You may be wondering by this time: how do the narratives in Ezra and
Nehemiah fit together? The two men are mentioned together in Nehemiah 8, but
how do the rest of the narratives in these two books coincide?
Lawrence Boadt addresses that question in this way:
We
know the dates for Nehemiah’s terms as governor were 445-433 B.C. and 430 or
429 down to perhaps 417 at the most (that is, two twelve-year terms). But we
are not sure about Ezra. If he had come before Nehemiah in 458, as has
traditionally been believed, why did Nehemiah have to do the same reforms all
over again? Many scholars solve this question by suggesting that Ezra really
came after Nehemiah, in the year 398 B.C. They base this on the reference to
the “seventh year of King Artaxerxes” in Ezra 7:7 for the beginning of Ezra’s
ministry in Jerusalem. But in fact there were two kings of Persia named
Artaxerxes: Artaxerxes I ruled from 464 to 423, and Artaxerxes II from 404 to
358. Ezra 7:1 simply reads: “Now after this, Ezra … went up from Babylon in the
reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia.” But which Artaxerxes is meant?
The
traditional date for Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem has been 458 B.C., the seventh
year of Artaxerxes I. He was followed some thirteen years later by Nehemiah,
sent from Persia in 445 to govern the province of Judah and rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem. Nehemiah served twelve years in that post and was recalled to
Persia. But after a short period, he returned for a second term as governor.
The biblical books seem to place Ezra and Nehemiah in Jerusalem at the same
time working together on the reform of the people (Neh 8:9). But if so, then
Ezra did very little for many years before Nehemiah’s arrival—and this is just
the opposite of the impression given by other references in the Book of Ezra
which hint that Ezra got right to work.
The
second solution places Ezra in the time of King Artaxerxes II, during
Nehemiah’s second term as governor. This would be 398 B.C., and it would mean
that Nehemiah remained as governor for nearly fifty years, a most unlikely
possibility. So neither answer really solves the question, but it seems most
reasonable to presume that the two men did not work at the same time. They have
probably been joined together by the editors, who either got the dates mixed up
or wanted us to see that the accomplishments of Ezra and Nehemiah must be looked
at as a single inspired work of restoring the faith of the people.
No
matter what dates we give Ezra and Nehemiah, the problem remains of how the
four books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah fit together. They all
share the same priestly outlook, but they often seem to overlap each other and
sometimes to be at odds in their dates, as though written from different points
of view. Yet almost all scholars agree that the four books were put together as
a continuous story sometime after the events, and that they do not necessarily
reflect the exact chronological order in which those events took place. The
most common solution is to see that the stories and memoirs of Ezra and
Nehemiah were originally separate books. Ezra was joined to the Books of Chronicles
as a supplement, so that Chronicles gave a picture of Israel from Adam to the
end of the exile and Ezra brought the story from the exile to the middle of the
next century. The memoirs of Nehemiah were then added at a much later time to
complete the picture with the re-establishment of Jerusalem as a city of glory
and hope. In the process of all these combinings, some of the chapters about
Nehemiah were added to the Book of Ezra, and some about Ezra were inserted into
the last part of the Book of Nehemiah.[1]
Nehemiah 5-8 presents some interesting narrative. In chapter 5, we
have Nehemiah dealing with the problem of the Jewish people charging one
another interest and so impoverishing a portion of the population. Nehemiah
gets them to stop doing this. C. S. Lewis points out in Mere Christianity…
There
is one bit of advice given to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews
in the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages,
which the modern economic system has completely disobeyed. All these people
told us not to lend money at interest; and lending money at interest—what we
call investment—is the basis of our whole system.
Though Nehemiah got his people to agree to stop charging one another
interest on loans, I doubt we will ever get such agreement worldwide today.
However, it is an intriguing thought: what would the world be like without
charging interest? I imagine the world would look rather different. Some of the
rich might not be so wealthy, and some of the poor might not be so
impoverished.
Chapter 6 focuses on the attempt of Nehemiah’s enemies to get him and
the rest of the Jews to stop working on rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. I
love Nehemiah’s response: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”
(Nehemiah 6:3) That is how we should respond to the naysayers in our lives when
they try to distract us from our God-given work.
Chapter 7 explains why the authors/editors of Chronicles, Ezra, and
Nehemiah are so interested in genealogy. The research and establishment of
one’s genealogy was very important in the post-exilic period for two reasons: to establish...
- That one was a true Israelite.
- One’s right to serve as a priest in the Temple.
Chapter 8 focuses on the ministry of Ezra, reading the law of God to
all of the returned exiles. In some ways, Ezra’s ministry was a forerunner of
the Jewish synagogue service that was to develop many years later. During the
Babylonian captivity, the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized
the language of the Jewish prayers. Before that time, the Jewish people prayed
in their own words and there were no standard prayers that were recited.[2]
Thus, one aspect of the synagogue service found its origins in the Babylonian
captivity. However, the reading of the law as part of the service finds its
origins, I believe, in Ezra.
The reaction of the people to the reading of the law is interesting to
me. They all wept. (Nehemiah 8:9) The reading of the law is a sad thing when we
realize we have not kept it. However, Ezra urged the people to stop weeping, “for
the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) That is all the more
true for us who have experienced God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
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