1065 - Ezra and Nehemiah

Ezra and Nehemiah 

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are the only completely historical books in the third section of the Hebrew Bible (the Writings). 

In English Bibles, they are usually split into two books, with the book of Nehemiah appearing as a separate book from Ezra, but in the Hebrew tradition, they are one book, entitled “Ezra,” …and Nehemiah is simply the second part of Ezra. 

Parts of Ezra are written in Aramaic, which was the common language of the Middle East at the time (the time of Ezra and Daniel, whose book is also partly in Aramaic, and are the only books of the Hebrew Bible that are not completely in Hebrew). 

Ezra is chronologically the last historical book in the Hebrew Bible, covering the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries B.C. 

It tells the narrative of the return of the Israelites to Zion.

At the end of the sixth century B.C., the kingdom of Judah was dismantled by the Babylonian empire. 

Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, and thousands of Jews were exiled to Mesopotamia. 

Those who were exiled, however, did not see this as a final stage in Israel’s history. 

They were aware that Jeremiah had prophesied that there would be an exile, but there would also be a return.

The book of Ezra tells of the three distinct stages in the return, and of the challenges and practical difficulties that the returnees faced at each stage. 

Not all the Jews in Mesopotamia were interested in returning to Zion. 

Those who did, however, were fueled by the hope of rebuilding a society that would restore Israel’s ancient glory.

The first wave of returnees, whose story is told in Ezra chapters 1-6, consisted of about 40,000 individuals, led by Zerubabbel, a descendant of King David, and Joshua, son of Jozadak, the high priest. 

When the returnees came back to the land of Israel, they found another group already living there, the inhabitants of Samaria and ancient Ammon.

These Samaritans were, in the view, of the leadership, of those returning from Babylonia, merely the descendants of people, brought to the Land of Israel, by the Assyrian kings, at the end of the eighth century, in place of the Israelites that they deported.

The Samaritans, on the other hand, had Israelite names, in some cases, and saw themselves as heirs of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

The second stage, of the return, was headed by Ezra, a scribe, from a priestly family. 

Defining who was a member of the community was an important issue under Ezra. 

The first problem that confronted Ezra, when he arrived in Jerusalem, was that “the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, had not separated themselves from the people of the land… they had taken from their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and mixed the holy seed with the peoples of the land”

Ezra believed that the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were destroyed, because their inhabitants did not live up to God’s laws, …and Ezra was determined to avoid a similar fate, for the new society they were rebuilding. 

So, intermarriage with the inhabitants of the land was forbidden.

The leader of the third stage, of the return, was Nehemiah, a high official, in the Persian imperial administration. 

Nehemiah was of Jewish ancestry and wanted to improve the physical condition, of Jerusalem and its Jewish community.

Against threats of war, from the Samaritans and the Ammonites, because of the Jews intermarriage ban, and because of their rejection of the Samaritans from the temple, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

Ezra and Nehemiah tell a frustrating story. 

In many ways, the reality of the return to Zion did not measure up to the returnees’ expectations. 

The temple they rebuilt was smaller and far less glorious than Solomon’s temple, …and religious challenges such as intermarriage and resistance to the observance of Shabbat mystified and confounded the Jewish leaders.  

But the persistence and doggedness, with which the Jews, of the period, confronted these challenges, became a model for the generations that followed. 

Good and bad. 

Yet, in all things God is glorified.

Praise be to God!