Topic
Shabbethai
4 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Ezra 10:15Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave 1. A Levite, assistant to Ezra
¶ Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.
- Nehemiah 8:7Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave 2. An expounder of the law
Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.
- Nehemiah 11:16Easton · ISBE · Nave 3. A chief Levite, an attendant of the temple
And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chief of the Levites, had the oversight of the outward business of the house of God.
- 1 Esdras 9:14ISBE
Then Jonathan the son of Azael and Ezechias the son of Theocanus accordingly took this matter upon them: and Mosollam and Levis and Sabbatheus helped them.
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 3 references
Sabbath-born, a Levite who assisted in expounding the law and investigating into the illegal marriages of the Jews (Ezra 10:15; Neh. 8:7; 11:16).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 2 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 4 references
shab'-e-thi (shabbethay, "one born on the Sabbath"; Codex Vaticanus Sabathai; Codex Alexandrinus Kabbathai = "Sabbateus" of 1 Esdras 9:14): A Levite who opposed (?) Ezra's suggestion that the men who had married foreign wives put them aside (Ezr 10:15). Kuenen, however, renders the phrase `amedhu `al zo'th, of which Asahiel and Jahaziah are the subjects, to mean "stand over," "have charge of," rather than "stand against," "oppose" (Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 247 f); this would make Shabbethai, who was in accord with the two men mentioned above, an ally rather than an opponent of Ezra. We incline toward Kuenen's interpretation in view of the position attained by Shabbethai under Nehemiah--one he would have been unlikely to attain had he been hostile to Ezra. He is mentioned among those appointed to explain the Law (Ne 8:7), and as one of the chiefs of the Levites who had the oversight of "the outward business of the house of God" (Ne 11:16).
Horace J. Wolf
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.