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Course 6 · Lesson 4.4

The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 6 outline

Module 1: Israel in the Ancient Near East

  1. Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan: the world of the Old Testament
  2. What archaeology and ancient texts can and cannot show
  3. Genesis 1 to 3 beside other ancient creation accounts
  4. Ancient cosmology and how Christians and Jews read Genesis

Module 2: Covenant: Abraham and Moses

  1. What a covenant is, and covenant forms in the ancient world
  2. The covenants with Noah and Abraham
  3. The exodus and the covenant at Sinai
  4. The Torah: law, worship and the tabernacle
  5. Covenant in Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed thought

Module 3: Kingship in Israel

  1. From the judges to the first kings
  2. David, Jerusalem and the promise of a lasting house
  3. Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom
  4. How Samuel and Kings tell the story: sources and purpose

Module 4: The Prophets, Exile and Restoration

  1. What a prophet was in Israel and in the ancient world
  2. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah: justice, loyalty and judgment
  3. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem
  4. The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple
  5. How the prophetic books were formed: the debate over Isaiah and others

Module 5: Wisdom and Apocalyptic Writing

  1. Proverbs and the way of the wise
  2. Job and Ecclesiastes: wisdom that questions
  3. What apocalyptic writing is: Daniel and its setting
  4. Reading apocalyptic images responsibly

Module 6: Second Temple Judaism and the Development of Jewish Thought

  1. Persian, Greek and Maccabean periods
  2. Temple, synagogue and the main groups in Jewish life
  3. Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law
  4. Sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the deuterocanonical books and Josephus

Module 7: Messianic Expectation and the Shape of the Covenants

  1. Anointed ones in the Old Testament: king, priest, prophet
  2. Messianic texts in the prophets and psalms
  3. How Jews and Christians read the messianic texts
  4. The promise of a new covenant
  5. Mapping the development of covenant across the Old Testament

All courses

Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 4.4

What you will learn

  • Narrate the main stages of the return from exile under Persian rule.
  • Explain the roles of Zerubbabel, Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah.
  • Describe how the community defined itself around the temple, the law and separation from outsiders.
  • Identify the main dating problems in Ezra and Nehemiah.

The big idea

In 539 BC Cyrus of Persia took Babylon and let exiled peoples go home. A first group of Judeans returned and rebuilt the temple in 516 BC, encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Later, Ezra taught the law and Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. The restored community was small and poor, ruled by a foreign empire, and it defined itself by temple worship, Torah and careful boundaries. The hopes of the prophets were only partly fulfilled.

Key terms

Yehud
The Persian name for the small province around Jerusalem, from the Hebrew name for Judah.
Second Temple
The temple completed in 516 BC and later enlarged by Herod. It stood until AD 70.
Scribe
A person trained to copy, read and interpret written texts. Ezra is called a scribe skilled in the law of Moses.
Satrap
A governor of a large Persian province.
Samaritans
The people of the region of Samaria, who worshiped the Lord and kept the Torah. Ezra and Nehemiah show tension with them.
Mixed marriages
Marriages between Judeans and foreign women, which Ezra 9 and 10 and Nehemiah 13 oppose.
Elephantine papyri
Aramaic documents from a Jewish military colony in Egypt in the fifth century BC, which mention a temple there and correspondence with Jerusalem.

Background

Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC without a long siege. His policy was to allow conquered peoples to return and restore their shrines. The Cyrus Cylinder, a Persian clay document, records this policy in general terms. Ezra 1 gives a Hebrew decree allowing the Judeans to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and returns the temple vessels. Isaiah 45:1 calls Cyrus the Lord’s anointed, a rare use of the word for a foreign king.

The return was not a single event. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell of several waves under different leaders and kings. They are difficult to date, and scholars disagree about their order and about the editing of the books. The community that returned was small. Jerusalem remained modest for a long time, and the Persian province of Yehud was a poor district.

The hopes of the prophets, of a glorious return and a new Davidic king, were not fulfilled in the form they had imagined. The books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi reflect a period of hope and disappointment. This setting formed the Judaism that later ages would know.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The first return and the temple

Ezra 1 to 6 tells of a return under Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah, and then of Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, and Joshua, the high priest. They set up the altar and begin the temple, but local opposition and the community’s own poverty halt the work. In 520 BC the prophets Haggai and Zechariah urge the people to build. Haggai asks why they live in paneled houses while the temple lies in ruins. Zechariah has a series of visions and speaks of Zerubbabel as the one who will finish the temple, saying not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit (Zechariah 4:6).

The temple is completed in the sixth year of Darius, which Ezra 6:15 describes and which corresponds to 516 or 515 BC. Older people who remembered the first temple wept at the sight, because it was so much smaller (Ezra 3:12 and Haggai 2:3).

Step 2: Ezra, the law and the community

Ezra, a priest and a scribe, comes to Jerusalem with a commission from a Persian king Artaxerxes to teach and enforce the law of God. The date is stated as the seventh year of Artaxerxes, and since there were two kings of that name, the date is either 458 BC or 398 BC, and scholars are divided. In Nehemiah 8, Ezra reads the law to the assembled people from a platform, and the Levites help the people understand it. The people weep and then celebrate the feast of tabernacles.

Ezra is also shocked by the number of men who had married foreign women, and he leads the community in a decision to send them away (Ezra 9 and 10). The text does not hide that the decision was painful. Some interpreters read it as protecting the community’s identity, and others criticize it, noting that the book of Ruth tells of a foreign woman who becomes the great-grandmother of David.

Step 3: Nehemiah and the walls

Nehemiah, a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, hears that Jerusalem’s walls are broken and its people are in distress. He asks the king’s permission to go, and in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, 445 BC, he becomes governor. Despite opposition from officials of neighboring provinces, he organizes the rebuilding of the walls in fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15). He also confronts the rich who are exploiting the poor with debt (Nehemiah 5) and works to enforce the Sabbath.

Nehemiah’s memoir is written in the first person, and many scholars regard it as one of the oldest sources in the book. The relation between his work and Ezra’s is disputed, and some scholars think the two did not work at the same time.

Step 4: What outside evidence adds

The Elephantine papyri from Egypt include a letter from the Jewish community there to the governor of Judah in 407 BC, asking for help in rebuilding their temple. It shows that Jews outside the land had their own temple and that Persian officials in Judah and Samaria were recognized authorities. Coins and seals with the name Yehud support the existence of the province.

The picture is of a community with a central temple, a growing role for Scripture and a variety of Jewish settlements elsewhere. In this period the Torah took a central place, the text of the prophets began to be gathered, and the practice of reading and interpreting Scripture in assembly developed.

  1. How did Persian policy differ from Babylonian policy toward conquered peoples?
  2. What did Haggai and Zechariah say to the builders of the temple?
  3. What is the significance of the public reading of the law in Nehemiah 8?
  4. What reasons are given for and against Ezra’s action on mixed marriages?
  5. Which dating problems affect the order of Ezra and Nehemiah?
  6. In what ways was the return a disappointment, and in what ways a fulfillment?

Examples

The weeping at the foundation

When the foundation of the new temple was laid, many shouted for joy, and the old men who had seen the first house wept aloud. Ezra 3:13 says that the sound of joy and weeping could not be told apart. The scene captures the mixed feeling of the return.

The reading of the law

In Nehemiah 8, Ezra stands on a wooden platform and reads from morning until midday, while others give the sense, so that the people understood the reading. Jewish tradition sees this as the origin of public Torah reading and of the work of interpreters.

The Elephantine letter

Jews at Elephantine wrote to the governor of Judah in 407 BC to ask for help rebuilding their temple, which had been destroyed by local priests of another god. The letter shows that the rule of one temple at Jerusalem was not yet universally observed.

Different perspectives

Jewish readers

Jewish tradition honors Ezra as a second Moses and as the one who restored the Torah. Rabbinic sources credit the Men of the Great Assembly, which includes Ezra, with shaping the canon and prayer. Hanukkah and Purim come later, but the rebuilt temple and the Torah are the center of this period.

Catholic and Orthodox readers

The Orthodox include 1 Esdras, a Greek retelling of Ezra, among their books, while Catholics do not count it as canonical. Both read the rebuilt temple as a step toward the fullness of God’s presence in Christ. Many writers in both traditions point to Ruth when discussing the mixed marriages.

Protestant readers

Protestants often treat Ezra and Nehemiah as examples of leadership and reform, with Nehemiah a model of prayer and organization. Some readers criticize Ezra’s measures as harsh, and others defend them as protecting the community.

Scholarly views

Scholars debate the sequence of Ezra and Nehemiah, the authenticity of the Persian documents quoted in Ezra, and the size of the returning group. Many see the books as written after the events, and as shaped by the Chronicler’s outlook.

Why it matters

The return established the community from which Judaism and the New Testament world came. The temple, the Torah and the question of who belongs to the people all take their later shape here. It also shows that the great prophetic hopes were not realized at once, which prepared the way for later expectation of a more complete restoration.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Everyone in exile returned to Judah.

Correction: Most estimates suggest that many Judeans stayed in Babylon, and others lived in Egypt and elsewhere. A large Jewish community remained in Babylon for centuries.

Misunderstanding: The returned community was powerful and independent.

Correction: It was a small province in the Persian Empire, paying tribute and governed by officials appointed by the Persian king.

Misunderstanding: Ezra and Nehemiah worked at the same time, as the books seem to say.

Correction: The books present them together in some scenes, but dating of Ezra’s mission is disputed and some scholars place him later than Nehemiah.

Knowledge check

What did Cyrus do after taking Babylon, and what is the evidence?

He allowed exiled peoples to return to their lands and restore their shrines. The Cyrus Cylinder records this policy in general terms, and Ezra 1 gives a decree allowing the Judeans to rebuild the temple and returning its vessels. Isaiah 45 calls him the Lord’s anointed. Scholars discuss how far the biblical decree reflects an actual document.

When was the second temple completed, and who encouraged the work?

It was completed in the sixth year of Darius, which corresponds to 516 or 515 BC. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged the work in 520 BC, and Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua led it. Some who remembered the first temple wept because it seemed so small compared to Solomon’s.

What did Nehemiah accomplish?

Nehemiah, a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, went to Jerusalem in 445 BC and organized the rebuilding of the walls in fifty-two days despite opposition. He also relieved the poor from debt owed to rich neighbors and worked to protect the Sabbath. His first-person memoir is among the oldest material in the book.

Why is the date of Ezra’s mission debated?

Ezra 7 dates his arrival to the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. Since two Persian kings bore that name, the date could be 458 BC, under Artaxerxes I, or 398 BC, under Artaxerxes II. Details about the people Ezra meets and about Nehemiah’s work are used to argue for each date, and there is no consensus.

Think it through

  1. How would you feel as someone who remembered the first temple and saw the second?
  2. What are the risks and the benefits of a community defining itself by clear boundaries?
  3. Why might the public reading of Scripture have been so central after the exile?
  4. What does it mean for prophetic hopes to be partly fulfilled?

Independent assignment

Return in five scenes

In your own notebook, choose five scenes from Ezra and Nehemiah (for example Ezra 1, Ezra 3, Ezra 6, Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah 8). Write two sentences on each: what happens and what it shows about the community. Then write 200 to 300 words on how the community in these chapters differs from the kingdom in Kings, and name one question about Ezra’s mission that remains disputed. Keep it for yourself.

Further study