Johanan

Johanan , son of Joiada, was the fifth High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem after it was rebuilt after the end of the Babylonian captivity. His reign is estimated to have been from c. 410–371 BCE; he was succeeded by his son Jaddua. The Hebrew Bible gives no details about his life. Johanan lived in the province of Yehud Medinata in the Achaemenid Empire during the reigns of emperors Darius II (423–405 or 404 BCE) and his son Artaxerxes II (404–358 BCE).

Murder in the Temple Josephus records that Johanan's brother Joshua was promised the high priesthood by Bagoas, general of Artaxerxes. Joshua got into a quarrel with Johanan in the temple, and Johanan killed him. Bagoas knew that Johanan had slain Joshua in the temple, saying to him, "Have you had the impudence to perpetrate murder in the temple." Bagoas was forbidden to enter the temple, but he entered anyway saying "Am not I purer than he that was slain in the temple?" It is addressed to Bagoas, governor of Yehuda Medinata, and is a request for the rebuilding of the temple to Yahweh at Elephantine; Egyptians had destroyed the previous one. "We have also sent a letter before now, when this evil was done to us, to our lord and to the high priest Johanan and his colleagues, the priests in Jerusalem and to Ostanes, the brother of Anani and the nobles of the Jews, Never a letter have they sent to us." This coin is a part of the Yehud coinage.

Because it is generally dated between 350 BCE and Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia around 333 BCE, the coin is usually attributed to a second high priest called Johanan, who is not mentioned in the Bible. Thus, the coin seems to lend support to the hypothesis by Frank Moore Cross from 1975 that there were two subsequent father/son pairs of high priests called Johanan and Jaddua, the latter pair of which was accidentally omitted from the biblical text because of haplography. the Johanan coin (Yehud coin Type 25) belongs to the "Series with facing head/owl" Types 24 to 28 (YHD-24 to YHD-28). Thus, this coin comes in the middle of the coinage belonging to the Macedonian period.

Name There is dispute over his actual name. Neh 12:11 lists him as Jonathan, while 12:22 mentions Joiada's successor as Johanan. Josephus also lists him as Johanan (John).

According to the Anchor Bible Dictionary there is also a dispute regarding the genealogy of Johanan. Neh 12:10–11 lists Johanan as the grandson of Eliashib while Neh 12:23 identifies him as the son of Eliashib. "Although it is possible that Heb ben is to be translated as 'grandson' in Neh 12:23; cf. NEB, JB)"

There is yet to be extrabiblical proof that a man named Jonathan ever served as high priest. This has led many to believe that the biblical text has a copy mistake.

Patrilineal Ancestry