1. Analysis of the Books
same plan, each narrating the story
of a return of the Jews under special
authority and with grants from the
Persian kings under Zerubbabel and Joshua, Ezra
and Nehemiah, and
telling the weighty
consequences
for the temple community in the Holy Land.
There resulted the completion of the temple, the
restoration of the public service, the binding together of the community by prohibition of foreign
marriages, the securing of political independence
of the neighboring peoples through completion of
the wall of the repeopled capital, and adoption by
the community of the law-book of Moses (Ezra vi.,
x.; Neh. iii. sqq., viii.).
These results are interwoven into the history of
the times. The first step was taken under Cyrus
and continued under Darius, the second in the
seventh year of Artaxerxes, the third in the twentieth
and thirty-second year of the same Artaxerxes.
The Persian succession was well known to the author,
who in Ezra iv. rr7 names successively Cyrus,
Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. During that
period fell the decrees which were the legal basis of
the Jewish community and the contests the successful issue of which consolidated that community
and impressed upon it a distinctive character.
The seventh year of the Artaxerxes of Ezra vii.
2. The Sources Employed
year of an Artaxerxes who lived some
sixty Employed. years later under whom the
events of Neh. i.-xiii. happened.
Nor may it be held that the author
dealt with fic titious dates and decrees. Such
suspicions are ex
cluded by the quality of the material, which the
writer has brought together and made to serve his
purpose. The books are a mosaic. The author
doubtless obtained the list of the returning exiles
from the Books of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
He also employed the "Memoirs" of Ezra, those of
Nehemiah, and a reputed report of Tabeel and his com
panions
(
Ezra iv. 7)
directed to Artaxerxes. Here the
Masoretic text is the result of a complete misunder
standing. The author of it made out of the original
"with the permission of Mithredath "the series" Bish
lam, Mithredath," producing a triple authorship for
a document which is only referred to and not given,
since the document in
Ezra iv. 11-16
is specifically
stated to be by others (verses 8-9). It is to be
noted also that iv. 12 refers to the building of the
city and iv. 24 to the building of the temple,
and that if the traditional theory
were correct,
the author would have confused entirely different
events and blended the accounts as though they
referred to one and the same thing. Similarly out
of the reports of Nehemiah, narrated in the first
person, the writer built up a story in which seven
successive steps in the progress of the work of rebuilding the wall appear, which is a reconstruction
by the Chronicler of the order of events as they
probably lay in the original documents. Into this
is woven an account of the introduction of the lawbook, explained by the union of efforts by Ezra
and Nehemiah for that purpose. This part is
probably taken as an excerpt from ,ths memoirs
of Ezra.
In defense of the author's stylistic method it must
be remembered that he was writing for his contemporaries, probably using documents stored in the
Jewish archives; that he was not
concerned with historical matters of detail the interest in which is
8. The great to moderns; and that he had
Author's a comprehensive view of the whole
pose. work of restoration of the Jewish
commonwealth, which he put for ward in the shape of a mosaic the joining of
which
is not always close and the parts of which are not
well coordinated. It was
his idea to set forth that
as the Samaritans of the time of Zerubbabel
hindered the work commanded by Cyrus, so they
continued their attempts at hindrance in the days
of Artaxerxes. He desired in his notes of time
(Ezra vii. 1;
Neh. i. 1, ii. 1,
viii.-xiii.) to indicate the cooperation of Ezra and Nehemiah in the work.
The question has been raised whether the narrative
as it stands is the result of
wilful perversion of the
sources, or of misunderstanding, or whether it
conforms to the facts. Nehemiah reports that to
him had come sad accounts of the ruinous state of
the walls and city of Jerusalem; the apology of
Tabeel narrates that the work of reconstruction
had been prohibited and forcibly prevented through
a denunciation to the Artaxerxes who sent Jews
back to Jerusalem. But who could be so influen
tial and so secure in bringing about the restoration
of Jerusalem as those who had come with letters
missive from the king directed to the accomplishment
of this task of restoration? The general out
line of history as made out by the author agrees
with the facts as presented by his sources.
(A. Klostermann.)
Bibliography:
Texts are issued by S. Baer in the Baer and
Delitsech series, Leipsic, 1882; in the
Polychrome Bible.
by H. Guthe, New York, 1901; and a new text is by M.
L&hr in the new Biblia Rebraica
begun by R. Kittel, Leipsic, 1905. The best commentaries are by J. D.
Michaelis, Frankfort, 1720; C. F. Keil, Leipsic, 1870,
Eng. transl., Edinburgh, 1873; G.
Rawlinson and others in Pulpit Commentary, 1880; E. Berthesu and V. Ryssel,
Leipsic, 1887; H. E. Ry:a, in Cambridge Bible,
1893. Discussions on special topics are: R, smend,
Die Listen den Biixher Ears and Nehemiah,
Basel, 1881; A. van Hoonacker, N&tsnie et EBdras, nouvelle hypothdse Bur la chronologie,
Gand, 1890; idem, Nekemie en t'an .80 d'Artaxerxes
1. et EBdras en Van 7 d'Artaxerxes ll.,
ib. 1892; idem, Zorobabel el Is second temple,
ib. 1892; idem, Nouvelle itudessur
la reetauration juive, Paris, 1896 (a reply to Hostere, be-
low); p. H. Hunter,
After the Exile, Edinburgh. 18~:
G. 13awlineon, in
Men of the Bible Series,
London, 1891;
W. H. Koctere.
Het Herstel van Israel,
Leyden, 1893:
A. H. Sayse.
ltrod.Mon to . . . Esro. Nehemiah a"l
Either,
London, 1893; idem,
Higher Uria^d the
Monuments,
ib. 1894; E. Meyer,
BntatehurW des
J~S^'
fume, Halle, 1898 (cf. J. Wellhausen in
OGA,
1897; ii.
89 sqq.); C. C. Torrey,
COftipositi"n and Historic Valr·- ^f
Ezra and Nehemiah. in
ZATW.
Giessen, 1898; T.
C Jewish RsisPious life after the Exile,
New York,
1898; P. W. H. Kettlewell,
Books of Esra a~ Nelwmiah,
London, 1901; E. Schrader, in
TSK,
1867, pp. 4~"504;
idem,
KAT, i.
294-297:
DB i.
821-824;
BB, ii.
147814g8, Consult also the works on the history of Israel
and on introduction to the Old Testament, especially
Driver,
Introduction, pp.
507 sqq.
