For the sitemap, see here.
The book of Nehemiah relates a scandal in which various Judahites intermarried with foreign women. They were made to divorce these women, and there was a great hubbub, and a document was signed concerning the incident, and then there appears a list of names of signatories.
Nehemiah 10:1-8. On the sealed documents were Nehemiah the governor the son of Hachaliah, and Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashur, Amariah, Malchiah, Hattush, Shebeniah, Malluch, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the priests.
On its face, this appears to be a list of individuals. A more thorough inspection of every name (I’ve done this but won’t bore you with all the details) confirms that this is a list of individuals. All of the names are the names of what appear to be individuals who appear elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah, or they do not appear anywhere else in Ezra-Nehemiah. The sole exception is Harim, which appears elsewhere as a clan name. But there is no reason to think there cannot have been a clan named Harim as well as an individual by the same name at the same time. So far, so simple.
Nehemiah 10:9-13. And the Levites were Jeshua ben Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel, and their brothers Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zakkur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.
This is like the last list. It looks like, and is, a list of individuals, mostly individuals who appear elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah, occasionally of individuals who only appear here. There is no indication that we are dealing with anything other than a list of individuals here.
Then something changes:
Nehemiah 10:14-27. The heads of the people: Parosh, Pahath Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, Ater Hezekiah, Azzur, Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Pilha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
On its face, and without doing an in-depth investigation, one would imagine that this was like the previous names, a list of 41 of individuals. (43, if you thought Pahath Moab and Ater Hezekiah were each pairs of individual names.) But a lot of these names do not appear for individuals, but only for clans.
You can confirm this by searching through Ezra-Nehemiah for other instances of the names which appear here. By and large, these are not names given to individuals elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah. Instead, these names tend to appear in the format bnei X, “sons of X”, members of the clan “X.”
The names Parosh, Pahath Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, Azgad, Bebai, Bigvai, Adin, Ater Hezekiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Hanan, and Harim are used for clans elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah. That’s fifteen names (16 entries, counting the fact that Hanan appears twice). The name “Meshezabel” appears twice (Nehemiah 3:4; 11:24), both times in the phrase “son of Meshezabel.” Hallohesh appears elsewhere only in the phrase “son of Hallohesh” (Nehemiah 3:12).
Of names which do not appear elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah, we find Adonijah, Azzur, Magpiash, Pelatiah, Hoshea, Pilha, Shobek, Hashabnah, Ahijah, Anan, and Nebai. Hezir likewise does not appear elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah, but names what appears to be a clan in 1 Chronicles 24:15.
The name Bunni (Nehemiah 9:4) is used elsewhere of a person, but the phrase “son of Bunni” also appears (Nehemiah 11:15), suggesting a possible clan by that name. Meshullam appears as an individual name (Ezra 8:16; 10:15; 10:29; Nehemiah 3:4; 3:6; 3:30; 6:18; 8:4; 10:7) but “son of Meshullam” occurs as well (Nehemiah 11:7; 11:11; 12:16, 25, 33). Zadok appears as a personal name (Nehemiah 3:4; 29; 13:13) but we also find “son of Zadok” (Ezra 7:4; Nehemiah 11:11). “Sons of Zadok” appears elsewhere in the Bible (Ezekiel 40:46; 44:15; 48:11) along with the collective expressions “house of Zadok” (2 Chronicles 31:10) and “seed of Zadok” (Ezekiel 43:19). In Ezra-Nehemiah, Hananiah appears as a personal name, but see the “sons of Hananiah” in 1 Chronicles 3:21, and a collective use in 1 Chronicles 25:23.
If I’m managing to keep track of this tricky list, we’ve now accounted for 33 of the 41 entries in our list.
The names Hodiah, Jaddua, Anaiah, Hashub, Rehub, Maaseiah, Malluch, and Baanah — 8 names — appear elsewhere in Ezra-Nehemiah only as personal names. I think, given the balance of the evidence, that we can regard this primarily as a list of clan names. The clans are, in a sense, “signatories” to the document.
It would be a nicer, neater situation if we could identify all of the names as clan names. But I think the bulk of the evidence points toward this being a list of clans. For the names which appear elsewhere as individuals, I would imagine that these could also be clan names not mentioned elsewhere.
Afterward
After sorting through the names and writing the stuff above, I did some searches to see who else had picked up on this (there was, of course, no way I would be first). I found the following in Richard J. Bautch (March 2009). Glory and Power, Ritual and Relationship: The Sinai Covenant in the Postexilic Period. A&C Black. pp. 111.
“Finally, when the laity are listed there are 42 patronymics, with the additions of Anathoth and Nebai (10:20), which are place names. Opinion varies whether Anathoth and Nebai function here as patronymics or personal names. In sum, roughly 80 per cent of the names in 10:2-28 are family names, and the percentage would be higher but for the anomalous listing of the Levites. The reader is left with the impression that those who would sign such a list in the mid-fifth century would do so not in their own name but in that of their extended family, or clan, because families were then such readily identifiable social units.”
Apparently there is more to learn about the first two sections, and maybe I was too hasty in labelling those as containing only individuals. But I think I’ve spent enough time on Nehemiah 10 for now. Perhaps I’ll find the time to get back to it later.
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