• See Wellhausen, Itr. u. JUd. Oach. p. 108 n. ; Kncneo,
Cntimie d« L'A ncunx Test. p. 610.
t There is an article in TSUA 11. pt. 1, In which the wrlt«f argues from the chronology that E. and Neh. came to Jenu. to- gether. The argument Is more Ingenious than convincing.
I .See Baer, Litrri Danielit Szra <( Xeh, pp. 180, 133 ; Jo*. c. A p. I. 8.
{ See further OettU, " Die Gesch. Haglogr. und d. Buch Paniel,' 1880, in .Strock and Z6ckler'a KuTi^e/. Kom. ; Oomlll, A'inVf.I' 4.'. ; I'lib-^W. 832 fl.; Byle, Canonitf OT, 184 f.
822
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH
I.— (1) Ezr l-4».— The return o( the first company of exiles; the register of the heads of houses ; the setting up of the altar ; the estahlishment of the sacrifices ; the efforts to rebuild the temple, and the opposition of the Samaritans, B.C. 537. (2) Ezr 6, 6.— Stimulatwl by the prophets Hag. and Zee, the people bepn the rebuilding of the temple under the lead of Zerub- babel and Joshua ; their enemies try to stop the Jews, but Darius res^ecta the decree of Cyrus, and the temple is com- pleted in his sixth year, B.C. 615. (3) Ezr 7-10.— Tlie return of Ezra and his company with a firman from Artaxerxes ; the divorcing of the foreign wives, B.o. 458. (4) 4«-2'.— Successful efforts of the enemies of Judah to prevent the rebuilding of the city walls, mainly in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimauus, B.O. 465-425.
II.— (^1) Neh 1-rn*.— Neh., learning of the bad condition of affairv m Jerus., obtains permission from Artaxerxes to go to Judah as its governor, and to rebuild its walls. He reaches Jerus., inspects the walls by night, organizes the people for the work, and, in spite of the vigorous opposition of the enemies of Judah, succeeds in fortifying the city by the complete recon- struction of its walls, B.O. 444. (2) 773'>-10. — Ezra promul- gates the law, and the people "seal unto it," B.o. 444. (3) lli- 12*. — Lists of those who dwelt in Jems., and of the Le^ites who had come to Jerus. with ZerubbabeL (4) 12»-133.— The dedi- cation of the walls ; regulation of the temple services, B.C. 443. (5) 184-31. Nehemiah's second visit to Jerus., and the reforms accomplished at that time, B.o. 432.
B. Sources. — Modem criticism has shown that Heb. literature, like other Sem. literature,* is UBually the result of compilation. No trained critical eye is required to see that the book under discussion has reached its present form by compila- tion from several different sources, and it is not difficult to analyze the book into its constituent elements, though it is not always possible to trace these elements back to their origin. In some cases we must be content >vith probabilities, and in others must confess ignorance. In the analysis of the book the results will be clearer if we follow an order which disregards the present arrangement of chapters.
The casual reader will not fail to notice that considerable portions, especially of Neh, are written in the first person. The ' I ' refers to Ezra everywhere in Ezr, and to Nehemiah every^vhere in Neh. The first person is used in Ezr 7"-9", Neh V-T^ 12^ -« 13^-". These are portions of memoirs written by Ezra and Neh. respectively. They are for the most part preserved in their original form. It is evident that considerable parts of the memoirs have been lost. Ezra's narrative has no proper beginning ; he came to Jerus. to establish the law, but his own narrative tells us nothing about the accomplishment of this design. Neh.'s narrative breaks off abruptly ; the sequel to 7' is not found in his account ; 13^ begins in Tnedias res ; 13' must originally have had another con- nexion. But, imperfect as they are, these personal records of the two great leaders in the restoration of the Jewish state are of the greatest value. For convenience these memoirs will hereafter be de- signated by the symbols E and N respectively, t
The other portions dealing with the work of Ezra and Neh. are not ori<nnal parts of their memoirs, though in part based on them. Ezr T''" is an introduction to the story of Ezra written by the compiler. For Ezra is spoken' of in the third person : the genealogy of Ezra omits his immediate ancestors, Seraiah, who is named as his father, havin'i been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 ; Ezra would hardly have spoken of himself as 'an expert scribe'; this introduction anticipates matter found in E. (See further in Driver, LOT' p. 549).
Err 7"-* is the finnan which Artaxerxes gave Ezra as his authority for governing the Jewish colony. V." is an introduction due to the com- piler. The letter itself is in Aramaic, and held by many to be in its original form. Such a document would naturally be written in Aram., and tlie Jewish colouring, whicli is so apparent in the edict nt Cyrus (Ezr 1-"'), is not con.spicuous in this
• Sayce, BOt c. 2.
t So Kautzsch, Die Beiligt Schryft det AT.
passage. Comill's statement that ' in details it is of such specific Jewish colouring that it at least must have been strongly retouched," is not justified by facts ; and Driver's, that ' it may have been cast into its present form by one familiar with thf terminology of the Jewish sacred books,' t is quit« consistent -svith the view that we have the orig. edict signed hj the king, in the preparation of which it is not mconceivablo that Ezra himself may have had a hand. At aU events, its preservation was probably due to its incorporation by Ezra in his memoirs, for the thanksgiving with which E. be^ns is naturally connected with the royal edict.