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Here are the dictionary entries for Rechab and Rechabites contributed by Edward Hayes Plumptre, in William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, (rev. ed. 1881). It may not be exactly the same as the source sited by an author I quoted, Arthur Cushman McGiffert's 1890 translation of Eusebius' "Church History," in Nicene & Post Nicene Fathers (NPNF) series 2 vol 1, footnote 509, who refered readers to Smith's Bib. Dict, but is probably very similar:
More to come ...RECHAB [... = horseman, from ..., râcab, "to ride". ... Rechab]. Three persons bearing this name are mentioned in the O.T.
1. ... The father or ancestor of Jehonadab (2 K. x. 15, 23; 1 Chr. ii. 55; Jer. xxxv. 6-19), identified by some writers. But conjecturally only, with Hobab (Arias Montanus on Judg. i.; Sanctius, quoted by Calmet, Diss. sur les Rechabites). [RECHABITES]
2. One of the two "captains of bands" (..., principes latronum), whom Ish-bosheth took into his service, and who, when his cause was failing, conspired to murder him (2 Sam. iv. 2). Josephus (Ant. vii. 2, § 1) calls him Thannos. [BAANAH; ISH-BOSHETH, vol. ii. p. 1168.]
3. The father of Malchiah, ruler of part of Beth-haceeram (Nell. iii. 14), named as repairing the Dung Gate in the fortifications of Jerusalem under Nehemiah. E. H. P.
RECHABITES [horsemen] The tribe thus named appears before us in one memorable scene. Their history before and after it lies in some obscurity. We are left to search out and combine some scattered notices, and to get from them what light we can.
(I.) In 1 Chr. ii. 55, the house of Rechab is identified with a section of the Kenites, who came into Canaan with the Israelites and retained their nomadic habits, and the name of Hammath is mentioned as the patriarch of the whole tribe. ... It has been inferred from this passage that the descendants of Rechab belonged to a branch of the Kenites settled from the first at Jabez in Judah. ... The fact, however, that Jehonadab took an active part in the revolution which placed .Jehu on the throne, seems to indicate that he and his tribe belonged to Israel rather than to Judah, and the late date of 1 Chr., taken together with other facts {infra), makes it more probable that this passage refers to the locality occupied by the Rechaliites after their return from the Captivity.a Of Rechab himself nothing is known, lie may have been the father, he may have been the remote ancestor of Jehonadab. The meaning of the word makes it probable enough that it was an epithet passing into a proper name. It may have pointed, as in the robber-chief of 2 Sam. iv. 2, to a conspicuous form of the wild Bedouin life, and Jehonadab, the son of the Rider, may have been, in part at least, for that reason, the companion and friend of the fierce captain of Israel who drives as with the fury of madness (2 K, ix. 20).
Another conjecture as to the meaning of the name is ingenious enough to merit a disinterment from the forgotten learning of the sixteenth century. Bouldue (De Eccles. ante Leg. iii. 10) infers from 2 K. ii. 12, xiii. 14, that the two great prophets EIijah and Elisha were known, each of them in his time, as the chariot (... Recheb) of Israel, i.e. its strength and protection. He infers from this that the special disciples of the prophets, who followed them in all their austerity, were known as the "sons of the chariot," B'nê Receb, and that afterwards, when the original meaning had been lost sight of, this was taken as a patronymic, and referred to an unknown Rechab. At present, of course, the different vowel points of the two words are sufficiently distinctive; but the strange reading of the LXX. in Judg. i. 19 (... where the A. V. has "because they had chariots of iron") shows that the word might easily enough be taken for the other. Apart from the evidence of the name, and the obvious probability of the fact, we have the statement ... of John of Jerusalem that Jehonadab was a disciple of Elisha (De Instit. Monach. c. 25).
(II.) The personal history of JEHONADAB has been dealt with elsewhere. Here we have to notice the new character which he impressed on the tribe, of which he was the head. As his name, his descent, and the part which he played indicate, he and his people had all along been worshippers of Jehovah, circumcised, and so within the covenant of Abraham, though not reckoned as belonging to Israel, and probably therefore not considering them- selves bound by the Mosaic law and ritual. The worship of Baal introduced by Jezebel and Ahab was accordingly not less offensive to them than to the Israelites. The luxury and license of Phoenician cities threatened the destruction of the simplicity of their nomadic life (Amos ii. 7, 8, vi. 3-6). A protest was needed against both evils, and as in the case of Elijah, and of the Nazarites of Amos ii. 11, it took the form of asceticism. There was to be a more rigid adherence than ever to the old Arab life. What had been a traditional habit, was enforced by a solemn command from the sheikh and prophet of the tribe, the destroyer of idolatry, which no one dared to transgress. They were to drink no wine, nor build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any. All their days they were to dwell in tents, as remembering that they were strangers in the land (Jer. xxxv. 6, 7). This was to be the condition of their retaining a distinct tribal existence. For two centuries and a half they adhered faithfully to this rule; but we have no record of any part taken by them in the history of the period. We may think of them as presenting the same picture which other tribes, uniting the nomad life with religious austerity, have presented in later periods.
The Nabathaeans, of whom Diodorus Siculus speaks (xix. 94) as neither sowing seed, nor planting fruit tree, nor using nor building house, and enforcing these transmitted customs under pain of death, give us one striking instance.a Another is found in the prohibition of wine by Mohammed (Sale's Koran, Prelim. Diss.. § 5). A yet more interesting parallel is found in the rapid growth of the sect of the Wahabys during the last and present centuries. Abd-ul-Wahab, from whom the sect takes its name, reproduces the old type of character in all its completeness. Anxious to protect his countrymen from the revolting vices of the Turks, as Jehonadab had been to protect the Kenites from the like vices of the Phoenicians, the Bedouin reformer felt the necessity of returning to the old austerity of Arab life. What wine had been to the earlier preacher of righteousness, the outward sign and incentive of a fatal corruption, opium and tobacco were to the later prophet, and, as such, were rigidly proscribed. The rapidity with which the Wahabys became a formidable party, the Puritans of Islam, presents a striking analogy to the strong political influence of Jehonadab in 2 K. x. 15, 23 (comp . Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahabys, p. 283, &c.).
a The fact that the Nabatheans habitually drank "wild honey" ... mixed with water (Diod. Sic. xix. 94), and that the Bedouins as habitually still make locusts an article of food (Burckhardt, Bedouins, p. 270), shows very strongly that the Baptist's life was fashioned after the Rechabite as well as the Nazarite type.
(III.) The invasion of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar in b.c. 607, drove the Rechabites from their tents. Possibly some of the previous periods of danger may have led to their settling within the limits of the territory of Judah. Some inferences may be safely drawn from the facts of Jer. xxxv. The names of the Rechabites show that they continued to be worshippers of Jehovah. They are already known to the prophet. One of them (ver. 3) bears the same name. Their rigid Nazarite life gained (or them admission into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers assigned to priests and Levites, within its precincts. They were received by the sons or followers of a "man of God," a prophet or devotee of special sanctity (ver. 4). Here they are tempted and are proof against the temptation, and their steadfastness is turned into a reproof for the unfaithfulness of Judah and Jerusalem. ... The history of this trial ends with a special blessing, the full import of which has, for the most part, not been adequately apprehended: "Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me forever" (ver. 19). Whether we look on this as the utterance of a true prophet, or as a vaticinium ex eventu, we should hardly expect at this precise point to lose sight altogether of those of whom they were spoken, even if the words pointed only to the perpetuation of the name and tribe. They have however, a higher meaning. The words "to stand before me" ... are essentially liturgical. The tribe of Levi is chosen to "stand before" the Lord (Deut. x. 8, xvii. 5, 7). In Gen. xviii. 22; Judg. xx. 28; Ps. cxxxiv. 1 ; Jer. XV. 19, the liturgical meaning is equally prominent and unmistakable (comp. Gesen. Thes. s v.; Grotius in loc.). The fact that this meaning is given ("ministering before me") in the Targum of Jonathan, is evidence (1) as to the received meaning of the phrase: (2) that this rendering did not shock the feelings of studious and devout Rabbis in our Lord's time; (3) that it was at least probable that there existed representatives of the Rechabites connected with the Temple services in the time of Jonathan. This then, was the extent of the new blessing. The Rechabites were solemnly adopted into the families of Israel, and were recognized as incorporated into the tribe of Levi.b Their purity, their faithfulness, their consecrated life gained for them, as it gained for other Nazarites, that honor ... In Lam. iv. 7, we may perhaps trace a reference to the Rechabites, who had been the most conspicuous examples of the Naazarite life in the prophet's time, and most the object of his admiration.
b. It may be worth while to refer to a few authorities agreeing in the general interpretation here given, though differing as to details. Vatablus (Crit. Sac. in Ioc.) mentions a Jewish tradition (R. Judah, as edited ay Kimeht , comp. Scaliger, Elench. Trihaeres. Serrar. p 26) that the daughters of the Rechabites married Levites, and that thus their children came to minister in the Temple. Clarius (ibid.) conjectures that the Rechabites themselves were chosen to sit in the great Council. Sanetius and Calmet suppose them to have ministered in the same way as the Nethinim (Calmet Diss. sur tes Rechab. in Com. vi. p. xviii. 1726. Serrarius (Trihaeres.) identities them with the Essenes; Scalinger (l.c.) with the Chasidim, in whose name the priests offered special daily sacrifices, and who, in this way, were "standing before the Lord" continually.
(IV.) It remains for us to see whether there are any traces of their after-history in the Biblical or later writers. It is believed that there are such traces, and that they confirm the statements made in the previous paragraph.
(1.) We have the singular heading of the Ps. Ixxi. in the LXX. version ..., evidence, of course, of a corresponding Hebrew title in the 3d century b.c., and indicating that the "sons of Jonadab " shared the captivity of Israel, and took their place among the Levite psalmists who gave expression to the sorrows of the people.a
a. Neither Ewald nor Hengstenberg nor De Wette notices this inscription. Ewald, however, refers the Psalm to the time of the Captivity. Hengstenberg, who asserts its Davidic authorship, indicates an alphabetic relation between it and Ps. Ixx., which is at least presumptive evidence of a later origin, and points, with some fair probability, to Jeremiah as the writer. ... It is noticed, however, by Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. Ixx. § 2). and is referred by him to the Rechabites of Jer. xxxv.
(2.) There is the significant mention of a son of Rechab in Neh. iii. 14, as cooperating with the; priests, Levites and princes in the restoration of the wall of Jerusalem.
(3.) The mention of the house of Rechab in 1 Chr. ii. 55, though not without difficulty, points, there can be little doubt, to the same conclusion. The Rechabites have become scribes ... They give themselves to a calling which, at the time of the return from Babylon, was chiefly if not exclusively in the hands of Levites. The other names (Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Suchathites in A. V.) seem to add nothing to our knowledge. The Vulg. rendering, however (evidence of a traditional Jewish interpretation in the time of Jerome) gives a translation based on etymologies, more or less accurate, of the proper names, which strikingly confirms the view now taken. "Cognationes quoque Scribarum habitantium in Jabes, canentes atque resonantes, et in tabernaculis commorantes."b Thus interpreted, the passage points to a resumption of the outward form of their old life and its union with their new functions. It deserves notice also that while in 1 Chr. ii. 54, 55, the Rechabites and Netophathites are mentioned in close connection, the "sons of the singers " in Neh. xii. 28 appear as coming in large numbers from the villages of the same Netophathites. The close juxtaposition of the Rechabites with the descendants of David in 1 Chr. iii. 1 shows also in how honorable an esteem they were held at the time when that book was compiled.
b The etymologies on which this version rests are, it must be confessed, somewhat doubtful. Scaliger (Elench. Trihaer. Serrar. c. 23) rejects them with scorn. Pellican and Calmet, on the other band, defend the Vulg. rendering, and Gill (in loc.) does not dispute it. Most modern interpreters follow the A. V in taking the words as proper names.
(4.) The account of the martyrdom of James the Just, given by Hegesippus (Eus. H.E. ii. 23), brings the name of the Rechabites once more before us, and in a very strange connection. While the Scribes and Pharisees were stoning him, "one of the priests of the sons of Rachab, the son of Rechabim, who are mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet," cried out, protesting against the crime. Dr. Stanley (Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, p. 333), struck with the seeming anomaly of a priest " not only not of Levitical, but not even of Jewish descent," supposes the name to have been used loosely as indicating the abstemious life of James and other Nazarites, and points to the fact that Epiphanius (Haer. Ixxviii. 14) ascribes to Symeon the brother of James the words which Hegesippus puts into the mouth of the Rechabite, as a proof that it denoted merely the Nazarite form of life. Calmet (Diss. sur les Rechab. l. c.) supposes the man to have been one of the Rechabite Nethinim, whom the informant of Hegesippus took, in his ignorance, for a priest. The view which has been here taken presents, it is believed, a more satisfactory solution. It was hardly possible that a writer like Hegesippus, living at a time when the details of the Temple-services were fresh in the memories of men, should have thus spoken of the Rechabim unless there had been a body of men to whom the name was commonly applied. He uses it as a man would do to whom it was familiar, without being struck by any apparent or real anomaly. The Targum of Jonathan on Jer. xxxv. 19 indicates, as has been noticed, the same fact. We may accept Hegesippus therefore as an additional witness to the existence of the Rechabites as a recognized body up to the destruction of Jerusalem, sharing in the ritual of the Temple, partly descended from the old "sons of Jonadab," partly recruited by the incorporation into their ranks of men devoting themselves, as did James and Symeon, to the same consecrated life. The form of austere holiness presented in the life of Jonadab, and the blessing pronounced on his descendants, found their highest representatives in the two Brothers of The Lord.
(5.) Some later notices are not without interest. Benjamin of Tudela, in the 12th century (Edit. Asher, 1840, i. 112-114), mentions that near El-Jubar (== Pumbenitha) he found Jews who were named Rechabites. They tilled the ground, kept flocks and herds, abstained from wine and flesh, and gave tithes to teachers who devoted themselves to studying the Law, and weeping for Jerusalem. They were 100,000 in number, and were governed by a prince, Salomon han-Nasi, who traced his genealogy up to the house of David, and ruled over the city of Thema and Telmas. A later traveller, Dr. Wolff, gives a yet stranger and more detailed report. The Jews of Jerusalem and Yemen told him that he would find the Rechabites of Jer. xxxv. living near Mecca (Journal, 1829, ii. 334). When he came near Senaa he came in contact with a tribe, the Beni-Khabr, who identified themselves with the sons of Jonadab. With one of them, Mousa, Wolff conversed, and reports the dialogue as follows: "I asked him, 'Whose descendants are you?' Mousa answered, 'Come, and I will show you.' and read from an Arabic Bible the words of Jer. xxxv. 5-11. He then went on. 'Come, and you will find us 60,000 in number. You see the words of the Prophet have been fulfilled, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me forever'" (ibid. p. 335). In a later Journal (Journ. 1839, p. 389) he mentions a second interview with Mousa, describes them as keeping strictly to the old rule, calls them now by the name of the B'nê-Arhab, and says that B'ne Israel of the tribe of Dan live with them." E. H. P.
DCH