Sheshbazzar

• ANCIENT SOURCES: see Sheshbazzar (sources)
• LIST OF SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:Sheshbazzar (subject)

Sheshbazzar was a member of the House of David.

Overview

Sheshbazzar is very likely to be identified with "Shenazzar, the son of Jeconiah the captive" (1 Chr 3:17-18). He was the hostage king of Judah at the court of Babylon, when Cyrus took power in 539 BCE. To him, the Persian King returned "the vessels of the house of Yhwh that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods (Ezra 1:7) and allowed him to go back to Jerusalem, as governor of Judah (5:14). It was Sheshbazzar who "laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem" (Ezra 5:16; 1 Esdr 6:20; Ant 11:93). The local population of Judah and Benjamin and "all their neighbors" enthusiastically welcomed the returned king and "aided" the projects of construction "with silver vessels, with gold, with good, with animals, and with valuable gifts, besides all that was freely offered" (Ezra 1:5-6).

However, Sheshbazzar's restoration of the pre-exilic order was never completed, under Cyrus and Cambyses II. When 18 years later, under Darius, a new wave of returnees left Babylon, this time they would be under the dual leadership of the Davidic Zerubbabel and the Zadokite Joshua.

Sheshbazzar in ancient sources

Ezra

1:8 Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

1:11 All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

5:14 And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought them into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered unto one, whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;

5:16 Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.

Select Bibliography (articles)

1964

• Serubbabel und der Hohepriester beim Wiederaufbau des Tempels in Jerusalem / Kurt Galling / In: Studien zur Geschichte Israels im persischen Zeitalter (1964 Galling), book, 127-148.

1979

• The Identity of Sheshbazzar / Derek Kidner / In: Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary (1979 Kidner), book

1982

• Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel against the background of the historical and religious tendencies of Ezra-Nehemiah / Sara Japhet / ZAW 94 (1981) 66-98; and 95 (1983) 218-229 / In: From the Rivers of Babylon to the Highlands of Judah (2006 Japhet), book

1988

• The Governors of Judah under the Persians / Hugh Godfrey Maturin Williamson / In: Tyndale Bulletin 39 (1988) 59-82

2000

• Royal Vassals or Governors? On the Status of Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel in the Persian Empire / Nadav Naaman / In: Henoch 22.1 (2000) 35-44 / In: Ancient Israel and its neighbors: Interaction and Counteraction, vol.1 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005) 403-414

2002

• The Rise of Zadokite Judaism / Gabriele Boccaccini / In: Roots of Rabbinic Judaism (2002 Boccaccini), book, 43-72

2009

• Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel and Their Activities in the Last Third of the VI Century B.C. / Y. Avishur and M. Heltzer / In: Transeuphratène 38 (2009) 99-117

2010

• Sheshbazzar / Steven J. Schweitzer / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), edited volume, 1225-1226