Iddo (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: עִדּוֹ ''ʿĪddō''; also Jedo; , ''Adei, Addō'') was a

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

. According to the

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...

, he lived during the reigns of King

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

and his heirs,

Rehoboam Rehoboam (; , , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the Kingdom of Judah after the split of the united Kingdom of Israel. He was a son of and the successor to Solomon and a grandson of David. In the account of I Ki ...

and Abijah, in the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

Hebrew Bible

Although little is known about Iddo, the

say that the events of

's reign, as well as Iddo's prophecies concerning king Jeroboam I of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, were recorded in writing. The alleged records composed by Iddo are no longer extant. He is also credited with a history of King

and his son King Abijah.

Other mentions

A tradition of identifying Iddo with the unnamed prophet of 1 Kings 13 can be found in the Talmud, first-century BC Jewish historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, the fourth- and fifth-century Christian commentator

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

, and the medieval Jewish commentator

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

. The protagonist of 1 Kings 13 is identified simply as "a man of God" who prophesies against Jeroboam, as Iddo is said to have done elsewhere. After an unfortunate encounter with an older prophet of Bethel who lies to him, saying that God's angel has instructed him to provide hospitality to him, the "man of God" is killed by a lion as punishment for disobeying a divine command. The older prophet then used his own tomb as a burial place for the "man of God" and ordered his heirs to place his body beside that of the prophet when he died and foretold that the prophesies will come true. The second Book of Kings records that, 300 years later, during the reign of king

Josiah Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s ...

, the king was engaged in the process of burning human bones to ritually defile Jeroboam's altar. During the trip to do so, Josiah noticed the tombstone of the "man of God", and when he asked was told that it was the tomb of the man who had predicted the destruction of Jeroboam's altar. Josiah ordered that the tomb be left unmolested in commemoration of his prophecy. In addition to claiming that Iddo the prophet is the unnamed man of 1 Kings 13, Jerome also identifies Iddo the prophet with Oded the father of Azariah, who is found in 2 Chronicles 15:8.Jewish Encyclopedia
Jeroboam
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Other individuals with this name

Another Iddo is mentioned in Ezra 8:17 as the chief man in a place named Casiphia. Ezra requests assistance from Iddo and his brethren to bring servants for the Temple. It is this Iddo to whom Ezra refers when he calls the prophet Zechariah a "son of Iddo" in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14. Zechariah 1:1 and 1:7 refer to Iddo as the paternal grandfather of Zechariah.

References

External links

Iddo - Jewish Encyclopedia
{{Extra-Quranic Prophets of Islam Book of Zechariah people category:Book of Ezra people

Hebrew Bible

Other mentions

Other individuals with this name

See also

References

External links