It is therefore likely that the context for the original promulgation of the list is to be sought in the figure of Jehozadak (v. 15) who now concludes it. The death of Seraiah, Jehozadak’s father, is narrated in II Kings 25.18–21//Jer. 52.24–27, but the present passage is our only evidence, not only of Jehozadak’s Aaronide ancestry, but also of his kinship to Seraiah. Here, then, we have the key to the levitical/Aaronide legitimacy of Joshua, the high priest of the Restoration period (Hag. 1.1, etc; Ezra 3.2, etc), and the missing link between the priesthood of the First and Second Temple.
