JOAB, general of the army of King David, who defeated the Syrians and the other enemies of David, and took from the Jebusites the fort of Zion, considered by them as impregnable. He also signalized himself in all David's wars, but was guilty of basely murdering Abner and Amasa. He procured a reconciliation between Absalom and David; and afterwards slew Absalom, contrary to the express orders of the king. He at length joined Adonijah's party, and was put to death by the order of Solomon, in the year before Christ 1014.
Joachimites
Joan.
JOACHIMITES, in Ecclesiastical History, the disciples of Joachim, a Cistercian monk, who was abbot of Flora in Calabria, and a great pretender to inspiration.
The Joachimites were particularly enamoured of certain ternaries. The Father, they said, operated from the beginning till the coming of the Son; the Son, from that time till their own era, which was the year 1260; and from the latter epoch the Holy Spirit was to operate in his turn. They also divided every thing relating to men, to doctrine, and to the manner of living, into three classes, according to the three persons in the Trinity. The first ternary consisted of men, the first class of whom was that of married men, which had lasted during the whole period of the Father; the second was that of clerks, which had lasted during the time of the Son; and the third was that of the monks, in which there was to be an uncommon effusion of grace by the Holy Spirit. The second ternary was that of doctrine, namely, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the everlasting Gospel; the first of which they ascribed to the Father, the second to the Son, and the third to the Holy Spirit. A third ternary consisted in the manner of living, viz. under the Father, men lived according to the flesh; under the Son, they lived according to the flesh and the spirit; and under the Holy Ghost, they were to live according to the spirit only.