Nehemiah 6:10–14
Noadiah: prophetess or prophet?
Nehemiah asks God to remember "the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets" who tried to frighten him. The Hebrew and KJV make Noadiah a woman; the library's Greek (Giguet) has "Noadias the prophet," masculine; the Vulgate's form does not mark gender.
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
Every witness, in order
Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
Original Ezra–Nehemiah
No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.
Translated c. 2nd century BC or later
Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
et de Noadias le prophète, et des autres prophètes qui tentèrent de m'alarmer
Masculine. Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate (2 Esdras = Nehemiah)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
sed et Noadiæ prophetæ, et ceterorum prophetarum
Propheta is grammatically masculine but used of either sex; gender not marked.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וְגַם לְנוֹעַדְיָה הַנְּבִיאָה וּלְיֶתֶר הַנְּבִיאִים
and also Noadiah the prophetess, and the rest of the prophets
Feminine: nevi'ah.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets
What changed, and why
A Noadiah, a Levite man, appears in Ezra 8:33. The Greek tradition may have assimilated this Noadiah to him, or read the Hebrew differently. If the Hebrew is original, Noadiah is one of the few named women prophets in the Hebrew Bible, known only from her opponent's complaint.
What the evidence shows
- The Hebrew calls Noadiah a prophetess.
- The library's Greek makes Noadiah a man. Via Giguet's French; the critical Greek is not checked.
Sources
Related lessons
- Intrigue, Prophets and the 52 Days →Sanballat and Geshem invite Nehemiah four times to meet in the plain of Ono; he refuses. A fifth messenger brings an open letter: Gashmu says you plan to rebel and make yourself king, with prophets to proclaim you. Shemaiah urges him to hide in the temple; Nehemiah sees a trap. He names the prophetess Noadiah and other prophets who tried to frighten him. The wall is finished on the 25th of Elul, in 52 days. Tobiah's letters and marriages tie him to Judah's nobles.
- How Nehemiah Came to Us →Nehemiah begins with "the words of Nehemiah" and much of it is a first-person memoir, framed by lists, a public reading, a prayer and a covenant. In the Hebrew Bible it is the second half of the single book Ezra–Nehemiah. No verse of Nehemiah has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In Greek it is the last thirteen chapters of 2 Esdras; 1 Esdras shares only the public reading. Its earliest complete Hebrew copies are medieval.