person · P0054 · second-temple
Mordechai מרדכי
The Binyaminite of Shushan whose refusal to bow set the Purim story in motion, and who emerged as mishneh to the king, "seeking the good of his people." A named member of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah in Rambam's listing; a baraita counts "Mordechai Bilshan" among those who prophesied in the second year of Daryavesh.
Who
- Hebrew
- מרדכי
- Also known as
- Mordechai Bilshan, Mordecai
- Era
- second-temple
- Received the mesorah from
- Baruch ben Neriah
When
- Traditional
- c. 3310–3430 AM (Purim 3405 AM)
- Civil (computed)
- 3310–3430 AM · 451–331 BCE (trad.)
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈120 years
- Precision
- approximate
How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| A member of the court of Ezra — the Men of the Great Assembly — in Rambam's enumeration; a baraita lists Mordechai Bilshan among those who prophesied in the second year of Daryavesh.
Confidence is for the membership as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| "A Jewish man was in Shushan the capital, named Mordechai... a Binyaminite, who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the exile of Yechoniah"; at the book's close he is second to the king, "seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all their seed."
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| "Who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the exile that was exiled with Yechoniah king of Yehudah" — read of Mordechai himself, as the Gemara reads it (Rava: "he went into exile of his own accord"), he left Jerusalem with Yechoniah's exile in 3327 AM, eleven years before the churban, and so knew the First Temple standing. Ibn Ezra and others attach the relative clause to his ancestor Kish instead, which removes both the memory and the extreme age.
A live classical machloket: the traditional reading — and the Gemara's chronology for his age — takes the clause as Mordechai; Ibn Ezra and others read it as describing Kish. Confidence is for the traditional reading as one construal of the verse, held honestly against the alternative.
|
biblical tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| "Mordechai Bilshan" stands among the leaders "who came with Zerubavel" in the return list — so the man of the Megillah, on the traditional identification, also made the journey home. The Gemara reads both list entries as this Mordechai, noting he is reckoned after four names in Ezra and after five in Nechemiah.
The name in the lists is biblical; the identification with the Mordechai of the Megillah is the Gemara's — Rav Yosef in Megillah 16b treats both entries as him. His alias "Mordechai Bilshan" derives from these verses.
|
biblical rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Mishnah's roster of Temple officials includes "Petachyah over the kinnin" — the bird-offerings — and the tradition names him: "Petachyah — this is Mordechai; and why was he called Petachyah? Because he would open matters and expound them, and he knew seventy languages." On this identification Mordechai served in the Second Temple: the man exiled while the first house stood handled its successor's bird-offerings.
Confidence is for the identification as the tradition's own statement. It is embedded in the Mishnah itself in Shekalim ("Petachyah, zeh Mordechai") and cited in Menachot 65a, which ties it to the name "Mordechai Bilshan."
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| Chained together, the traditional chronology makes Mordechai the named individual the tradition places before both Temples: exiled from Jerusalem in 3327 AM while the first house still stood, second to the king at Purim in 3405, and serving as Petachyah over the kinnin in the second house after its completion in 3408. The academic chronology, which runs the Persian period some 166 years longer than the traditional count, strains this chain across a single lifetime; the atlas states both without harmonizing.
A reconstruction from the chain of claims above; the cited sources state the individual links, not the composite. Each link is itself contested — see the Esther 2:6 machloket — and the Persian-period seam is stated at Destruction of the First Temple.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| Traditional placement c. 3310–3430 AM: a literal reading of Esther 2:6 has him exiled with Yechoniah (3327 AM), implying great age by Purim (3405 AM) and the Great Assembly era — a difficulty already discussed by the commentators, some of whom apply the exile clause to his ancestor Kish.
Schematic traditional dating; span depends on how Esther 2:6 is read. |
tradition reconstruction | ★☆☆☆☆ |