Nehemiah 12:22

LIST OF THE LEVITES IN THE DAYS OF THE LAST FOUR HIGH PRIESTS MENTIONED IN NEH. 12:10,11

"As for the Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, there were recorded the heads of fathers' houses; also the priests until the reign of Darius the Persian. The sons of Levi, heads of fathers' houses, were written in the book of the Chronicles until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib. And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brethren over against them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch corresponding to watch. Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storehouses of the gates. These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest the scribe."

"In the days of Joiakim" (Nehemiah 12:26). That entire list of six High Priests in Nehemiah 12:10,11, raises the question of why four were named in Nehemiah 12:22, whereas, here (Nehemiah 12:26), all of the names in this paragraph are identified as those who lived in the days of Joiakim. This makes it a certainty that the Darius the Persian mentioned here was none other than, "Darius Nothus, the second Persian king of that name."[7] "This is proved by the Elephantine papyri."[8] It appears that the best explanation of why four High Priests are named in Nehemiah 12:21 is that all four generations of them were living at the same time, which would mean that Jaddua was indeed quite a young child at the time. The text nowhere states that the names given were those of people living throughout the administrations of all four of those High Priests.