All the People in the Bible

An A–Z Guide to the Saints, Scoundrels, and Other Characters in Scripture

Richard R. Losch

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2008 Richard R. Losch

All rights reserved

Published 2008 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Losch, Richard R.

All the people in the Bible: an a–z guide to the saints, scoundrels, and other characters in scripture / Richard R. Losch.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8028-2454-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Bible—Biography—Dictionaries. I. Title.

BS570.L66 2008

220.9ʹ203—dc22

2008010804

www.eerdmans.com

Contents

Preface

A–Z

All the People in the Bible and Apocrypha

The Kings of the Jewish Monarchies

The Seleucid Emperors

The Maccabean Leaders and Hasmonean Kings

The Family of the Herods

The Herodian Dynasty

Preface

More than any other book, the Bible offers an amazing collection of fascinating characters ranging from the holiest of the holy to some of the most depraved scoundrels imaginable. Many are mentioned only in passing, yet history and archaeology can often fill in the blanks and flesh them out as exciting human beings. For this reason we have in many cases been able to tell much more about them than the Bible alone reveals. Pontius Pilate, for example, is presented rather gently by the writers of the Gospels, yet historical records and tradition show him to have been a loathsome person.

There are many biblical names not included here except in the appendix. Many are listed in genealogies and nothing more is known of them, and others had no significant effect on history or legend. For example, there are thirty-one Azariahs in the Bible, yet in our opinion only two merit attention, and they are better known by other names: Azariah the friend of Daniel, better known as Abednego, and Azariah the king of Judah, better known as Uzziah. On the other hand, we have included several individuals who are not actually mentioned in the Bible, yet were very much involved in the events of the time. For example, the Seleucid emperors and the Hasmonean kings are ignored in the Bible, and only a few of them are mentioned in the Apocrypha. Nevertheless, they played a major role in the transition from Old to New Testament times. Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Claudius had a profound effect on the history of biblical times, yet for a number of reasons they are either ignored or mentioned only in passing in the Bible. Likewise, it is impossible to get a full picture of any of the Herods without looking at a cross section of their whole amazingly dysfunctional family and seeing the incredible contrasts in them. Probably the best of the lot was Herod Agrippa I, who, despite his warts and his persecution of James and Peter, was a faithful Jew and basically a good man. His daughter Bernice, on the other hand, was married to two of her ...