JOHANAN BEN JEHOIADA

JOHANAN BEN JEHOIADA, (fifth century B.C.E.), high priest. Opinions differ as to the name of Johanan's father. In a number of places he is called Eliashib (Ezra 10:6; Neh. 12:23), whereas Josephus refers to him as "the son of Joiada and grandson of Eliashib" (cf. also Neh. 12:22 and 5:11; reading Johanan instead of Jonathan). In the opinion of A. Schalit Johanan was a nephew of manasseh . Johanan served as high priest after the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah and is mentioned in one of the elephantine papyri of 408 B.C.E. According to this papyrus (Cowley, Aramaic 108–19, no. 30), he opposed the construction by the Jews of the Elephantine Temple and did not reply to a letter which they addressed to him on the subject. Johanan murdered his brother Jeshua in the course of a dispute with him in the Temple area. In consequence of this crime, the Jews were punished by Bagoas (bagohi ), the Persian governor. These events are better understood in light of the fact that Johanan was a supporter of Ezra and Nehemiah (Jos., Ant. 11:297–301), whereas the connections between Jeshua and Bagoas, and between the latter and the Samaritans, suggest that Jeshua favored closer relations with the Samaritans. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Schalit, in: Sefer Yoḥanan Levi (1949), 252–72; Klausner, Bayit Sheni, 1 (19512), 226–303; 2 (19512), 11–12, 19–20; E. Meyer, Der Papyrusfund von Elephantine (1912), 70ff; Schuerer, Gesch, 3 (19094), 7, 26–27. (Uriel Rappaport)