ASAPH ā’ săf (אָסָ֖ף, collecter or gatherer). 1. The most prominent person bearing this name was Asaph, son of Berachiah, of the family of Gershom, who headed the service of music in the reigns of David and Solomon (1 Chron 6:39; 15:17; 16:5; 2 Chron 5:12). Superscriptions of twelve psalms (Ps. 50, 73-83) indicate Asaphic authorship. On the basis of the contents of these poems it has been suggested that there were two Asaphs, one who composed Psalms 50, 73, 76, 78 and possibly 75, 77, 82, all in David’s time. Psalms 74, 79, and prob. 83 fit the time of the Babylonian exile. The style of Asaph is distinctive, forceful, and spiritual. He is referred to as a prophet and poet (2 Chron 29:30; Neh 12:46). He was one of David’s three musicians along with Heman and Ethan or Jeduthun. Asaph is first mentioned when the Ark of the covenant was transferred to Jerusalem from the home of Obed-edom (1 Chron 15:16-19). He led the service of music in the tent where the Ark was kept (1 Chron 16:4, 5, 7, 37). The other chief musicians performed the same ministry at Gibeon (16:41, 42). With Heman and Jeduthun he was called the king’s seer (1 Chron 25:5, 6; 2 Chron 35:15). Four of Asaph’s sons conducted under him and participated in the dedication of the Temple (2 Chron 5:12). The “sons of Asaph” are mentioned as choristers in the Temple (1 Chron 25:1; 2 Chron 20:14). The office seems to have been hereditary (1 Chron 25:1, 2). From all indications, in addition to leading the singing and sounding the cymbals before the Ark, Asaph headed a school of music, where his children are said to number 148 (Neh 7:44). The sons of Asaph do not appear to be very prominent before the Exile. Some 128 of his family returned from Babylon (Ezra 2:41) and served in Zerubbabel’s temple (Ezra 3:10). The sons of Asaph of later times formed a guild and were prominent in the revivals of the nation’s faith. They shared the ministry of music with the sons of Korah in the later period of OT history.

2. An Asaph was the father of Hezekiah’s recorder, Joah (2 Kings 18:18; Isa 36:3, 22).

3. An officer under Artaxerxes Longimanus of Persia (465-445 b.c.) bore the name of Asaph. He is designated as the keeper of the king’s forest in Pal. (Neh 2:8).

4. The reading Asaph in 1 Chronicles 26:1 KJV is plainly a scribal error and should read Ebiasaph (9:19).

The best Gr. reading is Asaph instead of Asa (Matt 1:7). Unquestionably, the OT designated Asa as the father of Jehoshaphat. The Matthew reading is explained as a Septuagintal form. See [http://biblegateway/wiki/Music; Musical Instruments MUSIC]; [http://biblegateway/wiki/Psalms, Book of PSALMS].

Bibliography Koehler-Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (1950), 73; B. T. Dahlberg, “Asaph,” IDB, I (1962), 244, 245; J. P. U. Lilley, “Asaph,” New Bible Dictionary (1962), 94; “Asaph,” Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (1963), 75.