Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; Shavsha was scribe;
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
Show this verse in
Show this verse in
Showing
WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓
Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; Shavsha was scribe;
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
1 Samuel 22:20, 23:6, and 30:7 consistently identify Abiathar as the son of Ahimelech. 2 Samuel 8:17, 1 Chronicles 18:16, and 1 Chronicles 24:6 reverse the relationship and call Ahimelech the son of Abiathar.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
One of these tensions involves a difference in wording across manuscripts or translations. Examine the original language on Lemma →
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"1 Chronicles 18:16 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/1-chronicles/18/16?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).