EZRA AND NEHEMIAH
The books which in our Bible bear the names Ezra and Nehemiah (in the
Jewish Bible, one book, Ezra) are the immediate continuation of
Chronicles, by the same author. When they were divided, 2 Chron.
xxxvi. 22-23, the necessary sequel of vss. 20-21 was repeated at the
beginning of Ezra (Ezra i. 1-3). The reason for the division is plain:
down to the end of the exile the work was no more than an epitome of
the Pentateuch and Historical Books; but from the time of Cyrus to
Alexander it was the only history the Jews possessed. This part was
therefore separated from what went before as the book of post-exilic
history, and named "Ezra" after the figure most prominent in the
earlier half of it, on the same principle that the history of the
founding of the kingdom was named Samuel. The subdivision into two
books of Ezra as in the Greek Bible, or as we name them Ezra and
Nehemiah, is apparently due to Christian hands.
This part of the Chronicler's work begins, as has been said, with an
edict of Cyrus permitting the Jews in Babylonia to return to Jerusalem
and rebuild the temple. There follows a list (given again in Neh. 7)
of the families who availed themselves of this permission, shortly
after 538 B.C. The restoration of the temple is begun, then stopped by
the machinations of their enemies under Xerxes (486-465 B.C.) and
Artaxerxes (465-424 B.C.), but happily completed (by the same
Zerubbabel and Joshua who began it) in the sixth year of Darius
(Nothus, 424-405 B.C.). "After these things, in the reign of
Artaxerxes," Ezra came up from Babylonia, armed with large powers by
an edict of the king, to order things according to the law of his God
in the province "beyond the river" (Euphrates, Ezra 7 f.). He found
things enough that needed reform; particularly the frequent
intermarriages of all classes, including the clergy, with the "peoples
of the land," and succeeded in inducing the Jews, in a great act of
penitence, to divorce these "foreign women" (cc. 9-10).
At this point the History of Nehemiah sets in abruptly in the form of
personal memoirs. Nehemiah, a favourite cup-bearer of the Persian king
Artaxerxes, hearing that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the
gates burned, asks permission to go thither and repair the damaged
fortifications, and is sent with a commission as royal governor of the
district. In spite of dangerous opposition from jealous neighbours in
Samaria and elsewhere, by the utmost endeavours he accomplishes the
rebuilding of the walls in a very brief space (Neh. 1-6). In all this
there is not so much as a mention of Ezra, who is supposed to have
been now thirteen years in Jerusalem, but in Neh. 8 he suddenly
appears on the scene with his law-book. The law is read, and the
people solemnly covenant by sign and seal to observe it; Nehemiah's
name stands at the head of the list of signers, but otherwise he is
entirely ignored (Neh. 8-10). Lists of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and of other settlements, a catalogue of the priests and levites who
came up under Cyrus, and a description of the dedication of the walls,
in which the singers shine, fill Neh. 11-12. That the Chronicler is
the author is palpable. Finally, in c. 13, Nehemiah, who had returned
to court, reappears, and finds a sad state of things; a foreigner, and
an Ammonite at that, lodged by the high priest in a chamber of the
temple, flagrant violations of the sabbath by market men, and the old
grievance of mixed marriages in full gait. Even the high priest's
family was not pure: one of its scions was son-in-law to Nehemiah's
arch-enemy, Sanballat of Samaria. Naturally Nehemiah expelled him.
It has been necessary to give this somewhat detailed synopsis of the
books to make intelligible the problems they present. On this point it
is further to be observed that the book is not all written in Hebrew:
Ezra iv. 8-vi. 18; vii. 12-26, containing chiefly correspondence with
the Persian court and documents issuing from it, are in Aramaic, the
official language of the western provinces of the empire. Moreover,
the oldest Greek translation of the Chronicler's history, part of
which is preserved in the Bible of the church as 1 Esdras, differs
both in matter and order from the Jewish standard text and the later
Greek version; it contains, for example, the famous exhibition of wits
by the three Jewish youths at the court of Darius (1 Esdr. 3 f.), as a
result of which Zerubbabel obtains from Darius permission to go up to
Jerusalem. In 1 Esdras the reading of the law (Neh. 8) immediately
follows the act of penitence for the strange wives (Ezra 10).
A large part of Ezra-Nehemiah exhibits the Chronicler's familiar
motives and manner; in other places he has incorporated extracts from
the sources with or without annotations of his own. Of these sources
the only ones which have been independently preserved are the
prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, from which the author takes,
however, no more than the facts that at the instance of these prophets
Zerubbabel and Joshua began to rebuild the temple in the second year
of Darius (Ezra v. 1 f.); the completion of the work by the same
hands, which according to the Chronicler took place in the sixth year
of Darius and was celebrated in a great dedication ceremony, is in
Zech. iv. 9 still prediction. Another source which stands out
distinctly is the Memoirs of Nehemiah, of which Neh. 1-6 (except c. 3)
is a solid piece. There is, moreover, a series of documents: Ezra 1,
the edict of Cyrus; Ezra iv. 7-vi. 12, complaints to the court of the
Jews' building operations, and answers of the kings Artaxerxes and
Darius respectively. Ezra vii. 11-26, commission of Artaxerxes to
Ezra. A diplomatic appearance is given to these by the fact
that--except the edict of Cyrus--they are all couched in the official
Aramaic; and, inasmuch as in cc. iv. 7-vi. 18 the connecting links of
narrative are also in Aramaic, the presumption is that this material
was taken bodily from an Aramaic book in which the letters and
rescripts were already embodied.
Finally, a distinct source is commonly assumed for the history of
Ezra. This is chiefly told of Ezra in the third person; but in some
parts for a considerable space together Ezra speaks in the first
person (I or we), and it is accordingly thought by most scholars that
the Chronicler had in his hands Memoirs of Ezra as well as of
Nehemiah, which in part he incorporated intact (e.g. Ezra 8 f.), in
part recast into the form of a narrative about Ezra (as in Ezra 10;
Neh. 8 f.). It is evident that the story of Ezra, whatever its origin,
is badly dislocated: the chapters which now stand in Neh. 8-10 have no
business there, and, as has been noticed above, in 1 Esdras the
reading of the law immediately follows Ezra 10. On the other hand,
there is a gap at the end of Ezra 6; chapter 9 cannot well be its
original sequel. And, lastly, Neh. 9 f. does not seem naturally to
follow c. 8. The most probable restoration of the order is Ezra 8;
Neh. vii. 70-73; 8; Ezra 9-10; Neh. 9-10. This arrangement gives a
continuous and consistent story, and the numerous dates fall into
sequence. Incidentally another connection is thus restored, Neh. 11
follows vii. 5^a. The list (Neh. vii. 5^b-60) of the exiles who
returned with Zerubbabel and his company ( = Ezra 2) is obviously not
what is required here. The dismemberment of the story of Ezra is not
to be attributed to the Chronicler, but to misadventures of copying
such as are not infrequent in ancient manuscripts.
The extract from the Memoirs of Nehemiah breaks off with Neh. 6;
though perhaps in vii. 1-4; xi. 1-3 the Chronicler has utilized in his
own way some further sentences. In Neh. xii. 27-43, the procession at
the dedication of the walls is described, ostensibly by Nehemiah in
the first person, and the passage has on this ground been taken for an
extract from the Memoirs. It is, however, an unmistakable piece of the
Chronicler's own composition. In c. 13, also, Nehemiah, in the first
person, gives an account of his reforming enterprises on a second
visit to Jerusalem. An unaltered extract from the Memoirs, however,
the chapter cannot well be; the Chronicler's vein crops out in too
many places.
It does not belong to our present task to discuss the historical
value of these sources; but it may not be amiss to say that the
authority of the Memoirs of Nehemiah alone is unimpeached. The
question is of peculiar interest in the case of the supposed Memoirs
of Ezra, because Neh. 8 has been generally understood by recent
critics to be the account of the formal introduction of a new, or
newly codified, law, the Priests' Code or the Pentateuch, which Ezra
brought up from Babylonia.