The Book(s) of Ezra-Nehemiah

In short

Jewish exiles return to their homeland – or their ancestor’s land, since most of these exiles were born in Babylon*. Over the course of about a century, the Jews rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. Plus, some other drama.

This is yet another example of two books in our Bibles that were traditionally a single book. To me, they really are two books, and it seems like scholarship is headed that way more and more, too.

Why it is important

As I said on Friday, these generations of Jews see their religion very differently now. They are prisoners set free. Well, more like probation.

Main characters

• Jeshua, A priest
• Zerubbabel
• Ezra, a priest
• Nehemiah, a priest, among many other things

What is in these books

The book of Ezra is in two sections

1. The first group of exiles returns and rebuilds the temple (Ezra 1-6)
2. A second group returns and deals with a national sin (Ezra 7-10)

What sets these sections apart are two things:

1. 57 years. There are 57 years (not in the book) between chapters 6 and 7
2. Ezra (the man). He is not in the first six chapters, which makes sense in light of the previous point. He may not have been alive yet. Ezra is the leader in his section of Ezra, while Jeshua and Zerubbabel are the leaders in the first part of Ezra.

The book of Nehemiah is about Nehemiah returning from exile himself, in order to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. He is not in either of the first two groups to return. The events of Nehemiah happen after the events of Ezra. Ezra (the man) is also in the book of Nehemiah.

Maybe it’s the nerd in me, but both of these men (Ezra and Nehemiah) are fascinating characters. They are just so very different from all of the heroes of the Old Testament until this point. They’re… kind of dorky. But wow, if that isn’t exactly what these people needed! Men to just obey the Law and to lead the people to do the same.

Theology and doctrine

We will cover this on Thursday, but the story of the foreign wives in the last two chapters of Ezra sticks out to me as the biggest doctrinal matter in these books.

Footnote

* The last wave of exiles left Judah in 586 BC; the first Jews to return come back around 537 BC. So, at minimum, the youngest exiles to have been born in Judah were at least 49 years old. Some more people came back with Ezra another 79 years later, so all of those people would, by necessity, have been born in exile.