Ezra

Introduction

Ezra and Nehemiah

Judaism

Ezra and the Chronicles

The deportation to Babylon of the elite people of Judah, in the years 606 and 587 B.C., put an end to the nation of Israel in the land of Palestine. Most of those people, the northern tribes: Ephraim, Manasseh and the other less important ones, had already ceased to exist as the “Kingdom of Israel” after the Assyrian deportations between the years 634 and 621 B.C.

When Cyrus from Persia took over Babylon, in his decree of the year 538 B.C., he invited the deportees of Judah not to rebuild their kingdom, but instead, build a Persian province of Jerusalem. However, nothing of the sort had happened with the northern tribes. They were never able to impose their culture and religion on the Canaanites and on the new immigrants with whom they had intermingled (2 K 17:24-34).

From then on, the history of Israel in Palestine will be the history of the province of Judah and the term Jewish came from the word Judea. The religious and cultural community that is going to be born and to develop is going to be known in history by the name of Judaism.

The Chronicles and the Books of Ezra are the testimonies of the formation of Judaism. These books, that came into the Hebrew Bible at a later date, are inseparable.

Ezra and Nehemiah

It is not easy to discern what corresponds to each of these two men. In addition to the other reasons that might have induced the author to combine the work of these two men, he was deceived by the fact that, in various places, his documents were mentioning King Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:7; 8:1; Ne 1:1; 2:1; 5:13...) as if he had been the only king. However, there were two kings with that name: Artaxerxes I, who ruled from the years 465 to 423 B.C., and Artaxerxes II, who ruled from the years 404 to 358 B.C.

Nehemiah probably arrived at Jerusalem in the year 445 B.C. and he went back where the king was in the year 433 B.C. Then he returned for a second mission at an undetermined time. He might not have been present when Darius II ruled (the years 423–404 B.C.). And it was only the seventh year of the rule of Artaxerxes II (Ezra 7:8), that is, in the year 398 B.C. when Ezra arrived at Jerusalem.

The Stages of the Rebuilding of a People

The year 538 B.C. decree of Cyrus was a sign of his benevolence with the different cultures and religions of the peoples that he had gathered in his immense empire although his intentions were also political. Be that as it may, he was not mistaken in trusting the Jews. The Jews who had already emigrated to many regions of the Middle East had acquired the reputation of being more trustworthy. Therefore, the rebuilding of the people of God would be the result of God’s teaching in previous centuries as well as the product of the circumstances that God had foreseen in the history of the world.

Zerubbabel

The first wave of deportees returned to the land of Judah and they tried to make room for themselves where others had occupied their abandoned lands. Zerubbabel, a descendant of Joachim, the last king, stood out among the exiles and he took the initiative to rebuild the temple, although he could only create a pale copy of it. The fact is that it was not as simple as it seemed (Ezra 4:1-6). The prophets Haggai and Zechariah had encouraged the work. The temple was rebuilt in the year 520 B.C. (Hg 1:1; Zec 1:1). This was the first stage.

Nehemiah

The rebuilding of the temple produced friction between the repatriates and the people who had stayed behind in the country. It was certainly a question of interests, due to the fear of those who had stayed and who were facing the arrival of more motivated groups who had the support of the king and of the richer Jews of Babylon. But it was also a religious question because if the people of God were no longer identified with a nation or a territory, the criteria of belonging to the community had to be redefined.

This situation lasted almost eighty years. The enthusiasm of the repatriates declined, morality, in general, stooped to the same level as that of the country’s inhabitants. The prophets Zechariah, Malachi, and Isaiah denounced the same misdeeds as the previous prophets had done.

It was at that time that Nehemiah experienced his call. He understood that the community would not be respected if it did not have any borders. He was not seeking to become independent from the Persian Empire. However, ramparts were needed to face the threats, the violence of the powers in-between and of neighbors. Therefore, it would be necessary to reorganize the community, demanding solidarity from the richest toward their brothers and sisters in need and respecting the priority owed to divine worship. The community would escape the danger of being assimilated by its environment thanks to barriers that would soon be imposed: there would be no more mixed marriages and families would be Jewish; the Sabbath rest would be observed; civil power, like the priests, would be responsible for religious fidelity.

Ezra

Ezra arrived twenty years after Nehemiah. The Great King wanted all people to have a code of written laws. This is why he relied on a teacher of the law for the Jews. The law of the Jewish people was contained, in its entirety, in the Sacred Books. Although we do not know clearly if Ezra personally participated in the writing of the Sacred Books, we do owe their compilation to him (Ne 8:1). It was Ezra who really established “Judaism” by making the reading and the practical application of that law into the supreme rule of the community. The document that we read in Nehemiah 10 (the name of Nehemiah in verse 2 is an anachronistic insertion) confirms what Ezra had undertaken.

With Ezra, who was a priest and with his official mission, the group of priests became the dominant group of the Jewish province. The priests would necessarily be tied in with the Persian imperial power and they would guarantee stability, something which, at the religious level, contained a threat for the future. One might think that the prosperity of the temple, the continuity of the sacrifices, the acceptance of the law would assure appropriate relations between God and his people. However, the hope for new times diminished; prophetism became marginal and Ezra’s later works would be included in the previous prophetic books just as it was the case with Joel and the second part of Zechariah.

That type of Judaism was not disavowed but it would be seriously questioned by the invasion of the Hellenic culture; and the Hasidean movement was going to emerge as a response from the Jewish soul. See the introduction to Daniel on that subject.

1.1 To understand the Book of Ezra, it might be helpful to read the Introduction.

We note that only those who accept “being liberated” will be sent home. There can be no liberation or external help for the indifferent.

Those who return are those whose spirit has been aroused by God (cf. v. 5).

3.1 For the Jews, the restoration of the temple became an opportunity to rediscover how different they were from all the other nations, in that, they served the only God. It also allowed them to affirm their identity as Jews among the people of the country since working together strengthens unity.

We will also note that, when they first arrived from exile, they generously offered to provide all that was needed to build the temple (2:68). Yet, twenty years go by and the intervention of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah was needed to implement the projects agreed upon in the enthusiasm of their return.

4.1 With the support of the prophet Haggai (see Hg 2:10) the Jews refuse Samaritan cooperation in rebuilding the temple. They have no desire to mix anything unclean in this religious endeavor. To put it differently, they are determined to build a community based on the practice of the law and cannot accept that unconverted people have any claim on the temple.

The same thing happens now as well. Though we might wish to welcome everyone, we cannot surrender holy things nor leadership of the communities to unconverted people. Neither can the Church accept political support which would compromise its freedom.

The story begun in verses 1-5 continues in Chapters 5 and 6. The Jews remain steadfast, and Providence helps them. They are assisted by Tattenai, the Persian governor of the province West-of-Euphrates, including all of Palestine with Samaria as the capital.

6. The letter found in verses 6-23 corresponds to a later intervention on the part of the Samaritan notables when, a few years later, the Jews try to build the Jerusalem walls.

7.1 Almost sixty years passed between what is related in Chapter 6, the Passover of the year 515 B.C. and Ezra’s mission. Ezra may have come in the year 458 B.C. or he may also have come in the year 427 B.C. after Nehemiah’s first mission. Then, Chapters 7-10 should be read after Chapter 6 of Nehemiah.

Ezra was in the Persian province of Babylon as the person in charge of Jewish religious affairs. He was a priest and belonged to the groups that had meditated on the law of Moses under the influence of Ezekiel. They had gathered the different texts and may even have edited the biblical books forming “the law”—from Genesis to Deuteronomy—into their final version. These priests understood that Israel was beginning a new phase of its history. The Jews who had returned from the Exile must be guided by God’s law. This law, which separates Jews from non-Jews and regulates all the details of life will become the foundation of a religious community—and later also of a political community—making them a united people.

The law will transform the Jewish people into a more faithful and responsible people, serving God in every detail. This also entails the risk of confusing authentic faith with external practices. A people who equates serving God with temple worship and religious practice only can become indifferent to what is most important in life.

8.21 Note this section where the strict master of the law, Ezra, appears very human and likable.

9.1 The Jews were intermingled with people who did not share their religion and thus they were in danger of losing their identity. Ezra is worrying about the future and thinks that the identity of Jewish people now living among non-Jewish must be strengthened by very strict laws. The prohibition of marrying with non-Jewish persons is one of the key elements of this legislation: God’s people will never be confused with others, even leaving in the same territory, and family will necessarily be Jewish.

The barriers built by Ezra proved very effective, and we may see the will of God there. The Jewish people resisted very harsh persecutions (see Maccabees). Then, after the coming of Christ, they were dispersed and had to live for almost twenty centuries among officially Christian countries that usually persecuted them or tried to convert them to the Christian faith through every means. Possible yet, the Jewish people have remained unique in history—in part, thanks to their faithfulness to the law. Christians can also draw a lesson from all of this. If we are called to be yeast for the masses, co-existing without prejudices with people of different creeds, we also need demands and external practices, accepted by all who join our Christian community.

See what is said to the effect in Nehemiah 13.