Zerubbabel Snow

Zerubbabel Snow (March 29, 1809 – September 27, 1888) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, a Mormon pioneer, and an Attorney General of the Territory of Utah.

Snow was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Snow was taught about Mormonism from missionaries Orson Pratt and Lyman E. Johnson. He was baptized into the Church of Christ in 1832. On August 23, 1832, Snow and Amasa M. Lyman were ordained to the priesthood office of elder by Joseph Smith and Frederick G. Williams, and the two of them immediately departed on a proselytizing mission.

In 1833, Snow returned to Vermont and married Susan Slater Lang. He remained in Vermont until 1834, when he went to Ohio to become a member of Smith's Zion's Camp expedition to Missouri. His wife Susan Slater Lang died in Ohio after delivering their only child, a daughter, Susan Lizette Snow born March 14, 1841 who was later the wife of Orson Pratt Jr. After the death of his wife Susan, Snow married Mary Augusta Hawkins on August 25, 1841. This wife bore to him the following children: Cora Georganna Snow (1843–1915), Adelaide Louisa Snow (1852–1919), Zerubbabel "Zera" Levi Snow (1854–1922), George Wellington Snow (1856–1938), Herbert Walderman Snow (1863–1938) and Marion Mason Snow (1856–1939). In 1856, Snow married Mary Lavina Sawyer (née Stone) a widow who had a son named Walton O. Sawyer. Snow did not have children with this wife.

Zerubbabel

Zerubbabel (Hebrew: זְרֻבָּבֶל, Modern Zrubbavel, Tiberian Zərubbāḇél; Greek: Ζοροβαβέλ, Zorovavel; Latin: Zorobabel) was a governor of the Persian Province of Yehud Medinata (Haggai 1:1) and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia (Ezra). The date is generally thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC. Zerubbabel also laid the foundation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem soon after.

In all of the accounts in the Hebrew Bible that mention Zerubbabel, he is always associated with the high priest who returned with him, Joshua (Jeshua) son of Jozadak (Jehozadak). Together, these two men led the first wave of Jewish returnees from exile and began to rebuild the Temple (Ezra). John Kessler describes the region of Judah as a small province that contained land extending 25 km from Jerusalem and was independently ruled prior to the Persian rule. Zerubbabel was the governor of this province. King Darius I of Persia appointed Zerubbabel governor of the Province. It was after this appointment that Zerubbabel began to rebuild the Temple. Elias Bickerman speculates that one of the reasons that Zerubbabel was able to rebuild the Temple was because of "the widespread revolts at the beginning of the reign of Darius I in 522 BC, which preoccupied him to such a degree that Zerubbabel felt he could initiate the rebuilding of the temple without repercussions".