Ezra 1 · a question people ask
Who was Sheshbazzar? Is he Zerubbabel?
Ezra calls him "Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah" (1:8), and says, "Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem" (1:11). Later, in the letter Tattenai the governor sends to Darius (Ezra 5:6), the elders' answer says the vessels "were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor" (Ezra 5:14), and "Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house which is in Jerusalem" (Ezra 5:16). Zerubbabel is first named in the next chapter, among those "who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah" and others (Ezra 2:2). Ezra 3 tells how Zerubbabel and Jeshua began the work (Ezra 3:8), and "the builders laid the foundation of the LORD’s temple" (Ezra 3:10), and the book of Zechariah says, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house" (Zechariah 4:9). Ezra names Zerubbabel's father, "Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel" (Ezra 3:2), and gives Sheshbazzar no father. The book doesn't say whether Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel are one man or two. These notes quote the verses side by side and don't say either way.
The verses
“even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.”
“All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.”
“The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king follows.”
“The gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king also took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.”