Kallai
1:
KALLAI (PERSON) [Heb qallāy (קַלָּי)]. A head of a priestly family mentioned only in Neh 12:20 as one of some 20 priestly heads serving in the days of Joiakim (vv 12–21). Recently, H. G. M. Williamson (Ezra, Nehemiah WBC, 359–60) has argued that this list probably predates the transcription of the similar list found in vv 1–7 of the same chapter. See AMOK. The name “Kallai,” as well as all the other names which follow Malluchi (i.e., the entirety of vv 14a–21), are omitted in the major manuscripts. A similar situation obtains for the LXX of vv 1–7.
Commentators are generally agreed that the list of priestly families found in vv 12–21 is composite in nature, the last six families (vv 19–21) representing a secondary addition to the list to bring it into closer conformity with the actual priestly hierarchy in later times. Thus, the name “Kallai” may well not have appeared at all on the original list. Furthermore, Williamson (Ezra, Nehemiah WBC, 357, n. 20a) suspects that the Heb qallāy, otherwise unattested, represents a scribal device to fill a gap which had resulted from the loss of a name from the list (note that a name is clearly lacking after Miniamin in v 17). Elsewhere (Ezra, Nehemiah WBC, 343, n. 8a) he points to a number of doubtful passages in which rhyming names are set next to each other, probably as an attempt to salvage some meaning from a corrupt text. The line “of Sallai, Kallai” (Neh 12:20a) may thus fall into this category as well. If the name “Kallai” is to be retained as authentic, it may best be explained as an abbreviation of a fuller name such as the “Kelaiah” of Ezra 10:23 (see Bowman IB 3: 788).
William H. Barnes
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (4:4). New York: Doubleday.
2:
KALLAI Priest and the head of Sallu’s (Sallai’s) priestly family during the days of Joiakim the high priest (Neh 12:20).
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (767). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
3:
KAL´LAI (kalʹī; “swift, light”). Son of Sallai and a chief priest in the time of the high priest Joiakim (Neh. 12:20), after 635 b.c.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
4:
Kallai (kalʹī), the head of a priestly family in postexilic Judah under the high priest Joiakim (Neh. 12:20).
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (522). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
5:
Kallai (Heb. qallay)
The head of the priestly family of Sallai at the time of the high priest Joiakim (Neh. 12:20).
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (760). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
