RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ezion-G-e'ber
Ezra and Nehemiah
even to strengthen the enemy. It is not improbable that the attempt to stop the building of the walls of Jerusalem which was denounced as the antecedent of political revolt had some connection with the reform in the marriage customs of the Jews. And the reports of Nehemiah have something to say about a secret agreement of priests and Levites with the opponents and of an antipathy which had been aroused. It is indeterminable whether under the stress of opposition and hindrance 4. Opposi- Ezra was temporarily absent from
tion and Jerusalem, or whether he definitely Final limited himself to the service of those
Success, whose allegiance came willingly until the arrival of Nehemiah, or whether these two men had come to an understanding as to the methods to be employed. At any rate, it is clearly stated that Ezra and Nehemiah were united in the work of the restoration of the law at the celebration referred to in Neh. viii. 8 sqq. It was only after repeated effort that the law-book was established (in 444 b.c. ) as the authoritative guide of the people in the feast lasting seven days, which is recorded in Neh. viii.-x. The one thing which stands out is that Ezra's recourse was not to force and authority, but he awaited, as did Zerubbabel and Joshua, the voluntary submission of the community to the demands of the law itself. And in the institution of the law as the norm of action, he created a close bond between the home community and the Jewish diaspora. Whoever considers with unprejudiced mind the reports by Ezra and about him can not doubt that for him and his companions and for the circle to whom he came, the book of the law, considering its full effect, must have been an authority of long standing. The citations which appear in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the references in the prayers establish that what is there adduced is practically the Pentateuch. But even that the Pentateuch was not wholly in its present form in the time of Ezra is disclosed, according to some scholars, by the tax of the half shekel of Ex. xxx. 13 which must belong to a later time than the third of a shekel of Neh. ix. 33. It is to be noticed, however, that a difference should be made between the desires and the possibilities of an oppressed people, which may account for the earlier tax.
Out of the curiously embellished recollection of the epoch-making service of the real Ezra and from the fact that after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah the Jews and Samaritans remained strictly separate communities, and that the Samaritans possessed the law in the old character while the Jews had it in the square character, many of the statements concerning the traditional form of the books of the law have originated. Some of these attribute the newer form to Ezra, others to Ezra and the Great Synagogue, who affixed the punctuation (Neh. vm. 8), and others assert that since the law had been forgotten by the Jews Ezra had come from Babylon and reestablished it de novo.
(A. Klostermann.)
Bibliography: Consult, besides the literature given under azRA and Nehemiah, Books of, DB, i. 820-821; EB, ii. 1473-78; JE, v. 821 sqq.
IV.— 17
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH, BOOKS OF.
I. Transmission of the Text. The Corrections Traced
1. The Arabic Version. to Their Source (§ 2). Ezra Based on the Septu- 4. The Latin Version.
agint (§ 1). 5. The Hebrew Text.
Nehemiah a Revised Syr- II. Composition of the Books,
iac (§ 2). Analysis of the Books
2. The Syriac Version. (§ 1).
3. The Greek Version. The Sources Employed Its Fidelity to the Hebrew (§ 2).
(§1) The Author's Purpose
(§3).
I. Transmission of the Text. — 1. The Arabic Version: In the London Polyglot the two books bear the title " First and Second Books of Ezra the Priest," and there are indications that the two books were translated by different hands. This is substantiated by the fact that Ezra was translated from the Septuagint and Nehe-
1. Ezra mjan from tjje gyrjac- As a regmt)
the Ser>t>11-t'le text *s untrustworthy. But while g-int. misunderstanding of the basal text is frequent and mistakes are numerous, it is clear that the Septuagint was by the translator regarded as authoritative, especially the recension represented by the Alexandrine and Vatican codices, particularly by the former.
The text of Nehemiah is much shortened, and that this is not due to gaps in the exemplar before the translator is shown by his especial dislike for the lists of names; e.g., Neh. vii. 6-72 is omitted for the stated reason that it duplicates Ezra ii., and for the names given after Pashhur (Neh. x. 3) to xii. 27 he substitutes " and the remainder of their company," and similar omissions occur in the lists of the builders in chap. iii. as also in chap. xii.
2. Nehe- 33^ 41. The traces of origin from mia a e- ^le Syriac are exceedingly numerous, Svriac consisting not merely in the transference of renderings peculiar to that version but in construction and arrangement and in misunderstanding of the original text. To these must be added the fact th#t the Arabic has errors which can be explained only from a misreading or misunderstanding of the Syriac. Yet it must be remarked that in the passages in Nehemiah which have parallels in Ezra, the Arabic translator of the former was influenced by the Arabic of the latter.
While the principal dependence of the translator of Nehemiah was the Syriac, there are evidences also of other influences. This is shown by the form the name Geshem takes in ii. 13, by the departure from the Syriac text in the corrupt passage iv. 23, by agreement with the Septuagint against the Syriac in vi. 18, by the late form of the word " Siloam " in iii. 15, by the probability that " Bethlehem " in iii. 14 is derived from the Greek Bethacham (for Hebr. Beth-Hakkarem), and by the fact that in xii. 39 " strong-gate " (for Hebr. " fish-gate ") misreads the Greek ischuran "strong" for ichthuran " fish." There appears in a number of cases reference to the original Hebrew, often accompanied by true exegetical insight, correcting the sometimes senseless reading of the Syriac and of the Septuagint. Such a case is presented in the literal rendering of the Hebrew " behind their backs" (ix. 26), and another in iv. 10 in the rendering " The heart of the Jews was bold and tho
Ezra and Nehemiah