Nehemiah
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 Nehemiah served in the palace of King Artaxerxes as cupbearer, a high position at a time when kings were afraid of being poisoned.
He is a man whose future is assured: yet, he leaves everything to serve God.
Nehemiah’s vocation comes from:
– His great trust in God’s promises.
– An understanding of history which only a believer can have: Jews need not blame anyone else for their difficult situation. Their own sins are the cause of their misfortunes. They must not expect their national restoration to come from the kindness of more powerful countries but from their own conversion.
Nehemiah is an example of all those who can recognize the voice of the Lord through events and who do not wait for a special call to get to work. There is no doubt that every Christian, trusting in God, is called to discover and achieve what God expects for the salvation of the world, just as Nehemiah did.
2.1 Nehemiah asks and receives because he is not a nuisance, and his years of loyal service have earned him affection and esteem. His discretion and initiative are underscored and his fervent words encourage skeptics whom he persuades.
Was it necessary to build the walls of Jerusalem? In fact, more than the restoration, Scripture stresses the way it was achieved: by calling for everyone’s cooperation, Nehemiah builds up the morale of the Jerusalem community.
3.33 Later, Nehemiah’s work arouses jealousy and suspicion. Nothing unusual in that. The firmness of this man alone was enough to inspire everyone. At that very moment, building the Jerusalem walls was the specific task which, if not done, would have stopped sacred history. Had the Jewish people given in and delayed, they would have lost the means to their independence and the meaning of their mission. Similarly today, although the mission of the Church is mostly spiritual, our fidelity to the Lord depends upon our attitude in the face of violations and betrayals of the truth in very specific aspects of social life.
5.1 We are of the same race as our brothers (v. 5). The rulers keep saying that the reconstruction requires sacrifice. The Jewish people demand that the sacrifices be really shared by all. Those who have enough for today must cancel the debts of those who have nothing.
Are you now buying your own brothers? (v. 8). Nehemiah defends the most humble, and denounces the sin the rich have committed without realizing it: driven by the logic of debt and credit, they have come to submit their own people to slavery.
We rightfully seek liberation from exploitative and anti-social governments. Finally, the exploitative spirit in each one of us may be the last vice to be uprooted.
6.1 Sanballat uses every means to discourage Nehemiah:
3:33 – mockery and insults.
4:2 – the threat of attack.
6:2 – psychological warfare.
6:6 – accusations.
6:14 – bribing false prophets.
There will always be people who take advantage of God’s word to support governments or to deceive the people.
Note the expression in verse 13—to frighten me and put me to shame. Quite often, fear is a slippery way leading to sin.
8.1 This first public reading of the law marks a very important date of sacred history. Until that time, the people of Israel lived their faith through praying and taking part in the temple ceremonies. Decisions and preaching came to them through priests and prophets. They did not feel the need to read the Scriptures.
Several books of our Scriptures were already in existence but they were kept in the temple or the kings’ palace: they were not within reach of the people nor were they the foundation of their faith. Now, however, new demands are made and they no longer have prophets as before. Ezra understands that in the future, the Jewish community will grow through the reading, meditation on and interpretation of the sacred book. Ezra himself tries to gather and complete the sacred books, and a new age begins wherein the Scriptures will be everyone’s book and the basis of their faith.
This religious and cultural transition is similar in the Church in recent years. People went to church; they prayed and they were taught, but Scripture was foreign to them. However, now the Christian faith can only become strong through the word of God read and heard in the community. Indeed we are behind time: this renewal should have started four centuries ago when Protestantism began.
The assembly gathered by Ezra will serve as the model for the religious life of the Jewish community. The solemn worship in the Jerusalem temple is not suppressed but, from that time on, in every city, the Jews will have a synagogue, that is, a meeting place where they will gather on the Sabbath to hear God’s word and to sing psalms.
9.1 We must relate this penance ceremony with Chapters 9 and 10 of Ezra. It deals with asking forgiveness for the sins which separate people from God’s law and are harmful to the race of Israel. They stress especially the sin of marrying women of another race and a different religion: Scripture knows that marrying someone of another religion often brings a person to move away from their own religious community. This was Solomon’s sin.
After publicly confessing the faults of the community, they remember God’s mercy: it is useless to know the sins if feelings of inner repentance are not aroused in remembering how God always forgives generously. Following, we have a summary of sacred history showing God’s mercy towards his people.
After the ceremony, several commitments are made: these are necessary to counter the weakness of the will, and to aid the struggle against laxity. It is not merely a question of rules; the risk consists of paying more attention to external observance than to the spirit of the law whose goal is to form a people always ready to serve God.
10.1 The following chapters combine various documents. Among them, note the text referring to Nehemiah’s first mission: 12:27-43. It complements Chapters 1 through 7.
13.10 In this last chapter, Nehemiah intervenes so that the law adopted by Ezra will be respected, and thus he takes new and more drastic measures (observance of the Sabbath, racial and religious purification, etc.). This attitude had great advantages; thanks to organization and solidarity among the Jews, the people of God were able to survive and not wander away from their faith.
However, we can also see the problems on which the Gospel will stumble: attachment to the past, fanaticism for sacred places, and aggressive action against non-conformists. It is a fact that in the following centuries, the religious consciousness of the Jews developed more through contacts with the Greek culture than through their efforts at inner organization.
If we want to be faithful to the biblical message, Christian communities and the Church at large will have to seek growth by opening up to and facing the world.