Joshua the High Priest
Joshua the son of Jehozadak was the first High Priest during the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity.
Life
In the common List of High Priests of Israel, Joshua served as High Priest around 515–490 BCE.The biblical text names Joshua among the leaders who inspired a momentum towards the reconstruction of the temple, in Ezra. Later, some of his sons and nephews are found guilty of intermarriage.
In the Book of Zechariah, Zechariah the prophet experiences a vision given to him by an angel of the Lord in which the restoration and cleansing of Joshua's priestly duties are affirmed. Included in the visions were requirements in which Joshua was expected to uphold. These included: walk in the ways of God, keeping the requirements, ruling God's house, take charge of His courts; by fulfilling these duties, the angel granted access to the inner temple to Joshua and his fellow priest. The vision also functioned to purify Joshua and to sanctify him for the preparations of his priestly duties.
Joshua is also named alongside Persian governor Zerubbabel in the Book of Haggai as the high priest to whom that prophet directed his messages from God. Theologian Albert Barnes observes that "Haggai addresses these two, the one of the royal, the other of the priestly, line, as jointly responsible for the negligence of the people".