The mention of Jaddua as a high-priest (ch. xii, 11, 22) has occasioned much perplexity. This Jaddua ap- pears to have been in office in B.C. 332, when Alex- ander the Great came to Jerusalem (Joseph. A nt. xi, 8) ; how then could he be named by Nehemiah? Some (e. g. Yitringa, Eambach) suppose the 10th and 11th verses to be a later addition, which seems to be the only reasonable solution ; others (Hiivernick, Keil) en- deavor to show that Nehemiah wrote it, supposing that he lived to be an old man, so as possibly to see the year B.C. 370 ; and that Jaddua had at that time entered on his office, so that he filled it for about forty years, i. e. till B.C. .332 (see especially Havernick's Einkitung, ii, 320-324). But this Davidson rightly thinks im- probable (see Home's Introd, ii, 694). Some filially
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resort to the belief that Jaddua is only mentioned here as having been born, but not as yet an incumbent of high-priesthood. It is difficult in that case to see why he is named at all, as the writer could not have foreseen that he would ever (ill the office. See Jadol-a. A similar addition by a still later hand, probably some member of the so-called " Great Sanhedrim," perhaps Simon the Just, its president, has evidently been made in the list of tlie Davidic line (1 Chron. iii, 23-24), which comes down to the 3d century B.C. See Gknk- ALOGY OF OLK LoKi). This leads to a presumption of an occasional interpolation of these few {genealogical items, which (as in the case of the notice of the death of Muses iu Deut. xxxiv, 5-12) do not affect the general autliorslii[) of the book. See Ezra, Book ok.
2. As to the date of the book, it is not likely that it came from Nehemiah's hand till near the close of his life. Certainly it could not have been all written before the expulsion of the priest recorded in ch. xiii, 23-29, which took place about the year B.C. 413.
3. The cafionical clumicter of Nehemiah's work is es- tablislied by very ancient testimony. It should be notictMJ. however, that this book is not expressly named by Mulito of Sardis (A.D. 170) in his account of the sa- cred writings; but this creates no difficulty, since he does mention Ezra, of which Nehemiah was then con- sidered but a part (Eichhorn, Einleituii;/, ii, 027). Thus the Book of Nehemiah has always had an undisputed place in the Canon, being included by the Hebrews xmder the general head of the Book of Ezra, and as Jerome tells us in the Prolog. Gal. by the Greeks and Latins under the name of the second Book of Ezra. See EsHRAS, First Book of. "There is no quotation from it in the N. T., and it has been comparatively neg- lected by both the Greek and Latin fathers, perhaps on account of its simple character, and the absence of any- thing supernatural, prophetical, or mystical in its con- tents. St. Jerome (jid Paidinam) does indeed suggest that the account of the building of the walls, and the return of the jicoplc, the description of the priests, Le- vites, Israelites, and proselytes, and the division of the lab(ir among the different families, have a hidden mean- ing ; and also hints that Nehemiah's name, which he in- terprets conxohitor a Domino, points to a mystical sense. But the book does not easily lend itself to such applica- tions, which are so manifestly forced and strained that even Augustine says of the whole Book of Ezra that it is simply historical rather than prophetical {iJe Civil. Dei, xviii, 3G). Those however who wish to see St. Jerome's hint elaborately carried out may refer to the Ven. Bede's A llegorica Kxposilio in Librum Nehemice, qui et Ezrce Secundus, as well as to the preface to his exposition of Ezra; and, in another sense, to Bp. Pil- kington's Exposition upon Nehemiah, and John Fox's Preface (Pdik: Soc). It may be added that Bede de- scribes both Ezra and Nehemiah as prophet.t, which is the head under which Josephus includes them in his description of the sacred books (C. Ap. i, 8)" (Smith).
4. Tiie contents of the book have been specified above in the biography of the author. The work can scarcely be called a liistory of Nehemiah and his times; it is rather a collection of notices of some important transac- tions tiiat happened during the first year of his govern- ment, with a few scraps from his later history. Tlie contents appear to be arranged in chronological order, with the exception perhaps of ch. xii, 27-43, where the account of the dedication of the wall seems to be out of its proper place : we might expect it rather after ch. vii, 1-4, where the completion of the wall is mentioned.
'•The whole narrative gives us a grai)hic and inter- esting account of the state of Jerusalem and the returned captives in the writer's times, and, incitlentally, of the nature of the Persian government and the condition of its remote [irovinces. The documents appended to it also give some further information as to the times of Zerubbabel on the one hand, and as to the continuation of the genealogical registers and the succession of the