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Ancient Israel From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple. Ed. Hershal Shanks. Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1999.
Ezra
According to the biblical record, the most dramatic and long-lasting cultural and political
changes in the post-Exilic Jewish state occurred during the tenure of Ezra and Nehemiah.
From the biblical perspective, Ezra’s accomplishments were primarily in the religious
sphere, although these should be understood within the larger context of the Persian
policy of fostering local religio-legal traditions for the purpose of social stability within
the provinces. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem not as a governor but as a “scribe skilled in the
law of Moses,” with a copy of the law (Ezra 7:6, 10) and with a commission from
Artaxerxes to establish magistrates and judges in order to enact and teach that law (Ezra 7:11–14, 25–26). Ezra was also given funds and precious goods to revitalize religious
rites in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:15–20, 8:21–34). This may have required some rebuilding.
According to Ezra 6:14, the rebuilding of the Temple was accomplished by the royal
decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, so Ezra may well have participated in it.
Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3) may also be understood in
the larger context of Persian imperial aims to control their Levantine holdings more
tightly. 47
Eventually, under Ezra’s leadership, and after Nehemiah’s arrival (Nehemiah
8:9, 10:1), the law was accepted as the constitutional basis of Jewish life. This was done
in a formal public ceremony and by contractual agreement (Ezra 9:1–10; Nehemiah 8:1– 10:39). The prohibition of intermarriage with non-Jews was an especially important
dimension of the acceptance of Jewish law. The missions of Ezra and Nehemiah do not
demonstrate that the local community was being rewarded for its loyalty; rather, their
missions represented the efforts of the empire to develop economic and social
relationships that would tie the fortunes of Yehud to the future of the imperial system. 48
It has been widely assumed that the “law of Moses” that Ezra brought to Jerusalem was
the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) or, if not the Pentateuch in its
entirety, then one of the law codes incorporated in the Pentateuch. One suggestion is that
he brought the so-called Priestly source (P) of the Pentateuch (P is one of the sources of
the Pentateuch according to the documentary hypothesis, which divides the Pentateuch
into four different narrative strands). Ezra has thus been credited with a major role in the
development of the canon of Jewish Scripture and/or in the editorial process that
produced the Pentateuch in the form in which it is now known. As noted, however, the
process of editing the major portions of the Hebrew Bible, the Pentateuch and Former
Prophets, had probably begun a full century earlier. It is quite possible that by the end of
the fifth century the Prophets, both major and minor, were organized and promulgated, as
were the Chronicler’s history (1 and 2 Chronicles) and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. 49
What is curious about the assumption that Ezra played such a major role in organizing
scripture, however, is that not one of the quotations from Ezra’s law code in the books of
Ezra and Nehemiah agrees with any specific passage of the Pentateuch (see, for example,
Ezra 9:10–12; Nehemiah 8:14–15). Instead, Ezra’s reform measures agree in general with
dicta contained in various parts of the Pentateuch (although Ezra’s prohibition against
intermarriage is far more specific than any command in the Pentateuch). Ezra’s law code
may have been simply a précis or compendium of Jewish law in a form suitable for
deposit in the Persian court archives. In sum, we know that Ezra came as a scribe of the
law of Moses commissioned by Artaxerxes to be the promulgator and enforcer of that
law. We do not know the particular form of that law, however, or how that law relates to
the Pentateuch as it has come down to us in its canonical form.
Ezra is frequently referred to as “the father of Judaism,” that is, the father of Judaism as a
religious system based upon Torah, or law. He was certainly an important person in the
history of Judaism and played a significant role in the revitalization of Jewish life based
upon Torah. Without diminishing Ezra’s importance, however, we must remember that
he was not the originator of Judaism as a legal system. This legal system can be traced to
the religious reforms of King Josiah in 622 B.C.E. (2 Kings 22–23; 2 Chronicles 34–35).
It was Josiah who promulgated a code of law, most likely an edition of Deuteronomy.
Ultimately, however, Judaism as a religion of Torah may be traced to the example of
Moses and to the role of the levitical priests in the teaching of Torah in early Israelite
culture. It is no wonder that Ezra is depicted as a kind of second Moses, emulating the
experience of former times through his actions and words. 50
Against exaggerated claims for Ezra, we may note that when the Jewish sage Ben Sira
extolled the great heroes of Judaism from Enoch to Simon the Just in his eulogy “Let us
now praise famous men” (Sirach 44–50), he did not even mention Ezra. For Ben Sira, the
heroes of the Persian period were Zerubbabel, Joshua and Nehemiah. According to Ben
Sira, it was Nehemiah who “raised for us the walls that had fallen, and set up the gates
and bars and rebuilt our ruined houses” (Sirach 49:13).
Nehemiah
Nehemiah’s principal accomplishments are described in the Book of Nehemiah. He
rebuilt the gates and walls of Jerusalem, despite the concerted resistance of Sanballat,
governor of Samaria, Tobiah, governor of Ammon, and Geshem, the leader of the Arab
Kedarite confederacy (Nehemiah 1–4, 6, 12:27–43). Nehemiah also enforced legislation
on mortgages, loans and interest for the betterment of the economic life of the Judahite
citizens (Nehemiah 5). He repopulated Jerusalem by means of a public lottery in which
one-tenth of the Jewish population was moved into the city (Nehemiah 11). He
established Jewish control over the cultural and economic life of the city (Nehemiah
13:15–22). He established cultic reforms to ensure that the Levites and Temple singers
would not disperse to the countryside (Nehemiah 13:10–14). Finally, he enforced Ezra’s legislation concerning intermarriage, especially as it affected the priestly orders ( Nehemiah 13:1–9, 23–29). Of Nehemiah’s varied accomplishments, the greatest attention
is given to rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and for good reason: This was a major
move in the implementation of Persian imperial policy that demonstrated Yehud’s
continuing cooperation with the powers that be. There is no doubt that Nehemiah’s
adversaries understood the full import of those actions.
These reforms indicate that during Nehemiah’s administrations as governor, he exercised
far more control over local affairs than did his predecessors, although he exercised
authority within the larger framework of Persian concerns for tighter regulation of local
affairs. This is consistent with what we now know about administrative changes allowing
more autonomy in the western Persian provinces in the late fifth century B.C.E. The
hostility of Nehemiah’s neighboring governors also reflects this situation. Each
maneuvered for greater control over his own area and entered into alliances (in this case
against Judah) aimed at establishing his own hegemony. The positioning of the Samaritan
governor Sanballat as leader of the conspiracy against Nehemiah reflects the history of
Samaritan desire for hegemony over Judah after its collapse in 586 B.C.E. and the
assassination of the puppet governor Gedaliah. 51
Let us survey what is known about this
period from archaeological sources.
Persian Period Sources
With the work of Nehemiah, biblical historiography ends. Our knowledge of Jewish life
during the remainder of the Persian period (until the conquest of the area by Alexander
the Great in 332 B.C.E.) is sketchy at best. From the Elephantine papyri we learn that the
governor of Yehud in the year 408 B.C.E. was Bagohi and that in the same year Samaria
was governed by Delaiah and Shelemaiah, sons of Nehemiah’s adversary, Sanballat. The
Jews of Yeb (Elephantine) wrote to these Samaritan and Judahite leaders seeking
assistance in rebuilding their temple. Josephus records an incident from the time of
Artaxerxes II (404–358 B.C.E.) in which the Persians “defiled the sanctuary and imposed
tribute on the Jews” (and also that “the people were made slaves”) for a period of seven
years. This, he says, resulted from the interference of Artaxerxes’ general Bagoses who
tried to appoint Jesus (that is, Joshua/Jeshua) son of Eliashib as high priest and became
enraged when Jesus was murdered by his brother, the high priest Joannes (Johanan) 58
Some scholars believe the Bagoses of this story is Bagohi, the governor of Judah known
from the Elephantine papyri. 59
The last Persian period incident recorded by Josephus occurred on the eve of Alexander’s
conquest of the area. According to Josephus, the Samaritans led by Sanballat built a
temple on Mt. Gerizim. The reference is to Sanballat III, 60
grandson of the earlier
Sanballat who had opposed Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Judah. The building of a Samaritan
temple on Mt. Gerizim around 332 B.C.E. is evident not only from Josephus and the
sources he used, 61
but also from the archaeological evidence. Foundations of a temple at
Tel er-Ras, on Mt. Gerizim, have recently been excavated. 62
Josephus claimed that this
temple was built when expelled priests from the Jerusalem Temple and other malcontents
from Jewish society took refuge with the Samaritans. This may or may not have been the
case. It is more likely that this temple was an expression of the Samaritans’ own national
identity as a Hebrew people who claimed descent from the old Joseph tribes of the north
(Ephraim and Manasseh) and who desired to worship God at the ancient and (from their
understanding) true sanctuary at Shechem.
Because Josephus’s account bears certain similarities to a brief note in Nehemiah 13:28
concerning Nehemiah’s expulsion of a son-in-law of Sanballat I from Jerusalem, some
scholars have been inclined to date the building of the Samaritan sanctuary (and the
alleged schism) to that earlier time (about 425 B.C.E.). Others have dated the event to the
time of Ezra (about 450 B.C.E.), although the biblical traditions on Ezra make no
reference at all to the Samaritans, even in cases of intermarriage. In fact, the biblical
record does not mention a Samaritan schism during the time of Ezra or Nehemiah. The
history of the Samaritans as an autonomous religious community residing at Shechem
belongs to a later time, no earlier than 332 B.C.E. 63
In sum, the restoration of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel following Cyrus’s edict
of return was accomplished through successive waves of immigration of both leaders and
their followers from the Babylonian Exile. We are not told of any role played by those
who had remained in the land or by returnees from the Diaspora in Egypt. Although the
biblical record covers a period of about 115 years (from 538 to 423 B.C.E.), or longer if
Ezra was active during the reign of Artaxerxes II, the reporting of the period is episodic,
focusing on the specific actions of five leaders: the return of the Temple vessels under
Sheshbazzar; the rebuilding of the Temple under Zerubbabel and Joshua; the renewal of
the cult and establishment of Mosaic law as the constitutional basis of society, with the
prohibition of mixed marriages, by Ezra; and the rebuilding of the gates and walls of
Jerusalem and the development of its economic and religious life by Nehemiah. Of these
five leaders, Nehemiah is credited with the greatest specific political and social
accomplishments. Resistance to the development of a Jewish state came primarily from
Samaria because of cultural differences aggravated by political conditions. The biblical
account may be understood against a dual background: the political history of the Persian
Empire and the archaeology of the land to which they returned. From the latter, we gain a
clearer picture of the political realignments and the development of Judah as a semi-
autonomous province in the late sixth century B.C.E., under the leadership of Zerubbabel
and Joshua together with subsequent governors and high priests until the leadership of
Ezra and Nehemiah in the second half of the fifth century B.C.E. Without these
developments, it would be difficult to imagine the subsequent evolution of Judaism as a
religion that would survive the loss of the Second Temple and have so great an influence
on Western religions.