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There are two issues regarding the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that must be dealt with before proceeding: their mutual relationship and possible connection to the Chronicles. The once almost unanimous critical opinion strongly linking Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah as a continuous narrative has weakened somewhat in recent years. Also, the Hebrew canon strangely lists Ezra-Nehemiah before I-II Chronicles, as if to almost purposely negate any impression that the former should be viewed as a sequel. It is therefore best to discuss the books of Ezra and Nehemiah apart from any close literary relationship with Chronicles.
The opening superscription to Nehemiah and the duplication of the genealogy lists found in Ezra 2 and Nehmiah 7 are felt to indicate that both books had independent existence at one point in time. However, the Masoretes and early Jewish commentators clearly treated Ezra-Nehemiah as one book. The situation for the Hebrew text came full circle in the Middle Ages when the two books were again separated, perhaps under the influence of Christians such as Origen and Jerome.
One symmetrical pattern uniting both books contrasts true and false prophets:
TRUE PROPHETS
Jeremiah (Ezra 1:1)
Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1, 6:14)
FALSE PROPHETS
Shemaiah and Noadiah (Neh. 6:10,14)
Balaam (Neh. 13:2)
Ideally, a literary structure for the combined Ezra-Nehemiah should clearly demonstrate the relationship between the two books while preserving the canonical distinction between the two and without resorting to textual amendments. In addition, any proposed structure should take into account the most striking peculiarity of these books, namely the extensive use of the first person. Since none of the previous proposals in the literature meets all of these tests, one such organization is proposed below (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: The Structure of Ezra-Nehemiah
I. Prologue (Ezra 1)
II. A House Built (Ezra 2:1-7:26)
III. Spiritual Wall of Separation (Ezra 7:27-9:15)
IV. Repentance of the People (Ezra 10:1-44)
III'. Physical Wall of Separation (Neh. 1:1-6:19)
II'. A People Defined (Neh. 7:1-12:26)
I'. Epilogue (Neh. 12:27-13:31)
Ezra-Nehemiah starts and ends with individuals outside the orthodox Jewish leadership spearheading God's initiative. In Section I, it is the pagan Cyrus who is chosen for this task. At the end of the combined book, it is the king's cup-bearer Nehemiah, a probable eunuch who would have been barred from the temple, who singlehandedly carries out needed religious reforms among the people. This combined emphasis goes a long way toward correcting the supposed xenophobic theme of the book with its putting away of foreign wives and children, an idea that modern sensibilities find repellent. The pairing of the first and last sections also highlights a very important contrast. The book begins with a clear initiative from God working in the heart of a pagan and ends with Nehemiah returning to Jerusalem to discover the evil taking place within the people in his absence. It is definitely not a story of unaided human progress.
Sections II and II' both begin with practically identical genealogies, and other large blocks of material are repeated almost word for word in these units. Therefore we should understand that God's reconstructed dwelling place was human as well as architectural. Of the two efforts, however, the spiritual one is the most important since it was necessary to sustain the Jewish people in all circumstances.
Sections III and III' have as a commonality the fact that they are both written in the first person. Also, both involve their protagonist reacting to news of an appalling situation by mourning and confessing the sins of the people to God. The parallelism of these two sections strongly reinforces the contention of several commentators that Ezra-Nehemiah is the story of building two walls, one physical (Nehemiah's) and one spiritual (Ezra's), that serve to separate the people of God from foreign influence. The real danger is, of course, not as much from the physical storming of these walls as from internal moral decay.
The literary center of Ezra-Nehemiah is also the concluding section of the Book of Ezra (ch. 10). It is in that chapter that Ezra's emphasis on the public response of God's people reaches its climax. Of the ten instances of “congregation” occurring in the combined books (evenly divided between Ezra and Nehemiah), four appear in this chapter. It is the crucial fact of the people's repentance at this point in history that sets the stage for the subsequent activities in Nehemiah designed to fully restore the community.
Structures of the Individual Sections
Germane to the formulation of the structure proposed in Fig. 1 is the unity of the verses subsumed within each section identification. Section I is obviously set apart from the rest of the Book of Ezra by the repeated name of the main human actor on the scene: Cyrus king of Persia. Analysis of the remaining sections follows:
Figure 2: The Structure of Section II (Ezra 2:1-7:26)
A. Return, Accomplishment and Celebration (Ezra 2:1-4:5, Hebrew)
ends “to the God of Israel as King Cyrus has commanded us”
B. Opposition (Ezra 4:6-24, mostly Aramaic)
“the king of Assyria...the God of Israel”
A'. Return, Accomplishment and Celebration (Ezra 5:1-7:26)
ends “the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter”
1. Darius' Support (Ezra 5:1-6:18, Aramaic)
ends “as it is written in the book of Moses”
2. Passover Celebrated, Ezra Returns (Ezra 6:19-7:10, Hebrew)
ends “the law of the LORD”
1'. Artaxerxes' Support (Ezra 7:11-26, mostly Aramaic)
ends “the law of your LORD and the law of the king”
Figure 3: The Structure of Section III (Ezra 7:27-9:15)
A. The Faithfulness of the Babylonian Jews
1. Praise to God (Ezra 7:27-28a)
2. Gathering the People Together (Ezra 7:28b-8:30)
A'. The Faithlessness of the Jerusalem Jews
2'. The People Journey to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:31-9:4)
1'. Prayer to God (Ezra 9:5-15)
Section IV (Ezra 10) is unified not only by its setting, but also by the literary technique of inclusio. Keeping with the theme of this section, it begins and ends with similar language reflecting the problem of intermarriage:
“We have married foreign women...put away all these wives and their children.”
(Ezra 10:2-3)
“All these had married foreign women and they put them away with their children.”
(Ezra 10:44)
The overall importance of this theme to Ezra-Nehemiah is confirmed by the fact that it not only appears in the central section of the combined book, but also forms the subject of its final chapter, Neh. 13.
The overriding technique in Section III' (Neh. 1:1-6:19) is its description of how the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, told in seven cycles in which the actions of Nehemiah and his followers are matched by the increasingly violent reactions of their enemies. At the end of each cycle, God's name is invoked to assure the reader that He is in control of the historical events being portrayed. At the end of the last cycle, opposition again breaks out unexpectedly, in keeping with the “subversion” theme ending the whole book. The small center unit, 4:6-9, contains as an inclusio two statements summarizing the key factors behind the success of the venture: “The people had a mind to work (4:6b)” and “We prayed to our God (4:9a).”
Childs notes a peculiarity within the book of Nehemiah in that the subject of enrolling people to settle Jerusalem is introduced in the seventh chapter but not actually carried out until Neh. 11. This so-called problem is actually the key to determining the internal structure of Section II'.
A. List of Returnees (Neh. 7:1-73a)
B. The Law is Read (Neh. 7:73b-8:18)
B'. The People Respond (Neh. 9:1-10:39)
A'. List of Returnees (Neh. 11:1-12:26)
The final section describes events taking place after the wall is completed and is broken into two equal parts with separate subjects and each bounded by an inclusio.
A. Dedication of the Wall (Neh. 12:27-47)
B. Nehemiah's Reforms (Neh. 13:1-31)
The three episodes in ch. 13 each end in a prayer of Nehemiah for God to remember him.
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