Seder Olam Zutta - The Descendants of Jehoiachin

The Descendants of Jehoiachin

The second part of the work begins with the statement that Jehoiachin, who reigned only three months and ten days, was carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar (comp. 2 Kings 24:8; 2 Chronicles 36:9). He was afterward given high rank by Evil-merodach, thus becoming the first prince of the Captivity. Correcting the somewhat confused genealogical account of 1 Chronicles 3:17-19, the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa declares that Jehoiachin had four sons, the eldest of whom was Shealtiel, who succeeded his father.

It is worthwhile noting that, according to this chronicle, Darius conquered Babylon after it had been supreme for 70 years, beginning with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and 52 years after the destruction of the First Temple. Zerubbabel, Shealtiel's son, who departed for Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, returned to Babylon after the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt by Ezra, and succeeded his father in the exilarchate.

Then the chronicle enumerates the successive exilarchs, the account being in part taken from 1 Chronicles 3:16 et seq., but differing greatly from the text of the latter. In fact, the first, 13th, 16th, 18th, and 19th exilarchs (the last one being Shaphat, the father of Anan), whose lives extended over a period of more than 600 years, are mentioned in I Chron. (l.c.) not as immediate successors, but as related individuals, and in contemporaneous groups. Sometimes, too, the father in I Chronicles is the son in the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa.

With the deaths of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi—more exactly, in the 52nd year of the Persian domination, or year 3442 of the creation—prophecy ceased and the period of the wise men ("ḥakamim") began. From Hananiah (Zerubbabel's grandson) onward every exilarch is indicated as having been guided by wise men. The names of the kings that reigned over Judea from Alexander the Great to Roman Palaestina during the destruction of the Second Temple are given. Like the Seder 'Olam Rabbah, this chronicle gives the reigns of the Maccabees and the Herods as covering 103 years each. It may be stated that the Herodian dynasty consisted, according to the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa, of three kings only—Herod, Agrippa, and Monobaz; at the end of Monobaz's reign and during the time of the 11th exilarch, Shechaniah, the son of Shemaiah, the Romans destroyed the Temple. Further, from Nahum, the 17th exilarch, the names are given of the wise men, probably the chiefs of the academy, who assisted the exilarchs. With Rab Huna, 29th exilarch, the direct male line of descent from David terminated. The exilarchs following are stated to have been descendants of Rab Huna through his daughter, the wife of R. Hananiah, the head of the yeshibah, whose marriage is related at length.

After having stated that Mar-Zutra II, the 13th exilarch, was executed in the year 502 C.E., and that his posthumous son Mar-Zutra III betook himself, in the year 4280 of the Creation (= 520 C.E.), to Palaestina Prima, where he became chief of the Sanhedrin, the chronicle mentions eight succeeding exilarchs, the last one being Rab Ḥaẓub, son of Rab Phinehas. Apart from certain misstatements, this part contains many authenticated facts, and is therefore considered by modern scholars as a document of historical value. It may be seen that the lives of 31 exilarchs covered a period of more than 900 years, averaging three exilarchs to a century. This might help to determine the time at which the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa was written, for the 39th exilarch, according to this estimate, would have lived at the end of the 8th century. The additions of the copyists, however, render this task difficult.

In a fragment of a chronicle published by A. Neubauer (M. J. C. i. 197) there is a sentence, regarding the reign of John Hyrcanus, which is found in the Seder 'Olam Zuṭa but is referred to the "Seder 'Olam de-Rabbanan." Lazarus (Brüll's Jahrb. x. 8) supposes that after "de-Rabbanan" the word "Sabura'e" should be inserted, as a chronicle under the title "Seder 'Olam de-Rabbanan Sabura'e" is mentioned by Baruch b. Isaac of Worms (Sefer ha-Terumah, Hilkot Abodah Zarah, § 135) and by Moses of Coucy (Sefer Miẓwot Gadol, ii. 866), in connection with the statement that the year 4564 (= 804 C.E.) was a Sabbatical year. This induced many modern scholars, as H. Grätz, Steinschneider, and Zunz, to identify the "Seder 'Olam Zuṭa" with the "Seder 'Olam de Rabbanan Sabura'e."