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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > H > Heli


HELI

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HELI THE JUDGE AND HIGH PRIEST

Heli (Heb. ELI, Gr. HELI) was both judge and high-priest, whose history is
related in 1 Samuel 1-4. He lived at Silo, where the ark of the Lord was kept at
that time. Samuel's early history is connected with that of the last days of the
aged Heli, whom he succeeded in the office of judge, just before the appointment
of Saul as king (1 Samuel 7:15; 8:22). Heli must have been held in the highest
esteem, and yet the Bible represents him to us in his old age as weak and
indulgent to his sons, Ophni and Phinees, whose crimes brought ruin on their
country and on their father's house. The high-priesthood had been promised to
Phinees, son of Eleasar and grandson of Aaron, for his zeal (Numbers 25:13); and
how Heli, who was a descendant of Aaron through Ithamar (Leviticus 10:12; 1
Chronicles 24:2; 1 Kings 2:27), became high-priest is not known; but his title
to the office had the Divine sanction (1 Samuel 2:30). The Lord spoke to Heli
through the boy Samuel, and the word of the Lord was fulfilled. The Philistines
were victorious in battle, Ophini and Phinees being among the slain, and the ark
was carried away as a part of the spoils. The death of the high-priest is thus
described: "Now Heli was ninety and eight years old. . .he fell from his stool
backwards by the door, and broke his neck, and died" (1 Samuel 4:15-18).
According to the Heb. Text, with which Josephus agrees (Ant., V, xi, 3), Heli
judged Israel forty years, so that the twenty of the Gr. Text is generally
considered an error. Heli spoke when he should have been silent (1 Samuel 1:14),
and he was silent when he should have spoken and corrected his children. The
words "And thou shalt see thy rival in the temple" (1 Samuel 2:32) refer to the
taking of the high-priesthood from his family; but as this was done in the days
of Solomon, more than a hundred years later, for he "cast out Abiathar, from
being the priest of the Lord" (1 Kings 2:27; Josephus, "Ant.", VIII, i, 3), they
were addressed, not to Heli as an individual, but rather to his house. The
passage however is obscure.




HELI THE FATHER OF JOSEPH

Heli (Gr. HELEI — Luke 3:23) is evidently the same name as the preceding. In
Luke he is said to be the father of Joseph, while in Matthew 1:16, Jacob was
Joseph's father. The most probable explanation of this seeming contradiction is
afforded by having recourse to the levirate law among the Jews, which prescribes
that when a man dies childless his widow "shall not marry to another; but his
brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother" (Deuteronomy 25:5).
The child, therefore, of the second marriage is legally the child of the first
(Deuteronomy 25:6). Heli having died childless, his widow became the wife of his
brother Jacob, and Joseph was the offspring of the marriage, by nature the son
of Jacob, but legally the son of Heli. It is likely that Matt. gives the
natural, and Luke the legal descent. (Cf. Maas, "The Gosp. acc. to S. Matt.", i,
16.) Lord A. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who wrote a learned work on the
"Genealogies of Our Lord Jesus Christ", thinks that Mary was the daughter of
Jacob, and Joseph was the son of Jacob's brother, Heli. Mary and Joseph were
therefore first cousins, and both of the house of David. Jacob, the elder,
having died without male issue, transmitted his rights and privileges to the
male issue of his brother Heli, Joseph, who according to genealogical usage was
his descendant.




SOURCES

JOSEPHUS, Ant., V, ix, x, xi; GEIKIE, O. T. Characters: Eli, 184-193;
MALDONATUS, In Matt., i, 16; Eccl. Rev. (Jan., 1896), 21 sqq.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Tierney, J. (1910). Heli. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07204b.htm

MLA citation. Tierney, John. "Heli." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New
York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07204b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas M. Barrett.
Dedicated to grandfathers and their special grandsons.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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