ZERUBBABEL (זְרֻבָּבֶ֗ל, Akkad. zer-babili (?) offspring of Babylon (?); LXX Ζοροβαβέλ, G2431, KJV Apoc. ZOROBABEL). A Babylonian Jew who returned to Pal. (Ezra 2:2) after the exile and functioned as the governor of Jerusalem under the Pers. ruler Darius Hystaspes I (522-486 b.c.).

1. Name. There are certain difficulties connected with the identification of Zerubbabel in view of the fact that he has sometimes been regarded as identical with Sheshbazzar (Ezra 1:8 et. al.), and also because of an apparent discrepancy in the genealogical lists of Ezra and Chronicles. He was said to have been the son of Shealtiel (or Salathiel), and the grandson of King Jehoiachin (Ezra 3:2; Hag 1:1; Matt 1:12; Luke 3:27). However, the MT (1 Chron 3:19), though not the LXX, described him as the son of Pedaiah, the brother of Shealtiel.

There are several ways of explaining this apparent discrepancy, the most common of which is the supposition that Shealtiel died without offspring and that his brother Pedaiah married the widow according to ancient Heb. levirate law (Deut 25:5-10). Were Zerubbabel to have been born of such a union he could legally claim to be the son of Shealtiel. Perhaps the Chronicler had information to this effect, but preferred to list him as the lineal son of Pedaiah. Again, if Shealtiel had died without issue, he could well have named his nephew as his legal heir before dying, thus making Zerubbabel his son. It is highly improbable that Zerubbabel is to be identified with Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah whom Cyrus made governor of the land (Ezra 1:8) and to whom he entrusted the Temple vessels, captured by Nebuchadnezzar, for return to Jerusalem (5:14, 15), despite the assertions of some scholars. The most telling argument against such a position is that the account given in the letter addressed to Darius I (5:6, 17) would hardly be intelligible unless Sheshbazzar was dead at the time of the incident which it recorded, whereas Zerubbabel was actively engaged in the construction of the second Temple. It is possible that Sheshbazzar was Shenazzar, the uncle of Zerubbabel (1 Chron 3:18), but this is uncertain. The apparent discrepancy in the ancestry of Zerubbabel may have been caused by a copyist’s error in Chronicles, or perhaps the reference was to another person named Zerubbabel, who may have been a cousin of his illustrious namesake. Cuneiform inscrs. from Babylonia dating from the early Pers. period (539-331 b.c.) show that the name Zerubbabel was of common occurrence, thus making for difficulty in exact identification. At all events, the Zerubbabel of Ezra and Haggai was heir to the throne of Judah, and because of his position in the Davidic line he was placed by two evangelists (Matt 1:12; Luke 3:27) in the ancestral list of Jesus Christ.

2. Historical background. Subsequent to the decree of Cyrus in 538 b.c. in which the captive peoples of Babylonia were permitted to return to their own homes, Zerubbabel was appointed governor (peḥâ) in postexilic Jerusalem (Ezra 1:8, 11; 5:14). These narratives reflect accurately the policy of Cyrus toward those minority groups made captive and expatriated under the neo-Babylonian regime. By urging such peoples to return home and rebuild their religious shrines, Cyrus was at once promoting good will for his own regime in all parts of his newly-won empire and at the same time relieving himself of responsibility for maintaining dissident captive groups in continued servitude. By about 530 b.c. some of the Hebrews had returned to Judaea under the leadership of Zerubbabel and began work on the reconstruction of the Temple. From the time of Darius the Great (522-486 b.c.) the Pers. regime was stable in nature, and the Judaean state was encouraged to function as a religious rather than a political entity, supported by Pers. rule.

3. Work of Zerubbabel. This man was the active political leader in Jerusalem under the aegis of Tattenai, the military governor of Judaea (6:13), with Joshua the high priest serving as the principal religious figure. The work of rebuilding the Temple, which had been hindered until 520 b.c., was resumed when Darius found the decree authorizing the project (6:1-12) and forbade further interference with it. This support, along with a large subsidy for the completion of the Temple, provided official sanction for the task which had all but defeated the resolve of the returned exiles. At this point the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (520 b.c.) furnished the necessary moral and spiritual impetus for the work of rebuilding. Haggai castigated the Jews for their selfishness, indifference and neglect, spurring Zerubbabel on to give proper oversight to the work in hand. In the same year Zechariah urged completion of the Temple, and promised that earlier opposition would be removed.

Some scholars have assumed that both prophets encouraged Zerubbabel to look forward to a time when Judaea would be free from foreign domination and be governed by a descendant of the house of David. Thus it is held that the crowning of Joshua (Zech 6:9-15) was actually the coronation of Zerubbabel, but MS evidence for this position is non-existent, and in any event, it is Joshua who is the type of the Messianic Branch (3:8). Consequently there is no ground whatever for taking the crowning and the promise of protection in Haggai 2:20-23 as a theoretical basis for the coronation of Zerubbabel as king of Judaea, and supposing in addition that this act of rebellion was quickly crushed, along with others of a similar kind in the empire, by Darius I. In fact, the political circumstances of Zerubbabel’s rule are unknown, as are those of his death.

Zerubbabel was honored in Jewish tradition, mentioned as a man of renown (Ecclus 49:11). A 6th-cent. a.d. Jewish chronicle preserved the tradition that Zerubbabel returned to Babylonia after 515 b.c. and succeeded his father Shealtiel as a prince of the exiled remnant there, but this is historically improbable. Another familiar legend was the forensic contest of the three young warriors of Darius (1 Esd 3:1-5:6), which was adopted by the Jewish historian Josephus. The story recounted how the wisdom of Zorobabel prevailed, and has elements reminiscent of the narrative of Daniel and his three companions (Dan 1:1-21).

Bibliography L. E. Browne, Early Judaism (1929); A. C. Welch, Post-Exilic Judaism (1935); J. S. Wright, The Building of the Second Temple (1958).