Tag: Ezra

The Bible in a Year – 9 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

9 September. Nehemiah chapters 7-8

In chapter 7 the city gates have been completed although few houses have yet been rebuilt.  The reconstruction of a city after war is both a difficult challenge, and also an opportunity to make a new start in the way the city is built. It is also an opportunity to rethink how it is governed.  The city is put in charge of two men – Hanani the brother of Nehemiah (who presumably was, like him, an administrator by profession), and Hananiah the commander of the citadel, i.e. a military leader (7:2). This latter was chosen because he “feared God more than most people”, and therefore would be a man of integrity. These two between them could make a good go of this challenging situation.

Chapter 8 records the reading of the law to the people.  There had been several generations without a functioning civil society. Levels of literacy would have been low, and the younger people would have no knowledge of the traditions of the Temple and its laws. So they have to be taught.  Ezra and thirteen other men carry out this task over the course of a week. The picture this passage gives of the assembled crowd bowing down together in response to the reading of the scripture is remarkably similar to how Islam is still practised.

Many people wept when they heard the Law being read.  Presumably that was when they realised that some of their actions and habits were in fact contrary to the religious laws, the penalties for which were often harsh.  But Ezra and Nehemiah – the civil and religious leaders – told people not to weep, but to rejoice.  They understood, as many people still do not, that the purpose of religious laws is not really to punish people, but to guide them.  Having scripture as a guide for life is actually something to be thankful for and happy about.  As Nehemiah put it, “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10). And so the people celebrated with feasting and joy “because they now understood the words that had been made known to them”.

The Bible in a Year – 7 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

7 September. Nehemiah chapters 1-3

Whereas the book of Ezra (which I have just read and commented on) focuses on the rebuilding of the Temple, Nehemiah was more concerned with the rebuilding of the walls and gates (i.e. the defences) of the city.  In the Jewish tradition they form a single “writing” so they are certainly not to be regarded as distinct books.

Both approaches (rebuilding of the walls and the Temple) were needed; the work of the two men was complementary.   It’s difficult to say whether they were working at the same time, or if not, which came first: a Wikipedia article suggests that either could have come first, given that there were two kings called Artaxerxes.  From a practical viewpoint, it would have been more logical to repair the walls first as Nehemiah seems to have wanted, while from a religious viewpoint the restoration of sacrifice was what mattered most (to Ezra).

Although Nehemiah seems to have been an effective “project manager” in his organisation of financing, materials and labour, it is interesting to note that it is he, and not Ezra, who is recorded as praying extensively both before and during the work.  This attitude that “work is prayer and prayer is work” informed the later Christian monastic movements, and is a good approach for anyone to take who believes that God is interested in the practicalities of our lives as well as the state of our souls.

 

The Bible in a Year – 6 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Please excuse the delay in publishing the notes for the end of Daniel and all of Ezra, with only brief comments, as I was on holiday for a week and only making short notes to be typed up later.

6 September . Ezra chapters 8-10

In the last couple of chapters of this book, the issue of intermarriage comes into focus.  It was seen as such a terrible thing that it was acceptable for men to put away their wives and children when challenged, leaving them with little or no means of support.  What is so bad about mixed marriage that it can justify this breaking apart of families?  Most of us will know couples of different religions, or where only one is religious at all, who seem perfectly happy.   But religious leaders are always worried that having a non-believing spouse will tempt people to fall away from practice of their own religion, cease to attend public worship, start seeing things from a secular or pagan perspective.

But note that it is only men who were seen as guilty’ here – presumably Jewish women also married gentile men, but did not come in for the same criticism.  Perhaps it is that they were not permitted to initiate divorce proceedings, or perhaps because Jewish identity traditionally passes through the female line, it mattered less if the father of the household was not a circumcised Jew.

The book seems to end strangely with this issue of intermarriage, rather than with something to do with the Temple that has been the subject of most of the book.  Maybe there was more, which has been lost.

The Bible in a Year – 5 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Please excuse the delay in publishing the notes for the end of Daniel and all of Ezra, with only brief comments, as I was on holiday for a week and only making short notes to be typed up later.

5 September. Ezra chapters 6-7

The account of Darius’ search for the records of the reign of Cyrus is a fascinating one.  Remember, this is at a time when the people of Britain did not even have a written language by which subsequent generations could record their activities.  The Persians must have had a very good ‘civil service’ to have kept such records.

When the Temple was finally rebuilt, the Passover was celebrated, presumably for the first time since the Exile nearly a century earlier.  The Persian king Artaxerxes also gave gold and silver, blessed the rebuilding and even allowed Ezra to appoint local judges (7:25) as well as to organise the Temple worship.  In return the Jews were asked to pray for the king, an arrangement perhaps similar to the medieval chantry chapels where a priest was employed in return for promising to pray for the king while he lived and for his soul after his death.

This idea that the role of religion is to act as a stabilising force in society, connected to the justice system, and that the state should pay for the clergy in return,  is largely absent from our western ‘liberal democracies’ today, except for example in Germany and some other northern European countries where there is a “church tax” on an opt-out rather than opt-in basis, and in England where the national Church is still tied up constitutionally with the state (although church members do now have to pay for their priests, at Diocesan level).

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 4 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Please excuse the delay in publishing the notes for the end of Daniel and all of Ezra, with only brief comments, as I was on holiday for a week and only making short notes to be typed up later.

4 September. Ezra chapters 3-5

The first thing the Jews did on returning to Jerusalem was to build an altar (in the open air, presumably) on which to make sacrifice.  While the idea of sacrificing animals has virtually disappeared from world religions today, the ideas remain that it is important to give thanks to God for the good things that happen to us, and that having a place in which to conduct worship according to whatever we may consider to be appropriate rites is important to a religious community. The location of our worship, and our attitude in conducting it, are always more important than the building (if any).

In chapter 4, the opponents of the rebuilding of the Temple offered to help but it was refused. Not all ‘help’ is welcome, and it is difficult to know from this one-sided account whether the offer of help was a genuine attempt to build bridges, or an attempt to infiltrate a organisation.  Probably the latter, as their letter to Artaxerxes is disingenuous, using the fear of difference and past examples as a way of stirring up present hatred.  Only with a new king (Darius) did the Jews resume the attempt to rebuild the Temple, with an appeal to Cyrus’s previous permission.  Presumably they had feared that Artaxerxes would not take note of what Cyrus had said and done, or even regarded it as a reason to persecute them all over again.

 

The Bible in a Year – 3 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Please excuse the delay in publishing the notes for the end of Daniel and all of Ezra, with only brief comments, as I was on holiday for a week and only making short notes to be typed up later.

3 September. Ezra chapters 1-2

The book of Ezra starts with the first return of the Jews from exile under Cyrus of Persia.  Note that he did not forcibly return them to Judah as his predecessor had forcible removed them, but he permits and assists them – “voluntary assisted deportation” as we might now say. Not only did he give them back the looted Temple treasure, but encouraged his own people to assist those who wished to return with practical help as well as money and valuables.

This is a challenge to us. If immigrants have been living in our country for several generations we cannot expect those born here to want to live in the country of their ancestors, and should regard them as free to stay or leave.  But if they do wish to leave, or even if changes in the political situation (such as Brexit) lead to compulsory  deportation of certain groups, would we be willing to be so generous with our own possessions in giving them a good send-off?