Parallels between the leadership of Shivat Tzion and the sub-groups that came with them?

 Been awhile. But I thought I would put forward this idea suggested by my (new) Tanach chavruta: We started learning Ezra and Nechemiah Wednesday before last. When we reached ch. 2 he suggested that the list of the leadership of Shivat Tzion - Zerubavel, Yeshua, Nechemiah, S'rayah, Ra'alyah, Mordechai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rechum, Ba'anah - corresponds to the sub-groups that came with them to Eretz Yisrael: Families from Yehudah, Binyamin, Levi, Kohanim and the Bnei Netinim - descendants of the slaves of Shlomo who converted.

Very interesting theory, but does it hold water?

Zerubavel - Yehudah.

Yeshua - Kohen

Nechemiah - unknown (whether or not this is Nechemiah Hatirshata, author of Nechemiah is unknown, but either way, his tribal identity is, at least according to p'shat, unknown.

S'rayah - unknown, some believe this may be S'rayah Hakohen, last KG of the First Temple.

Ra'alyah - unknown.

Mordechai - likely the Mordechai, so Binyamin.

Bilshan - unknown.

Mispar - unknown.

Bigvai - unknown.

Rechum - unknown.

Ba'anah - unknown.


In other words, it might work - but we don't have enough evidence for the moment... Perhaps I'll look into it some more and do a pt. 2 someday.

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