Heli
Heli
Jewish high-priest and judge at Silo, with whom Samuel’s early history in the Bible is connected.
Another Heli is mentioned in the New Testament (Luke 3) as the father of Saint Joseph in accordance with the levirate law, though in reality he was his uncle.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Heli
Heli the Judge and High Priest
Heli (Heb. ELI, Gr. HELI) was both judge and high-priest, whose history is related in I Kings, i-iv. 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 (I Kings, I, 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” (III Kings, ii, 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 Matt., I, 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.
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JOSEPHUS, Ant., V, ix, x, xi; GEIKIE, O. T. Characters: Eli, 184-193; MALDONATUS, In Matt., i, 16; Eccl. Rev. (Jan., 1896), 21 sqq.
THOMAS J. TIERNEY Transcribed by Thomas M. Barrett Dedicated to grandfathers and their special grandsons
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Heli
elevation, father of Joseph in the line of our Lord’s ancestry (Luke 3:23).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Heli
Father of Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary. Probably the brother of Jacob, Mary’s father (Luk 3:23). (See GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST.)
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Heli
HELI.1. The father of Joseph, in the genealogy of Jesus (Luk 3:23). 2. An ancestor of Ezra (2Es 1:2); omitted in parallel passages, 1Es 8:2, Ezr 7:2-3.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Heli
hel (, Hele for , el):
(1) The father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, in Luke’s account of the genealogy of Jesus (Luk 3:23).
(2) An ancestor of Ezra (2 Esdras 1:2).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Heli
[He’li]
Son of Matthat in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Luk 3:23.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Heli
G2242
Father of Joseph.
Luk 3:23
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Heli
He’lez. (ascending). The father of Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, Luk 13:23, perhaps the grandfather of Mary herself. See Genealogy of Jesus Christ.