginning of the Reign of Cyrus, in the Year of the World 3468, before Christ 532, before the Vulgar Æra 536, and 15 Years before Darius.

This is what the Scripture informs us concerning Zerubbabel. Cyrus committed to his care the sacred Vessels of the Temple, which he sent back to Jerusalem.³ He is always named first, as being the chief of the Jews that returned back into their own Country.⁴ He laid the Foundations of the Temple,⁵ and there restored⁶ restored the Worship of the Lord, and the usual Sacrifices. When the Samaritans offered themselves to rebuild the Temple of the Lord in conjunction with the Jews, Zerubbabel and the principal Men of Judah made them this Answer, that they could not let any other share with them in this Honour, since Cyrus had granted his Commission to the Jews only.

Ezr. iv. 2, 3.When this Work was discontinued for a good while, the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah were inspired of the Lord,⁷ to encourage Zerubbabel and the other Jews to reassume the Work; which they did, in the second Year of Darius Son of Hystaspes, in the Year of the World 3485, before Christ 515, before the Vulgar Æra 519. When the Lord shew’d the Prophet Zechariah two Olive-trees, near the Golden Candlestick with seven Branches, Zech. iv. 6, 7, 8.the Angel that was sent to explain this Vision to the Prophet, let him know, that these two Olive-trees, which supplied Oil to the great Candlestick, were the Prince Zerubbabel, and Joshua the High-Priest, the Son of Josedech. The Scripture tells us nothing of the Death of Zerubbabel, but it informs us in the Chronicles that he left seven Sons and one Daughter. These were 1 Chron. iii. 19.Meshullam, Hananiah, and Shelomith their Sister, Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed. St. Matthew makes the Name of one of his Sons to be Abiud, Matth. i. 13.and St. Luke makes it Rhesa. Consequently one of the Sons of Zerubbabel here Luke iii. 27.enumerated must have more than one Name.

Some would make a Distinction of two Zerubbabels, the second of which was the Son of Pedaiah, mentioned in 1 Chron. iii. 19. But we think it needless to have recourse to this Solution of the Difficuly; and that it is sufficient to say, that Pedaiah was Son to Salathiel, and Father to Zerubbabel; and that the Scripture gives generally to Zerubbabel the Name of the Son of Salathiel, only because Salathiel, his Grandfather, was the more eminent, and perhaps had adopted him, and took the chief care of his Education.

Others, to reconcile the First Book of Esdras with Sacred History, pretend, that Zerubbabel might have dwelt at Jerusalem for seventeen Years, from the first Year of Cyrus to the second of Darius Son of Hystaspes, and then might return to Babylon, where he discharged the Office of a Life-Guard-Man to Darius. But nothing obliges us to receive as true History, the improbable Story of Darius’s three Life-guard-Men, which in itself includes several Marks of Fiction and Imposture.

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