the Melchizedek Bible, vol 4, the books of Ezra....table of contents (original) (raw)
Related papers
“Ezra,” NIB One Volume Commentary
Study of the Bible has experienced a sea change since the Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible was originally published in 1971. That is true in the arena of scholarly work, where the methods of study have exploded in recent decades, and in the range and number of scholarly interpreters. Alongside historical critical analysis, scholars now draw on literary analysis, social scientifi c work, postcolonial studies, and feminist criticism-to name only a few perspectives that inform contemporary biblical studies. Moreover, biblical scholars themselves are a more numerous and diverse group of people than was the case forty plus years ago.
Study of the Bible has experienced a sea change since the Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible was originally published in 1971. That is true in the arena of scholarly work, where the methods of study have exploded in recent decades, and in the range and number of scholarly interpreters. Alongside historical critical analysis, scholars now draw on literary analysis, social scientifi c work, postcolonial studies, and feminist criticism-to name only a few perspectives that inform contemporary biblical studies. Moreover, biblical scholars themselves are a more numerous and diverse group of people than was the case forty plus years ago.
Ezra and Nehemiah: Bringing Judaism from Persia
Persian emperors are mentioned in Ezra-Nehemiah in close to the right order, though the three Dariuses and two Artaxerxes are not distinguished. Taking the order and chronology to be true, the return of Ezra and Nehemiah is in the reign of Artaxerxes II. The problem is that Nehemiah could hardly have been as late as the twentieth year of Artaxerxes II and fit in with Elephantine papyri about thirty years earlier that already look to an established temple in Jerusalem. The king was Darius II. Persians gave the Jews the concept that this tiny country could become a great nation if its people were obedient and righteous. The Jewish David is a mythologized Darius II. The Maccabees, once they had set up the Jewish free state, embellished the myth of Darius II as the founder of the Jewish state, into the myth of David, the founder of a Jewish empire! Ezra, called both priest and scribe, obviously working in a senior capacity, leads Levites in teaching the law. He reads to the colonists and the Am ha Eretz a covenant, an enforceable treaty. The law read out was a law that had to be kept. Ezra imposed it firmly under threat, and the people wept! Some say they wept in joy, but the response was grief—they were commanded not to mourn! It was the law of Mazas, Ahuramazda, called Mazas by the Assyrians and Moses by the Jews. Or perhaps Misa (Mica), the name of Mithras in the Persian dialect. Jewish sages think of Ezra as the second Moses. He was the first Moses, unless Ahuramazda or Mithras is considered the first. It looks more than a coincidence that his brother is Aaron, in Hebrew letter equivalents, Ahrwn. Besides the final " nun " the word looks to be a mishearing of Ahura (Aura, Oura), and the " nun " is from its assimilation into Hebrew as meaning " his brother ". Ezra the scribe attended the ceremony of dedicating the walls, together with Nehemiah. If this happened in a second period of office of Nehemiah beginning about 430 BC, it could have been in the reign of Darius II. The compiler, unable to distinguish between the Persian kings thought " year seven of Darius " meant Darius I. It was impossible, so he rejected it in favour of Artaxerxes, who had already been mentioned in the context of Nehemiah, because the two men were together at the dedication. Ezra really came in year seven of Darius II specially to dedicate the walls and to introduce the new law. Ezra was never a " returner " and could not appear in lists of them, and was never a High Priest of the Jerusalem temple. He was the senior priest in the Persian empire. If Moses had not preceded him, Ezra would have been worthy to bring Torah into the world. Ezra and Nehemiah: Bringing Judaism from Persia