The final books of the Hebrew Bible are the books of Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah, which once formed a unitary history of Israel from Adam to the 4th century bce, written by an anonymous Chronicler.That these books constituted a single work—referred to as the Chronicler’s history, in distinction to the Deuteronomic history and the elements of … Some forty sections of the wall are mentioned, showing Nehemiah’s careful detailed planning of the project. F. DATE: Some time around 433/432-400 B.C. 398/97 BCE and arguing that Ezra and earlier Nehemiah never worked together.7 The Emended Approach, to some extent a synthesis of the above two, places Nehemiah after Ezra and dates the latter to the thirty seventh year of Artaxerxes I, i.e. D. Another possibility is that a later, but not much later, Chronicler combined the works of Ezra and Nehemiah into the canonical work of Ezra-Nehemiah. Nehemiah three gives us a vivid picture of the details of the work. Since the time of Zunz (1832), the consensus of modern scholarship has been that the author of Chronicles was also the author of Ezra-Nehemiah, and this view still has its adherents (Blenkinsopp, Clines (1984)). to his 32nd year (432 B.C.) These men are generally mentioned together, and they both work closely with the people. 428/27 BCE, assuming a repeated scribal Nehemiah… Ezra’s dating is more difficult. Not only did Cyrus permit the rebuilding, he even paid for much of it (Ezra … Ezra and Nehemiah cover an historical period of approximately 100 years, from the decree of Cyrus permitting the exiles to return to their homeland to Nehemiah’s time in office. These two books were originally a single work, and most commentaries treat them together. Second, some may attempt to solve this difficulty by alleging that Artaxerxes II was the king who reigned during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem, while Artaxerxes I was the king mentioned prior to Darius’ reign (Ezra 4:7-23). Sheshbazzar, apparently the first Jewish governor of Yehud (Judea), led the first wave and laid the foundation to rebuild the Temple, that is, to construct the Second Temple (Ezra 1:7–11, 5:14–16). Together, he and Ezra, who led the spiritual revival of the people, directed the political and religious restoration of the Jews in their homeland after the Babylonian captivity. III. Nehemiah recorded the reconstruction of the wall of Jerusalem, Judah’s capital city. The following are five of the most helpful commentaries on Ezra/Nehemiah. )—Ezra, the priest-sage; and Nehemiah, the political leader—model distinct leadership typologies in their attempts to guide their community to a more committed religious life. The plain sense of the biblical text suggests that he arrived in Judea in 458 B.C.E. Others, again, are of the opinion that neither Ezra nor Nehemiah, but some other unknown editor, most probably the compiler of the Books of Chronicles, put together the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, using largely the memoirs of the two great men who are … Neh 8:2 on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly Neh 13:6 in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes I had returned to the king (Nehemiah returns to the king as his servant) 432BC The question of the authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah is bound up with its relation with the book of Chronicles. C. It seems that Ezra incorporated into one work his writings in Ezra and Nehemiah (chapter 7) as well as Nehemiah's personal memoirs in Nehemiah. 1. In contrast, the two great leaders of EN’s second period (458–432 b.c.e . (thirteen years before Nehemiah) and completed his work shortly after Nehemiah’s arrival. 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