Jehohanan

Jehohanan is a personal name borne by several men in the post-monarchic and post-exilic histories. Within UPDV scope, distinct bearers can be distinguished — a Korahite gatekeeper, a Judahite military commander, the father of one of Jehoiada's captains of hundreds, a returnee from Babylon among the sons of Bebai, a priest in the days of Joiakim, and a singer at the dedication of the wall — all but one of them clustered in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The natural movement of the material is to take them in the order the canonical books present them: David's gatekeeper, Jehoshaphat's captain and the captain remembered through his son, the man of Bebai who put away a foreign wife, and finally the two men named in Joiakim's priestly roster and at the dedication procession.

The Korahite Gatekeeper

The first Jehohanan stands among the doorkeepers David appointed for the house of Yahweh. The Chronicler opens the roster of courses with the Korahite house of Meshelemiah and lists his seven sons in order: "Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh" (1Ch 26:3). The names sit inside a section devoted to the courses of the doorkeepers (1Ch 26:1), and Jehohanan's place is the sixth among Meshelemiah's brothers in the gatekeeping family of Korah.

Jehoshaphat's Captain

A second Jehohanan appears as a senior officer in the army of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. The Chronicler is numbering the captains of thousands of Judah, beginning with Adnah and his three hundred thousand mighty men of valor, and continues: "and next to him Jehohanan the captain, and with him 280,000" (2Ch 17:15). Jehohanan stands second in rank in Jehoshaphat's muster, commanding the next largest division of Judahite troops after Adnah.

Father of Ishmael the Captain of Hundreds

In the next generation a man named Jehohanan is remembered through his son in the account of Jehoiada's coup against Athaliah. When the priest moved to put the young king Joash on the throne, "in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into covenant with him" (2Ch 23:1). Jehohanan himself does not act in the narrative; he is named only as the father of Ishmael, one of the five captains of hundreds whom Jehoiada bound by covenant.

Of the Sons of Bebai

Among the men who returned from Babylon and afterward put away their foreign wives in the days of Ezra, a Jehohanan appears in the list from the house of Bebai: "And of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai" (Ezr 10:28). The reform centers on the dissolution of marriages contracted with the peoples of the lands, and Jehohanan stands first among the four sons of Bebai who are named.

Priest in the Days of Joiakim

Nehemiah's record of the priestly succession in the generation after the return places a Jehohanan at the head of the father's house of Amariah. In Joiakim's day the priests were enrolled by their houses: "of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan" (Ne 12:13). The list belongs to the heads of fathers' houses among the priests (Ne 12:12), and Jehohanan is the named representative of the priestly line of Amariah in that generation.

Singer at the Dedication of the Wall

A final Jehohanan appears in the second of the two thanksgiving companies that Nehemiah set in order on the day the wall of Jerusalem was dedicated. After the priests with trumpets are listed, the verse names a further group of men together with the singers: "and Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer" (Ne 12:42). Jehohanan takes his place among the eight men named in the procession just before the singers raised their voices under Jezrahiah's lead.