The Royal Line after the Exile: 3:17–24 The Chronicler signals the beginning of the exilic period in this genealogy when he calls Jehoiachin the captive (1 Chron. 3:17). The lineage from him runs through Pedaiah, Zerubbabel, Hananiah, Shecaniah, Shemaiah, Neariah, and Elioenai, extending across the exilic period into the time of the postexilic restoration. Information about when exactly and in which sectors of society all the people mentioned in this part of the genealogy were active is not accessible to the modern-day interpreter. However, on the basis of smaller details in the text one may assume that some of them could have lived in the Chronicler’s time (i.e., in the first half of the fourth century B.C.).

One could say that this particular genealogy becomes the bridge between the histo…