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Iddo
A seer whose visions and records chronicled the kings of Judah.
What we know — and how we know it
Scholarly — supported scholarly belief · 2
Life, role & deeds
ScholarlyChronicles repeatedly cites the writings of Iddo the seer as a historical source, referring to his "visions," his "story" (midrash), and his genealogical records. Modern scholars treat this as evidence for a now-lost prophetic or annalistic source rather than an extant text, so Iddo survives only as a name attached to vanished documents.
Source-critical observation on the Chronicler's citation of the records of Iddo (2 Chron 9:29; 12:15; 13:22); no manuscript of these works survives.
Name & titles
ScholarlyThe Hebrew name appears in several spellings and its meaning is genuinely uncertain, with proposals ranging from a root for "appointed time" or "timely" to "ornament." The instability of the form is itself the honest scholarly point: no confident etymology can be given.
Onomastic note; standard Hebrew lexica (HALOT, BDB) list the name as of uncertain derivation.
Where in scripture
2 ChroniclesNow the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, aren’t they written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, in the genealogies? There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
2 Chronicles 12:15 — The records of Iddo the seer
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.