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Journey of a Passage

Ezra 10:15; 1 Esdras 9:14

Did Jonathan and Jahzeiah oppose the measure or carry it out?

The Hebrew 'amdu 'al-zot means "stood against this" or "stood over this." Most modern translations: they opposed it. The KJV: they "were employed about this matter." The library's Greek and 1 Esdras make them Ezra's helpers.

Read Ezra 10:15; 1 Esdras 9:14 in every edition

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)c. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. 1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)1611Translated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras
  2. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
  3. Modern translations (e.g. NRSV, ESV, NIV)20th–21st c.Translated from the Masoretic Text

Every witness, in order

  1. Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)

    Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

    Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra

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

    Or, il n'y eut avec moi que Jonathas, fils d'Azaël, et Jasias, fils de Thécoé, et ils eurent pour aides Mesollam, et Sabbathaï

    "There were with me only": supporters. One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)

    ✓ 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).

    Jonathan filius Azahel, et Jaasia filius Thecue, steterunt super hoc

    "Stood over this."

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

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

    אַךְ יוֹנָתָן בֶּן־עֲשָׂהאֵל וְיַחְזְיָה בֶן־תִּקְוָה עָמְדוּ עַל־זֹאת

    only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah stood against / over this

  5. 1611

    1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras

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

    Then Jonathan the son of Azael and Ezechias the son of Theocanus accordingly took this matter upon them

    1 Esdras 9:14.

  6. 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).

    Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter

  7. 20th–21st c.

    Modern translations (e.g. NRSV, ESV, NIV)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Masoretic Text

    How the site knows this: Checked in a published edition.

    opposed this

    Reported; not in the library.

What changed, and why

If they opposed it, the text records dissent within the community, possibly over the procedure ("a work of one day or two") rather than the principle. If they supervised it, "only" sets them apart as the officers. The Hebrew allows both; the ancient versions chose the second, modern scholarship mostly the first.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Hebrew of 10:15 can mean either opposition or supervision.
  • DisputedJonathan and Jahzeiah opposed the measure.

Sources

  • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)
  • J. Blenkinsopp, Ezra–Nehemiah (Old Testament Library, 1988)

Related lessons

  • The Oath, the Separations and an Unfinished Ending →A weeping crowd gathers. Shecaniah proposes a covenant to send away the foreign wives and their children. Ezra makes the leaders swear, and a proclamation summons all the returnees to Jerusalem within three days on pain of losing their property. In the cold rain of the ninth month the assembly agrees, with a few dissenting, and a commission examines the cases for three months. The book ends with a list of over a hundred men, beginning with priests, and a final, difficult sentence about wives and children.