Eliakim appears in the

Genealogy of Jesus The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham and works forwards, while Luke works back in time from Jesus to Adam. The lists of na ...

according to Matthew as a son of

Abihud There are two biblical characters named Abihud. * One of the sons of Bela, the son of Benjamin; called also Ahihud (1 Chronicles 8:3,7). * A son or grandson of Zerubbabel, and member of the Davidic line. Abihud was the father of Eliakim ( Matthe ...

or Abiud and the father of

Azor Azor () is a local council (Israel), local council in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, on the old Jaffa-Jerusalem road southeast of Tel Aviv. Established in 1948, Azor was granted local council status in 1951. In it had a population of , and ha ...

according to the accounts of Matthew. ( Matthew 1:13). He is the Grandson of

Zerubbabel Zerubbabel ( from ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a governor of the Achaemenid Empire's province of Yehud Medinata and the grandson of Jeconiah, penultimate king of Judah. He is not documented in extra-biblical documents, and is considered ...

, and a descendant of the

Davidic Line The Davidic line refers to the descendants of David, who established the House of David ( ) in the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. In Judaism, the lineage is based on texts from the Hebrew Bible ...

Veneration

Eliakim is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Church as a ''Holy Patriarch'' and celebrated during the second part of the Sunday of the Holy Fathers between 18 and 24 of December. Eliakim is present in churches namely Padova Church of St. Francesco and the most known is the painting of Eliakim in the

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel ( ; ; ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), it takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and ...

delineated by

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

Genealogy

According to , Eliakim, was the son of

and the father of Azor. Therefore, he is of the

age. He is also not to be confused with the Eliakim of Luke's Genealogy whose son is Jonam and father is Melea. Like any other generations after

, he was not mentioned in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

through the Davidic Lineage.

Robert H. Gundry Robert Horton Gundry (born 1932) is an American scholar and retired professor of New Testament studies and Koine Greek. Life Gundry was born in 1932 to Norman C. and Lolita (née Hinshaw) Gundry. He is the older brother of Stanley N. Gundr ...

suggests that Matthew simply made up these names in order to fill up the space between the return from the exile and the time of

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

. Gundry conjectures that his name can refer to a priest from the

tribe of Levi According to the Bible, the Tribe of Levi is one of the tribes of Israel, traditionally descended from Levi, son of Jacob. The descendants of Aaron, who was the first High Priest of Israel, were designated as the priestly class, the Kohanim. ...

, namely Eliezer. Eliezer (Eliakim) succeeded Abihu (Abihud) as priest shortly after his death. According to Gundry,

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chinese Elm ''Ulmus parvifolia'' Christianity * Matthew the Apostle, one of ...

modifies the name once again due to the fittingness of the name to the figure's ancestor. Some scholars speculate that the names of Eliakim's era were merged. It is unknown when Eliakim died or when he was born because he is briefly even mentioned in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

only as being the son of Abihud and the father of Azor.

References

6th-century BCE Jews {{Bible-stub