Shaphan

Sha´phan, the scribe or secretary of King Josiah (2Ki 22:3; 2Ki 22:12; Jer 36:10; comp. Ezr 8:11). Contemporary with him was a state officer named Ahikam, constantly mentioned as ’the son of Shaphan’ (2Ki 22:12; 2Ki 25:22; Jer 26:24; Jer 39:14; and perhaps 39:3); but this Shaphan, the father of Ahikam, can hardly be the same with Shaphan the scribe, although the heedless reader may be apt to confound them.

1. A scribe or secretary under King Josiah, to whom he read from the newly found autograph roll of the book of the law, 2Ki 22:12 ; Jer 29:3 ; 36:10; Eze 8:11 .\par 2. The father of Ahikam, 2Ki 22:12 ; 25:22; Jer 26:24 .\par

Sha’phan. (coney). The scribe, or secretary, of King Josiah. 2Ki 22:3; 2Ki 22:14; 2Ch 34:8; 2Ch 34:20. (B.C. 628). He appears on an equality, with the governor of the city, and the royal recorder. 2Ki 22:4; 2Ch 34:9.

("the jerboa’.) 2Ki 22:3; 2Ki 22:12; Jer 29:8; Jer 36:10-12; Jer 39:14; Jer 40:5; Jer 40:9; Jer 40:11; Jer 41:2; Jer 43:6; Eze 8:11. Sent by king Josiah, With the governor of the city and the recorder, to Hilkiah to take account of the money collected for repairing the temple. Hilkiah gave the discovered copy of the law to Shaphan who read it to the king. Josiah then sent Shaphan, etc., to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of the Lord His will. Shaphan must have been then an old man, for his son Ahikam was then a man of influence at court. Ahikam was Jeremiah’s friend; hence Gemariah gives the prophet and Earuch a friendly warning to hide, and intercedes that Jehoiakim should not burn the roll (Jer 36:12; Jer 36:19; Jer 36:25).

[Sha’phan]

Son of Azaliah and perhaps father of Ahikam, Gemariah, Elasah, and Jaazaniah: he was scribe or secretary to king Josiah. He presented to the king the book of the law that had been found in the temple. 2Ki 22:3-14; 2Ki 25:22; 2Ch 34:8-20; Jer 26:24; Jer 29:3; Jer 36:10-12; Jer 39:14; Jer 40:5-11; Jer 41:2; Jer 43:6; Eze 8:11.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Schulim Ochser

1. Son of Azaliah and scribe of King Josiah. He received from Hilkiah, the high priest, the book of the Law which had been found in the Temple. Shaphan was one of those sent by the king to the prophetess Huldah (II Kings xxii.; II Chron. xxxiv.). In Jer. xxxvi. 10-12 mention is made of the hall in which, in the reign of King Jehoiakim, Shaphan's son officiated.

2. Father of Ahikam, who was sent, with others, by King Josiah to the prophetess Huldah, and who subsequently saved Jeremiah from his persecutors (II Kings xxii. 12; II Chron. xxxiv. 20; Jer. xxvi. 24).

3. Father of Elasah, to whom Jeremiah gave a letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jer. xxix. 3).

4. Father of Jaazaniah, who was one of the seventy men whom Ezekiel in his vision of the Temple saw sacrificing to idols (Ezek. viii. 11).

SHAPHAN (‘coney’ or ‘rock-badger’; an old totem clan-name—so W. R. Smith).—1. ‘The scribe’ (secretary of state) of Josiah in 621 b.c., ‘son of Azaliah,’ who laid before the king the law-book discovered by Hilkiah (wh. see) in the Temple (2Ki 22:3-11 = 2Ch 34:8-18). Shaphan appears to have been the chief lay leader in the execution of Josiah’s reforms. His family for two following generations played a worthy part as servants of Jehovah, and friends of the prophet Jeremiah: the Ahikam of 2Ki 22:12-14 (= 2Ch 34:20-22) and Jer 26:24, the Gemariah of Jer 36:12; Jer 36:25, and Elasah (Jer 29:3) were Shaphan’s sons; the Micaiah of Jer 36:11-12, and Gedaliah (wh. see), whom the Chaldæans made governor of Judæa after the Captivity of 586 b.c., his grandsons. 2. The ‘Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan,’ denounced in Eze 8:11 as ringleader in idolatry, was possibly, but not certainly, a son of the same Shaphan.

G. G. Findlay.

shā´fan (שׁפן( naf´, shāphān, “rockbadger,” English Versions of the Bible “coney”; Σαφφάν, Saphphán): An old totem clan name (so W.R. Smith; compare, however, the article TOTEMISM; Gray, Gray, Studies in Hebrew Proper Names, 103 ff, and Jacob’s Studies in Biblical Archaeology, 84 ff).

(1) Son of Azaliah and scribe of King Josiah. He received from Hilkiah the Book of the Law which had been found in the Temple (2Ki 22:3 ff; 2 Ch 34:8-28). It was from Shaphan’s lips that Josiah heard the Law read. Shaphan was also one of those sent by the king to the prophetess Huldah (2 Ki 22; 2 Ch 34). He was undoubtedly one of the staunchest supporters of Josiah in his work of reform. He was the father of Ahikam (2Ki 22:12; 2Ch 34:20; Jer 26:24), who befriended and protected the prophet Jeremiah. Another son, Elasah, was one of the two men entrusted by Jeremiah with his letter to the captives in Babylon (Jer 29:3). A third son, Gemariah, vainly tried to prevent King Jehoiakim from burning “the roll” (Jer 36:10, Jer 36:11, Jer 36:12, Jer 36:25). The Micaiah of Jer 36:11, Jer 36:12, and Gedaliah, the governor of Judea after the captivity of 586 BC, were his grandsons (Jer 39:14).

(2) Perhaps the father of Jaazaniah, one of the 70 men whom Ezekiel saw, in his vision of the Temple, sacrificing to idols (Eze 8:11).