BIBLE STUDY TEXTBOOK SERIES
EZRA
and
NEHEMIAH
by
Ruben Ratzlaff
ESTHER
By
Paul T. Butler
College Press, Joplin, Missouri
Copyright 1979
College Press
ISBN 0-89900-000-2
ISBN 0-89900-014-2
Preface for Ezra and Nehemiah
This book is prepared with the interested Bible School teacher, church leader, Bible College student, or minister especially in mind. Its purpose is to make the content of Ezra and Nehemiah more practically useful to the church of today, and the people and events of Ezra-Nehemiah more understandable and contemporary to our culture.
As to the format, the questions at the beginning of each chapter are of a discussion nature; read them, then look for answers in the Bible text, the comments, or in your own judgment. There may not be hard and fast answers for every one of them. The outline will seek to call attention to the major topic or topics of the chapter, and to break each chapter down into small enough units to observe the development of ideas. The text itself is from the New American Standard Bible; we make no effort to evaluate which is the best translation available today, but we have observed that the NASB is widely used among the readers for which this book is designed. Some use of the Hebrew text is made in the preparation of the comments, but the only use of the Hebrew will be in English transliteration in the Word Studies when it is deemed helpful to the reader. It is hoped that the Word Studies may spark an idea for development in teaching or exposition, or may clarify some symbol in the text itself; they are not all at the same stage of development. The summary hopefully will put each chapter into focus so that its whole message can be seen in one overview. The questions at the end of the Chapter s are of a factual nature, to test recall.
This book is being written from a position of faith. It is the author's conviction that the history described in the Bible text was a part of the whole fabric of events and visitations by which God was revealing Himself and preparing a people for the coming of His Son.
Questions relating to the authorship of this material, insofar as they seek to go beyond what is made known in the text, have their importance (an educated person will have his curiosities), but are second to the content of the message itself. We have found that it is impossible, in the first place, to speak with certainty beyond what His Spirit has chosen to reveal; we have, secondly, found little spiritual or practical nourishment in these questions and suspect that the Spirit made a wise choice of what to include and what not to include.
It is hoped that this book will make a contribution to our total knowledge of Bible truth and of God's ways of working with His children, that our lives might be improved by seeing more of the details of our possible fellowship with and service for Him.
Ezra
INTRODUCTION
THE MAN
Ezra is a man of no small stature among the heroes of the Old Testament. His name itself means Help. We may reflect on the number of ways in which he helped his people.
He was first of all a priest who could trace his descent from Aaron (Ezra 7:1-5); and every priest was a mediator between man and God, a messiah, God's messenger to His people.
One tradition is that he assembled the books of the Old Testament which were written before his time, to comprise the early canon of Hebrew Scripture. It is likely also that he made the transition from one alphabet (as on the Moabite Stone) to another (more similar to modern-day Hebrew), in the writing of the Sacred Text, and that he made certain modifications particularly in the style of the language to bring it up to date. By way of comparison, English poetry from 1,000 years ago is hardly intelligible to us; yet the O.T. was written over an equal span, and the language is essentially the same. Perhaps we have Ezra to thank for this. If he were a man inspired as God's spokesman, as a priest would be in his dispensation, and as his book further demonstrates, then this would not be objectionable; he was equally as guided by God as Moses or David had been.
Another tradition is that he helped organize the early Sanhedrin, the Seventy who governed Israel even as late as Jesus-' time. He may have helped with the development of the Synagogue, whose existence is never hinted at in the O.T., and whose presence is so conspicuous in the New.
[We observe in passing that the pattern for public worship in the O.T. was not weekly worship on the Sabbath, but assembly for feasts three times yearly (later four, with the addition of Purim in Esther's time). We read our system back into their times if we suppose the Sabbath was a day of assembly for worship; rather it was a time for rest (Shabbath) and devotions in their private dwellings (Leviticus 23:3). Those who insist that our worship today must be on the Sabbath, i.e., Saturday, to conform to the commands in the O.T. have apparently missed this point. In fact, the people were forbidden to make a journey of any significant length (Exodus 16:29, especially in the New Catholic Edition: On the seventh day everyone is to stay home and no one is to go out), which predetermined that the synagogue must always be small. The Sabbath meetings arose, then, not from any recorded command of God, but possibly from the needs which the people sensed during the Captivity to continue to teach their children the Law even in an unfriendly environment; Ezra would most likely have been involved in that.]
Ezra's name is also linked by tradition to the beginnings of the Pharisees, particularly the group of them called Scribes, whose duty it was to copy and to teach the Scriptures. Before we recall what the N.T. says of these groups, let us note that they were the Back to the Bible Conservatives of their day, separating themselves (literal meaning of Parash: Pharisee) from the world to obey God and His Law. These were vital institutions which should not have been allowed to degenerate, but which served an essential function originally.
For an accurate portrait of Ezra's devotion and purpose, see Ezra 7:10; and for his method of speaking, Nehemiah 8:1-3.
THE BOOK
The book of Ezra (and Nehemiah and Esther) is not included in the part of the Hebrew Bible which includes Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, which we label History. It rather follows Daniel in the section including Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which they called Writings. Why was Ezra not listed with the Historical books in the Hebrew arrangement of the Bible?
Jesus makes reference to the threefold structure of the Old Covenant in Luke 24:44: Law, Prophets, and (Writings whose most prominent book was) Psalms. The Prophets would be divided into Early (Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings) and Latter. The Latter would be further divided into Major (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) and Minor (Hosea to Malachi, The Twelve). Note that there is no division, hence no essential difference, between history and prophecy; if God has spoken, it is equally certain whether it is past or future. The Hebrew language had no clear way of distinguishing between past and future. This is not to detract from its history, but to show the positive nature of its prophecy.
Now, Joshua is remembered as a prophet: he was a successor to Moses, who was a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15 ff.). The last of the Judges, Samuel, also doubles as a prophet (1 Samuel 3:20). Hence his two books would fit the category of prophetic writings, even without the assistance of Nathan and Gad. Since Samuel was also a judge (1 Samuel 7:15), perhaps for consistency the other judges are included in the same section. Since I and II Kings deal particularly with Elijah and Elisha, they also fit this mold, especially if the tradition is true that Jeremiah was the author.
But Ezra is not a prophet. He is, in fact, a prominent priest. He is most notable for his exercise of civil authority (Ezra 7:6; Ezra 7:21; Ezra 7:25); note the comparison with Daniel. Therefore, Ezra's book is not in the section identified with prophets, but rather with kings or rulers: David,. Solomon, Esther, Nehemiah, Daniel, and a desert chieftan named Job.
This is not to suggest that the material in the book of Ezra (or in any of the other books among the Writings) is unhistorical. There is history in the section called Law, yet it is separated from the books called History. Ezra's classification with the Writings is only an indication of the rank of the man who was its subject, or its author, or both.
We are also reminded that the inspiration of the Scriptures does not apply necessarily to the arrangement of the books; men have arranged them differently at different times for various reasons.
AUTHORSHIP
No great purpose would be served by taking our present readers through the multiplied theories held by all ranks of believers or disbelievers in the Scriptures, relative to the authorship of Ezra. The I passages particularly in chapter seven sufficiently identify Ezra with the writing of at least part of the book. Most likely, the book of Ezra is a parallel to the book of Acts, whose author also is a participant in the latter part of the book as indicated by his use of the first person, and who writes the first part also in order to make the latter part of the account understandable and to fit into a sequence of developing events.
Some of the book (Ezra 4:8 to Ezra 6:18) is in Aramaic, the official language of the Persians; but this poses no problems, as Ezra is described as being equally at home in both cultures, and this section deals especially with Persian court affairs and records, which would normally be in Aramaic.
TIME
The book traces events beginning in 536 B.C., when Cyrus of Persia instituted procedures for Israel's return from Captivity under the Babylonians, whom Cyrus had defeated in 538. Ezra is introduced in the narrative at chapter Ezra 7:1 According to E.J. Young,[1] this sets the date of the writing of the book during the reign of Artaxerxes I (465-424 B.C.). The events in the book fit into two time slots: the first, identified with Israel's return from Captivity, and the second following a gap of more than seventy years. The returned captives, small in number and still disheartened, are having a struggle, and Ezra accompanies another band of the returnees (Ezra 7:7) to help bring encouragement and to assist in re-establishing the institutions of the Law of Moses.
[1] E.J. Young, An Introduction to the O.T., p. 406.
CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL SCENE
One of the oddities of the book of Ezra, shared with the other equally late books in the O.T., is that mention is made of the return of a Son of David, namely Zerubbabel, preserving the continuity of the kingly line even through the Captivity. (Zerubbabel, however, bears only the rank of Governor, since the nation is still under Persian authority, hence subject to the king of Persia.)
Nevertheless, Zerubbabel quickly vanishes from view, and no further descendant of his is mentioned as Israel's ruler till Jesus stands in this line (Matthew 1:12; Matthew 1:16). What has happened, and why the silence? It had been predicted that the tribe of Judah should continue to provide the ruler for Israel until Shiloh come (Genesis 49:10).
There are two obvious explanations for this oddity.
1) The prophecy cannot be pressed to mean that a king from the tribe of Judah must always, without interruption, be on Israel's throne. It was centuries (perhaps as many as eight) after the prophecy before Israel had a king at all. Then, the very first one, Saul, was of the tribe of Benjamin rather than Judah (1 Samuel 10:20 f.), It is enough that the line was preserved, that one of the tribe of Judah and its line of kings (Jesus) might one day sit on its everlasting throne.
2) The Word of God specifically makes provision for this interruption, and for the tribe of Levi to assume the role of leadership. Zechariah 3:5-7 states that the priests beginning with Jeshua would rule the nation as long as they walked in God's ways. History demonstrates that during the era between the Old and New Testament, the priesthood returned to such prominence that the O.T. contains the writings of no prophets during this period of our centuries; the channel of God's communication through the priests was regarded, then, as adequate. History also recounts the rule over Israel by the Maccabees, of the tribe of Levi and of the priestly line, for a century during this intertestamental period. It is a reminder that all prophecy may be conditioned on man's reaction and co-operation (Jeremiah 18:7-10), and that God, being a Person, has the ability to decide on different courses of action as circumstances vary, in order to accomplish His purposes. God stated that He had chosen the priests as rulers of the nation, and that is what happened.
If we go back through Israel's apostasy to the time of Eli and Samuel (1 Samuel 2:8), we see the responsibility of being God's spokesmen (Messiah, Anointed) moving from the priesthood because of their shortcomings, to lodge briefly with a prophet and then to be carried on at length by kings. Subsequently the responsibility returns to the prophets, from Elijah to Malachi. Now, when apostasy has extracted its price and the nation has been healed, it is fitting that leadership returns to the order of priests; it is God's pride that His people will one day be known as the whole world's priests (Isaiah 61:6; cf. Isaiah 66:21). Ezra was of this line.[2]
[2] Note in the N.T. the position of the priests as rulers: John 18:12-14; Acts 22:30 to Acts 23:5.
In due course of time the kingship reverts to the line of Judah, and Jesus becomes Messiah (King) of Israel, and of all God's Creation. Appropriately enough, He also becomes the high priest of the people (Hebrews 2:17) though He is not of the priestly tribe (Hebrews 7:13-15). So in one era God gives the rulership of Israel to men of Levi in place of Judah; and in another, He gives the duties of the priesthood to One Who came from Judah, in place of Levi.
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK OF EZRA
The contents of the book of Ezra may be summarized under the following headings, chapter by chapter:
I.
The Captives Return Under Zerubbabel (Chapter s 1, 2)
Ch. 1
Authority is given by King Cyrus, and the captives who wish are allowed to return to Israel.
Ch. 2
This is a list of the leaders and groups among the returnees.
II.
The Temple Is Rebuilt (Chapter s 3 - 6)
Ch. 3
The altar is built, and the foundation laid.
Ch. 4
The work is interrupted by Israel's enemies.
Ch. 5
The work is resumed in the reign of Darius.
Ch. 6
The Temple is completed and dedicated.
III.
Ezra Becomes Involved In The Restoration of Israel (Chapter s 7-10)
Ch. 7
Ezra leads a second band of returnees back to Israel, and gives God thanks.
Ch. 8
Lists are given of returnees, and treasures which they carried back; the treasures are delivered.
Ch. 9
Ezra hears about some current sins, particularly marriage to foreigners, and he prays,
Ch. 10
The community is cleansed, and a list of the offenders is given.
REFLECTIONS ON EZRA
The book of Ezra began with captives returning to Israel especially to rebuild their Altar and Temple. A second band returned and were especially involved in the purification of the religious life.
The book has presented us with a contrast between (1) growing awareness of and concern for the Gentiles, and (2) exclusiveness, forbidding marriages to Gentiles. On the one hand, help was obtained from a foreign king, his cabinet, and taxes on neighboring lands to help Israel build the Temple; even some of the labor came from other lands. Some foreigners may even have been included in the migration from Babylonia to Judah. Their continuation as a people depended on the day-to-day favor of foreigners.
On the other hand, help of the Samaritans had been flatly rejected, and marriages with foreigners had been annulled and forbidden for the future. Israel had to live between these two tensions.
But so must the church today. It must live in the world; it cannot withdraw from it, but must in fact mingle with the Pharisees and publicans, the pure and the impure, the household of Caesar and Simon the sorcerer and Saul the persecutor; it cannot obey its Lord, grow, or even survive without conversions from these sources.
But it must keep itself free from the entanglements and defilements of that world. It must maintain its principles and transform the lives that it touches into the likeness of its Master.
May the handling of the problems in the book of Ezra assist us in the handling of those which are distinctive to our day.
PROJECT
Can you recall, chapter by chapter, what is in the book of Ezra? The first and last Chapter s are easy: 1Cyrus-' proclamation permitting the return from captivity; 10Mixed marriages abandoned. Next notice Chapter s 4 and Ezra 7:4Rebuilding of the Temple ceases; 7Ezra arrives with more returnees. Now fill in the gaps: 2List of returnees, first expedition; 3Altar set up. After chapter 4 (Rebuilding of the Temple ceases) comes 5Rebuilding is resumed; 6Darius-' decree, and completion of the Temple. After 7 (Ezra arrives with more returnees), 8Names of returnees, and description of the trip; 9Ezra hears of the problem of mixed marriages; then you remember 10.
Put these titles on separate cards without the chapter numbers, mix them up, and practice arranging them correctly.
DATES TO REMEMBER (All are Before Christ.)
538
Cyrus conquered Babylon
536
Cyrus freed captive Israelites to return home and rebuild Temple
536
Work on the Temple stopped
520
Temple work resumed
516
Temple work completed
475
Events of the Book of Esther
458
Ezra brought another band of returnees
457
Ezra's reforms were completed
445
Nehemiah's first mission to Jerusalem
433
Nehemiah's second mission to Jerusalem