Shabbethai was a Levite in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. He was associated with the investigation of foreign marriages, explaining the Law, and overseeing the temple’s outward affairs.
Definition
Shabbethai was a Levite in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. He was associated with the explanation of the Law, the investigation or oversight of marriages involving foreign wives, and the outward business of the house of God.
Biblical Usage
Shabbethai appears among those who instructed the people in the Law and among the Levites overseeing the outward affairs of the temple. In Ezra’s reform, the text may portray him as opposing the proposal concerning foreign wives or as having charge of the matter alongside others.
Historical Background
Shabbethai’s name is connected with being born on the Sabbath. The interpretation of his role in Ezra 10:15 is disputed in the supplied material, while his later position under Nehemiah is presented as evidence that he may have supported rather than opposed Ezra.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
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
(sabbatical) a Levite in the time of Ezra. (Ezra 10:15) It is apparently the same who with Jeshua and others instructed the people in the knowledge of the law. (Nehemiah 8:7) (B.C. 450.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>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).</p><p>Horace J. Wolf</p>
