Joiada

Joiada appears in the high-priestly succession of the Persian period, as son and successor of Eliashib. The notices come almost entirely from the genealogical and disciplinary material near the end of Nehemiah. He is named in the line that runs from Jeshua through Jaddua, and one of his sons is the figure Nehemiah expels for his marriage into Sanballat's house.

In the Post-Exilic High-Priestly Line

The genealogy of Nehemiah 12 carries the descent of the high priests from Jeshua, the returnee, down through the generations of the rebuilt community. Joiada is the fourth generation in the chain: "And Jeshua begot Joiakim, and Joiakim begot Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada" (Neh 12:10). His line continues directly to the next two priests: "and Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua" (Neh 12:11). The list closes with a synchronism that places Joiada among the high priests under whom the Levitical heads were recorded: "As for the Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, there were recorded the heads of fathers' [houses]; also the priests, in the reign of Darius the Persian" (Neh 12:22).

A Son's Foreign Marriage and Nehemiah's Expulsion

In the closing reform of Nehemiah, one of Joiada's sons is implicated in marriage with the family of Sanballat the Horonite. Nehemiah records the action in the first person: "And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me" (Neh 13:28). The notice attaches to Joiada by patronymic; Joiada himself is named as the son of Eliashib the high priest, and the offending grandson is removed from Nehemiah's company.