Amminadab

The name Amminadab attaches to three distinct figures in the UPDV. One belongs to the tribe of Judah and stands in the line that runs from Perez through David to Christ; he is also the father-in-law of Aaron through his daughter Elisheba. A second is a son of Kohath in the Levitical genealogies. A third is a chief of the Uzzielite Levites under David. The pages on which his name appears are almost entirely genealogical lists and census notices, and the topic's shape follows that.

The Judahite Amminadab: Father of Nahshon and Father-in-Law of Aaron

The first Amminadab is fixed in the tribe of Judah by his son Nahshon. When the people are numbered at Sinai, the prince given for Judah is "Nahshon the son of Amminadab" (Nu 1:7). The same identification stands behind the listing of the Judahite host as it sets out: "All who were numbered of the camp of Judah were 186,400 according to their hosts. They will set forth first" (Nu 2:9).

By his daughter Elisheba this same Amminadab also enters the priestly story. The notice in Exodus reads, "And Aaron took to himself Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, as wife; and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar" (Ex 6:23). The Aaronic priesthood thus descends, on its mother's side, from this Judahite Amminadab.

In the Line from Perez to David

The genealogy at the close of Ruth places Amminadab in the line of Judah running from Perez to David: "Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmah" (Ru 4:18-20). The opening of 1 Chronicles' Judah genealogy gives the same sequence and adds a title to Amminadab's son: "And Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, prince of the sons of Judah" (1Ch 2:10).

In the Genealogy of Christ

Matthew carries the same Judahite line forward into the genealogy of Jesus. Within the first stretch of fourteen generations from Abraham to David, Amminadab stands between Ram and Nahshon: "and Ram begot Amminadab; and Amminadab begot Nahshon; and Nahshon begot Salmon" (Mt 1:4).

Luke's genealogy traces the same name in reverse. Reading back from Joseph toward Adam, the line runs through "the [son] of Amminadab, the [son] of Admin, the [son] of Arni, the [son] of Hezron, the [son] of Perez, the [son] of Judah" (Lu 3:33). The bracketed [son] is the UPDV's marker that the word is supplied; the name itself is the same Amminadab who stood in Ruth's and Chronicles' Perez-to-David line.

A Kohathite Amminadab

A second, distinct Amminadab belongs to the Levitical line of Kohath. The Chronicler's genealogy of the Levites lists him at the head of one of Kohath's chains of descendants: "The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son" (1Ch 6:22). Nothing further is said of him in the rows under this name; his presence is the genealogical link itself.

An Uzzielite Amminadab in David's Bringing Up of the Ark

A third Amminadab is named when David gathers the Levites to bring up the ark. Among the heads of the Levitical houses called for the work, "of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, and his brothers a hundred and twelve" (1Ch 15:10). When David then calls the priests and Levites by name, the same Amminadab is named with them: "And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab" (1Ch 15:11).