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Journey of a Passage

1 Chronicles 3:17–19

Zerubbabel: son of Pedaiah or of Shealtiel?

1 Chronicles 3:19 makes Zerubbabel the son of Pedaiah; Ezra 3:2, Haggai 1:1 and Matthew 1:12 call him son of Shealtiel (Pedaiah's brother). The library's Hebrew, Greek and Latin of Chronicles all read Pedaiah.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
  • Related (shared ancestry)
Hebrew
  1. Haggai 1:1; Ezra 3:2 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)Late 6th–5th century BC
  2. Original ChroniclesComposed c. 4th century BC (debated)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Chronicles
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 1 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of Chronicles
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. Matthew 1:12 (KJV)1st century ADRelated witness to the genealogy of Ezra–Haggai
  2. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Late 6th–5th century BC

    Haggai 1:1; Ezra 3:2 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)

    ✓ Contains this passage

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

    Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah

  2. Composed c. 4th century BC (debated)

    Original Chronicles

    – No copy survives

    No original survives; no certain Qumran copy of 1 Chronicles.

  3. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 1 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Chronicles

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Fils de Phadaïas: Zorobabel et Sémeï.

    Sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei.

    Some Greek manuscripts are reported to read "Salathiel"; not checked. One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  4. 1st century AD

    Matthew 1:12 (KJV)

    ❝ Quotes or alludes to part of itRelated witness to the genealogy of Ezra–Haggai

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Salathiel begat Zorobabel

    Follows Shealtiel.

  5. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    De Phadaia orti sunt Zorobabel et Semei.

  6. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Chronicles

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וּבְנֵי פְדָיָה זְרֻבָּבֶל וְשִׁמְעִי

    and the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and Shimei

What changed, and why

Explanations: Pedaiah fathered Zerubbabel by levirate marriage for his childless brother Shealtiel; Zerubbabel was Shealtiel's heir or adopted son; or two traditions. The site shows each text as written.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedChronicles reads Pedaiah; Ezra and Haggai read Shealtiel.
  • Plausible, not confirmedA levirate marriage explains the difference.

Sources

  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • David's Descendants →David's sons born in Hebron and in Jerusalem, and his daughter Tamar; then the kings of Judah from Solomon to Josiah and his sons; and the line continues past the exile: Jeconiah, his sons, Zerubbabel and his descendants for several generations. The royal line survives the loss of the kingdom.
  • How 1 Chronicles Came to Us →Chronicles is one book in Hebrew, Divrei ha-Yamim, "the events of the days." Most scholars date it to the 4th century BC in Persian-period Judah; Jewish tradition attributes it to Ezra. Its sources include Genesis, Samuel–Kings, Psalms and records it names. No Qumran copy of 1 Chronicles is known; the only possible Chronicles fragment, 4Q118, corresponds to 2 Chronicles and its identification is disputed.
  • The Names of Those Who Came Home →Ezra 2 lists the returnees: eleven leaders headed by Zerubbabel and Jeshua; families and towns; priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants and the descendants of Solomon's servants; and people who could not prove their ancestry, including priests barred until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise. The whole assembly is 42,360, with 7,337 servants and 200 singers. The same list appears in Nehemiah 7 and 1 Esdras 5, with many differences.
  • The Altar, the Foundation and Mixed Tears →In the seventh month the people gather "as one man" in Jerusalem. Jeshua and Zerubbabel build the altar on its old site, offerings resume, and Booths is kept. Masons and carpenters are paid; cedar comes by sea to Joppa. In the second year, the foundation is laid; priests blow trumpets and Levites sing "for he is good." Old men who had seen the first house weep aloud while others shout for joy.