Day 15 – Friday -- The Book of Ezra

Day 15 – Friday

The Book of Ezra

In the Jewish Bible Ezra and Nehemiah are one book. I’ve been using the phrase “Hebrew Scriptures” for these reflections because I’m referring to the part of the Christian Bible that was written in Hebrew—what many people still call “the Old Testament.” I try to stay away from using the phrase “Old Testament” because it can imply an unconscious denigration of the first part of the Christian Bible. But now I must be a little more accurate and acknowledge that the Hebrew Scriptures also contain some passages in Aramaic. So, if I wanted to be technically accurate I would refer to the Hebrew & Aramaic Scriptures. But let’s not get picky. Let’s just acknowledge that the “Hebrew Scriptures” also contain a few Aramaic Scriptural passages.

Originally, parts of Ezra were written in Aramaic; namely, parts of chapters 4,5,6, and 7. (Other Aramaic passages are found at Genesis 31.47, Jeremiah 10.11, and in Daniel 2.4 through 7.28.) About 250 verses of the Bible are in Aramaic out of about 23,000 verses altogether. Aramaic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages; Aramaic was the official language of the western Persian Empire in the time of the Jewish Exile in Babylon.

At the beginning of the Book of Ezra 50,000 people return from Babylon to Jerusalem. They immediately begin to rebuild the temple. They literally lay the foundation while priests play trumpets and Levites play cymbals. (There is no mention of a bass player or a pianist.) But there is opposition. It is as if some neighbors get a petition together and ask the zoning board to stop the Jewish project. And it is put on hold for two decades. In spite of the delay the temple is finally competed in the year 515.

At chapter seven Ezra returns to Jerusalem. The year is 458 BCE. Ezra is taken aback at how Jewish men have married foreign women. Ezra says: The situation of mixed marriages made me so angry that I ripped my clothes and tore out the head from my head and beard. Then I just sat in shock (9.3). Mixed marriages are anathema at this period in Jewish history. The people are trying to regain their identity as a distinctive people. This is to be a new beginning as Israel. Not a political entity, but a people living in covenant/partnership with the Creator of the universe.

Ezra leads a movement to require all mixed marriages to be dissolved and the wives and children sent away. And that is what happens. Around one hundred marriages are dissolved. The actual names of the priests, Levites, musicians, and temple guards who dissolved their marriages are listed at the end of this book. Perhaps they were all published in the newsletter.

The Bible is full of new beginnings. Finish this: If I were to make a new beginning right now, it would be…