Skip to content
Wellsprings
Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol

Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol

c. 575 BCE–c. 500 BCE · Biblical era · Babylonia (exile era)

See the world in their lifetime (530 BCE) →

Yehoshua son of Yehotzadak (in Ezra and Nehemiah, Yeshua son of Yotzadak) was the first High Priest (Kohen Gadol) of the Second Temple period. He came from the line of the last High Priests of the First Temple: his grandfather Seraiah was executed by the Babylonians after Jerusalem fell, and his father Yehotzadak was carried into exile (2 Kings 25:18-21; 1 Chronicles 5:40-41). He returned with Zerubavel (Nehemiah 12:1), rebuilt the altar with his fellow priests (Ezra 3:2), and shared the leadership of the rebuilding (Ezra 3:8, 5:2; Haggai 1:1, 1:14). In one of Zechariah's visions he stands in filthy garments while 'the Accuser' charges him, and God rebukes the accuser, calling him 'a brand plucked from the fire' before he is dressed in clean robes (Zechariah 3:1-3). Zechariah was also told to place a crown on his head (Zechariah 6:11). In the Talmud, Rav Pappa reads the soiled garments as an allusion to his sons' unfit marriages (Sanhedrin 93a). The High Priestly line continued through his son Yoyakim (Nehemiah 12:10).

See Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 1 of 2575 BCE–538 BCE

Babylonia (exile era)Babylonian exile

What they did here

His father Yehotzadak was exiled by Nebuchadnezzar (1 Chronicles 5:41), so Yehoshua was very likely born and raised in Babylonia; the text does not state his birthplace.

About Babylonia (exile era)

Babylonia in the exile era refers to Mesopotamia (Iraq) during and after the Babylonian Exile, when the population of the Kingdom of Judah was deported by Nebuchadnezzar following the destruction of the First Temple (586 BCE). The biblical books of Ezekiel and Daniel are set among the exiles in Babylonia, and the Esther narrative unfolds in the Persian period that followed; this community became the seed of the great Babylonian Jewish center.

In Babylonia (exile era) at the same time

Baruch HaSofer, Yechezkel HaNavi, Daniel, Zerubavel, Governor of Judah, Zecharyah HaNavi

See other sages who lived in Babylonia (exile era)→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.