|
|
|
Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
|
|
|
Meaning and etymology of the name Zerubbabel
|
|
|
| |
Zerubbabel 
Zerubbabel is the hallowed leader of the first waves of returnees from exile (Ezra 2:2). He's introduced in the Bible as a son of Pedaiah, son of the deported king Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:19), also known as king Jehoiachin. But frequently he's called a son of Shealtiel (Ezra 3:2, Matthew 1:12), the brother of Pedaiah. There are several ways to deal with this conundrum:
1) It may be that the sons of Shealtiel formed a kind of sub-clan, perhaps collectively known as the Shealtielites, and that other folks joined them, even though they weren't biological descendants of Shealtiel. Something similar occurs with Japheth and Shem, the sons of Noah (Genesis 9:27) and perhaps also with Ard and Bela of Benjamin.
2) In 1 Chronicles 3, only Shealtiel is said to be the son of Jeconiah, and the names of Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah are rattled off perhaps as brothers of Shealtiel but perhaps as sons. Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) solves the problem of Zerubbabel's father by assuming that Zerubbabel was a son of Pedaiah and a grandson of Shealtiel. This solution is certainly acceptable in the Hebrew way of organizing families, but it creates a conflict with Christ's genealogies of both Matthew and Luke.
3) A third solution is forwarded by HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, that states that Shealtiel and Pedaiah were indeed brothers but that Shealtiel died young and his son Zerubbabel was adopted by Pedaiah, or ("likely," says HAW), Shealtiel died childless and Pedaiah fulfilled his brotherly duty according to levirate law (Exodus 2:10), married Shealtiel's widow and sired Zerubbabel. If that is so, it would be the second case of levirate progeneration in Christ's genealogy; the first being that of Boaz and Ruth.
The problem with this solution is that if Zerubbabel came into existence through levirate law, or was adopted, we would have probably heard about it.
And we hear quite a bit about Zerubbabel. In the Bible he's the celebrated instigator of Judah's return to Israel and even Josephus mentions him. According to the latter, Zerubbabel was one of three personal guards of emperor Darius, who's speech had "a woman's power" that swayed Darius into giving anything he asked for, including the return.
Zerubbabel and high priest Jeshua began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 5:2), but while Jeshua remains a part of the story, Zerubbabel is heard from no more. He may have died before the dedication (Ezra 6:16), but his grandfather Jeconiah or Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he and his family were deported to Babylon (2 Kings 24:8), so his grandson Zerubbabel was probably a relatively young man at the time of the return, seventy years later.
Some scholars propose that Zerubbabel had a mind to him reviving the davidic dynasty and that he was removed from power by the Persians. Their main argument comes from the book of Zechariah, that speaks of a man named  (Semah; means Branch - 3:8 and 6:11). This Semah is commonly understood to be the Messiah, but it may also, or more so, be an ancestor of the Messiah, namely Zerubbabel.
His temple-building collegue Jeshua is mentioned in 6:11, where a crown is set on his head. But this is highly unusual because in Israel there was a strict separation between the political and military government of the king and the religious government of the high priest. High priests were never crowned, and these two functions only juncture in the Messiah, or his ancestors. Thus, it is assumed, the text was originally about Zerubbabel, but after his non-registered fall from grace, his name was erased and Jeshua's name was inserted.
Another clue may come from the meaning of the name Zerubbabel. The second part of this name is obviously the same as the Hebrew word for Babel / Babylon. Traditionally, the first part is taken from the Hebrew verb
 (zara'), meaning to scatter seed or sow, or its derived noun (zera'), meaning seed or offspring. This tradition is so strong that for a meaning of the name Zerubbabel,
NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Seed Of Babel, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Born At Babylon, and even the puristic BDB Theological Dictionary cites the renowned theologian Gesenius and proposes Begotten In Babylon.
But there are some strong objections to this etymology to be made. The letter ayin of the verb does not occur in the name Zerubbabel, and this skeletal letter can't be omitted without changing the meaning of the word it occurs in. The verb occurs certainly in one Biblical name, namely  (Jezreel), without omission of the ayin. If the name Zerubbabel
contains a truncated verb, it would be the vowel-final  (zara), meaning to fan, scatter or winnow.
But the letter ayin isn't simply omitted in the name Zerubbabel, it's replaced by the letter beth, and that's a very tall order. Especially since the verb  (zarab) already exists. It's used only once in the Bible, in Job 6:17, and we're not sure what it might mean. But it describes a process that makes the ice of waddis, or even the torrential water of wadis, vanish, and it's assumed it has to do with heat. Job 6:17 reads that "when they get , they annihilate; when it's hot, they go out from their place."
In the Bible, fire and heat are often symbols for inspiration and enlightenment. We know that the Bible in its present form was largely written and edited during the Babylonian exile, and that Hebrew scholars often worked closely together with those of Babel (Esther 10:3, Daniel 2:48, 5:11; Ezra 1:2). We also know that the fire of Babylon, even when it was seven times hotter than usual, could not destroy three Israelites, and that in that fire, the three were seen accompanied by someone divine (Daniel 3:19-25).
Contrary to tradition, the name Zerubbabel means Heated By Babylon.
|
|
|
•Look for baby names
•Augment your Hebrew language study
•Deepen your knowledge of the Bible
•Enrich your cruise to or travel holiday in Israel
|
|
