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the difficulty may be solved as indicated above. But Usher concludes that the ancestors of David, and, through him, of the Messiah, were men of extraordinary piety and strength, and were blessed with very long life.]"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

§ 195.

CONTENTS.

THESE books, which are regarded by the Hebrew and Greek Jews as but one, or as two parts of the same book,—although they were originally separate books, contain the history of the restoration of the Jewish state after the exile.

a

[See Junius and Patrick on Ruth i. Leusden, Phil. Sac. p. 18, 86. See, also, Horne, 1. c. pt. v. chap. ii. § iv. vol. ii. p. 218. He follows the date of Patrick, and counts Samuel as its author, and finds in it "reverent observance of the Mosaic law"! Eichhorn (§ 464) finds a Chaldaism, or Syriasm, in the use of , for , in 7, i. 20, (but the same form occurs elsewhere; see Rosenmüller, in loc. ;) in the superfluous in "", iii. 3, and 7, verse 4. The custom of taking off the shoe to confirm a bargain, (iv. 7, 8,) was obsolete when the book was reduced to its present form. The name of the second of kin,, was forgotten, it would seem, as it is not mentioned.]

Jo. Clerici, Sanctii, Maur

Victorin. Strigeli Schol. in Libr. Esræ; Lips. 1571;— in Libr. Nehem. ; ib. 1575.

Jo. H. Michaelis, Annotatt. in Libr. Esr. J. Jac. Rambachii Annotatt. in Libr. Nehem. (Uberr. annotatt. in Hagiogr. vol. iii.)

'See above, vol. i. § 25, 27, 10. Buxtorf, Tib. xi. p. 108.

1. The book of Ezra connects with the Chronicles. The first part (i.-vi.) contains the history of the return from exile, and of the building of the temple. It extends from the first year of Cyrus to the sixth of Darius Hystaspes, that is, from 536 to 515 B. C.

The second part (vii.-x.) contains the history of Ezra's migration with a second company of Jews, and the purification of marriages, effected by him. It begins with the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus," that is, 458 B. C.

[Ezra was descended directly from the high priest Seraiah, who had been executed at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. His genealogy is twice given in the Old Testament, namely, in Ezra vii. 1, sqq., and 1 Ch. vi. 3, sqq., the latter containing six members not mentioned in the former. While in exile, he busied himself with the Law of Moses, as it seems, for he is called a "ready scribe in the Law of Moses." One of his chief aims was to establish or restore the Mosaic institutions, after his arrival in Palestine. In the time of Nehemiah, he was active in promoting the welfare of the new colony. The time of his death is not known.]

2. The book of Nehemiah relates that Nehemiah received permission and an oral decree from King Artaxerxes Longimanus to return to his native land, and to fortify Jerusalem, which he likewise accomplished in spite of the obstacles which the Samaritans threw in his way, (i. 1-vii. 5.) Then follows a list of the exiles

a

It was in the seventh year of Xerxes, according to Josephus, Michaelis, Jahn, and De Wette's Archäol. § 50; but of Artaxerxes, according to Bertholdt,

p. 989, sq., Gesenius, Thesaurus, Keil, Ub. d. Chronik. p. 103, sqq.

b

(mjb bhing him, vii. 6, et al. See the Arabic stories about him in D'Herbelot, Bib. Orient. sub voce Ozair.]

who returned under Cyrus, (vii. 6-33, of the same tenor with Ezra ii.,) to which is added an account of a religious festival observed under Ezra and Nehemiah, (vii. 73— x. 40.) Chap. xi. treats of the repeopling of Jerusalem. Chap. xii. 1-26, contains more lists; xii. 27-47, the consecration of the walls of the city; and xiii., the reformations introduced by Nehemiah. [The time of the book extends from 444 to about 404 B. C.]

§ 196, a.

THE CONSTITUENT PARTS AND AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF EZRA.

It is quite obvious that this book is not the work of a single author. In the first part (i.-vi.) we find two ancient documents have been used in constructing the narrative.

1. The first document is chapter ii., which Nehemiah found existing as a separate document, as he says, (vii. 5,) "I found a register of the gencalogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein, 'These are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem, and to Judah, every one to his city."" [The quotation is verbatim from Ezra ii. 1.]

2. The second document is iv. 8-vi. 18, which is distinguished from the rest of the book by the use of the Chaldee language, not only in the epistles, as in vii. 12-26, but in the narrative itself, and in the introduction at the beginning. The transition from the Hebrew to the Chaldee language might be explained from

the analogy of Dan. ii. 4, by the fact that a letter is inserted in the Chaldee language; but the introduction to the letter (verses 8-10) is also in that dialect."

The second part (vii.-x.) is connected with the preceding by means of the formula, "Now, after these things," (vii. 1;) but still it is distinguished from it by the style, and makes a whole by itself, though, perhaps, it is not all from the same hand.

The passage, vii. 27-ix. 15, where Ezra speaks in the first person, was evidently written by himself. To this belongs the Chaldee document, vii. 12-26. The tenth chapter speaks of him in the third person, but is a contemporary narrative, and was either written by himself or by one of his assistants. From the use of the expression (vii. 6) Ezra was a "ready scribe," it is doubtful whether the passage, verses 1-11, was written by him."

All these parts were probably added quite late to the

This passage, v. 4, leads us to think it was written by an eye-witness, but it is not decisive. (Compare Josh. v. 6.) On the contrary, the mention of Artaxerxes (vi. 14) would refer us to a later origin. However, Hävernik, (1. c. p. 293,) and some others, consider this passage an interpolation. Kleinert (in Dörpt. Beiträge, vol. i. p. 101) separates iv. 8-23, from v. 1-vi. 18, which is no more to be admitted than Movers's theory, which cuts off vi. 16—18, and ascribes it to the redactor. On account of the expression, king of Assyria, instead of king of Persia, verse 22, Bertholdt refers this passage to a later hand than that which wrote i. iii. iv. 1—7. But this is unnecessary. The term "king of Babylon" occurs, v. 13. Compare, also, 2 Kings xxiii. 29, Jer. ii. 18, Lam. v. 6. See Keil, p. 119, Hüvernik, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 287.

derive vii. 1-11, from the Movers (p. 16, 24) considers which is not a

Bertholdt (p. 997, 1000) and Zunz (p. 23) redactor.) But Hävernik refers them to Ezra. them interpolated. The honorary appellation mere title, as Hävernik thinks-and the similar remark, verse 10, (12,) and the genealogy, (verses 1—5,) could scarcely have been written by Ezra himself. The fact that he speaks in the third person is nothing against his authorship, though, on the other hand, the phrase in verse 7, (9,) DHÈN T

, which also occurs, Neh. ii. 8,- is not decisive evidence in his favor.

present book of Ezra, as we judge from vi. 22, where the Persian kings are called Assyrian. Perhaps the compilation was made by the author of vi. 19-22.a

[The singular character of this book, the variety in its language, style, and in the person of the writer, have given rise to several theories and ingenious attempts to account for its peculiarities. Huet supposes the first six chapters are the work of an uncertain author, whom he fancies to be the same with the writer of Chronicles. Leclerc says none can doubt Ezra wrote the three last chapters, for he speaks in the first person, (vii. 27, 28, ix. 1, 5, et al.) From this circumstance, he thinks he wrote the whole book, and thus accounts for some of its peculiarities. At Babylon, Ezra determined to return into Judea with Zerubabel and Joshua; afterwards he went back to Babylon, and returned, a second time, to Judea, under Darius Hystaspes. In the early chapters he does not mention himself, because he was not the leader, as in the second journey. But it is evident that he was in the company of returning exiles, for he is mentioned among them, (vi. 14, 15.) The objections to this theory are so obvious that they need not be mentioned.

Eichhorn thinks Ezra, when he came to Judea, or began to write, found a Chaldee account of the quarrels of the Samaritans with the Jews, about the new temple, written by an eye-witness of and actor in the affairs he described. Ezra wished to incorporate this in his book, and to connect the latter with the book of Chronicles. So he goes back to the time of Cyrus,

a Bertholdt's arguments against chap. x. are erroneous.
[Diss. de Script. V. T. c. viii., and note on Ezra vii. 1.]
[§ 498, sqq.]

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