Maadiah
1:
MAADIAH (PERSON) [Heb ma˓adyâ (מַעַדְיָה)]. Var. MOADIAH. A priest who is listed in Neh 12:5 (MT) as having returned from exile to Jerusalem in the days of Zerubbabel. Later in the same chapter (v 17, MT), a certain Moadiah (Heb mô˓adyâ) is listed as the father of Piltai, the head of a priestly family. Inasmuch as even a quick overview will confirm the close correspondence between the names found in these two lists (i.e., vv 1–7 and 12–21), it is virtually certain that “Maadiah” and “Moadiah” represent two variant spellings of the name of the same individual (see, e.g., Bowman IB 3: 785, 788, who prefers the former as textually better attested). For the absence of Maadiah/Moadiah in the major LXX mss (as well as those of a majority of the other priestly households), see AMOK.
Recently Williamson (Ezra, Nehemiah WBC, 358–61) has argued persuasively for the relative primacy of the list of priestly families found in vv 12–21, from which a later editor has transcribed the list found in vv 1–7. As Williamson points out, it is less likely that someone invented the names of the added generation in vv 12–21, names which are not paralleled elsewhere, than that the names of the family heads were merely transferred from this list to the one found in vv 1–7. This reconstruction would tend to support the primacy of the spelling “Moadiah” (v 17) over “Maadiah” (v 5), a conclusion which, however, may be called into question on text-critical grounds. In particular, the secondary omission of a name after Miniamin (v 17b, MT) has apparently led to further textual disruption in the Versions. Such disruption, for example, is reflected in the reading en kairois attested in Codex Sinaiticus (supplied by a later hand inasmuch as there was a major lacuna, as noted above, in the major Greek witnesses); this reading probably presupposes the Heb lĕmô˓ădêhā, “at that time, in those days,” for the MT lĕmô˓adyâ, “of/to Moadiah.” These two variants thus represent two possible vocalizations of the same consonantal text (lmw˓dyh), with the former vocalization quite possibly the more original of the two (once a name dropped out after Miniamin, a scribe would not have expected two names in a row referring to the former generation). In any case, it is easier to explain an addition of the waw in v 17 (arising from prior textual corruption) than its deletion in v 5.
A third list of priests found in Neh 10:3–9—Eng 10:2–8—also evidences quite a number of similarities with the two lists of priests already cited from Nehemiah 12 (again, see AMOK). It is noteworthy that in Neh 10:9—Eng v 8—we read “Maaziah” (Heb ma˓azyâ), a relatively familiar priestly name, for the expected Maadiah/Moadiah (cf. Bowman IB 3: 785). Inasmuch as the list of priests in chap. 10 probably gathers its names from a variety of sources (Williamson Ezra, Nehemiah WBC, 362, cf. also pp. 325–31), not too much should be made of the apparent Maaziah/Maadiah correspondence, although such a correspondence does dovetail nicely with the other evidence favoring the spelling “Maadiah” (over “Moadiah”) as the more accurate transcription of the priestly name found in Nehemiah 12.
William H. Barnes
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (4:430). New York: Doubleday.
2:
MAADIAH* Head of a priestly family who returned to Jerusalem after the exile (Neh 12:5, nlt mg) and whose house was headed by Piltai in the next generation during the days of Joiakim the high priest. He is called Moadiah in v 17. He is perhaps identifiable with the priest Maaziah, who set his seal on Ezra’s covenant (10:8).
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (837). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
3:
MAADI´AH (ma-a-dīʹa; “ornament of Jehovah”). One of the priests who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Neh. 12:5), about 536 b.c. He is thought to be the same as Moadiah (v. 17).
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:
Maadiah (Heb. ma˓aḏyâ)
A priest or family of priests who returned with Zerubbabel from captivity in Babylon (Neh. 12:5). He may be the same as Moadiah at Neh. 12:17 or Maaziah at 10:8 (MT 9).
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (835). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans
