Righteous Joshua Josedech

Righteous Joshua the son of Josedech was the thirtieth high priest of the Jews, the first to lead the people's liturgical life after the return from Babylonian captivity. By decree of the Persian king Cyrus (537 BC), together with Zerubbabel, a descendant of the house of David, he led the resettlement of the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem, the restoration of the altar, and eventually of the Jerusalem Temple itself (consecrated 516/515 BC).

He is the central figure of the prophet Zechariah's vision (Zech. 3:1-6): the high priest Joshua stands before the Lord in filthy garments while Satan accuses him; the Angel of the Lord rebukes Satan and commands that Joshua's filthy garments be removed and that he be clothed in festal robes — a symbol of the forgiveness of sin and the restoration of the priesthood. The Lord later commands that a crown be set upon his head (Zech. 6:9-14). Christian tradition sees in this vision a prefiguration of man's justification in Christ.

He has no separate individual feast day — he is commemorated together with the other Old Testament righteous ones, ancestors of Christ in the flesh, on the movable Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (the second Sunday before Nativity).

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the original stub contained a gross chronological error — "c. 1400 BC" — even though the same stub text already correctly referred to the time of the return from Babylonian captivity (6th century BC), an internal contradiction of more than 850 years. Corrected to the late 6th century BC. The fabricated commemoration "on Cheesefare Wednesday" has also been removed, as it is not confirmed by any source.