myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Ezra 7:1–5; 1 Chronicles 6:3–15

Ezra's priestly line: sixteen generations from Aaron

Ezra's genealogy names sixteen generations from Aaron to Ezra. 1 Chronicles 6 has six more names between Meraioth and Azariah. Seraiah, called Ezra's father, was killed in 586 BC; "son" means descendant.

Read Ezra 7:1–5; 1 Chronicles 6:3–15 in every edition

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
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. 1 Chronicles 6:7–14 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)4th c. BC (composition)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
    Latin
      English
      1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      Every witness, in order

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

        Original Ezra–Nehemiah

        – No copy survives

        No original survives.

      2. 4th c. BC (composition)

        1 Chronicles 6:7–14 (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.

        Meraioth begat Amariah, and Amariah begat Ahitub, and Ahitub begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Ahimaaz, and Ahimaaz begat Azariah, and Azariah begat Johanan, and Johanan begat Azariah… Seraiah

      3. 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.

        בֶּן־אֲמַרְיָה בֶן־עֲזַרְיָה בֶּן־מְרָיוֹת

        son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth

        7:3.

      4. 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 son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth

      What changed, and why

      The omitted names fall between two Azariahs, a classic place for the eye to skip (homoioteleuton). Alternatively the list was abbreviated deliberately. Either way, Ezra's line is presented as high-priestly through Zadok and Seraiah, giving him authority, though he is never called high priest in Ezra (1 Esdras 9:39 calls him "chief priest").

      What the evidence shows

      • Independently documentedEzra 7:1–5 lacks six names found in 1 Chronicles 6.
      • Conflicts with current evidenceEzra was Seraiah's son in the literal sense. Seraiah died in 586 BC.

      Sources

      • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)

      Related lessons

      • Ezra the Priest and Scribe →"After these things" (some fifty-seven years later on the usual dating), Ezra, a priest descended from Aaron and "a ready scribe in the law of Moses," comes from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. The king's Aramaic letter lets any Israelite go with him, sends silver and gold, exempts temple staff from tax, and gives Ezra authority to appoint judges and to teach the law of his God, with penalties for those who will not obey. Ezra breaks into thanks in the first person.