HOW ARE THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH RELATED?

Evidence of Unity

Myers states, “One of the most troublesome, possibly insoluble, problems is that of the relationship between Nehemiah and Ezra.” Although Myers is referring to the two leaders themselves, the statement equally applies to the relationship between the books bearing their names, and the two problems are not unrelated. The opening superscription to Nehemiah and the duplication of the genealogy lists found in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 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.

The presence of time notations (“in the first year of Cyrus,” etc.) throughout both Ezra and Nehemiah is viewed by Childs as “a clear mark of intentionality.” The seeming departures from a strictly chronological sequence in Ezra 4:6-43 and comparison of Ezra's time scheme with that of Nehemiah have been explained in some detail elsewhere (Myers and Demsky, respectively). The bottom line from these observations is that it is possible to read Ezra-Nehemiah as an orderly and unified history of the period of the return from the Exile.

B. E. Kelly concludes that “the literary shape of the book in its final form is intrinsic to its message: from the perspective of faith it connects separate or temporally distant historical events and interweaves accounts of the wok of various community leaders to indicate the essential unity of their work within God's purposes, from the days of Zerubbabel until Nehemiah's time.”

Common language in a text is also an indication of an overall unifying force. The designation “God of heaven” appears exactly twelve times (nine in Ezra and three in Nehemiah). The number seven is also significant: Seven times Nehemiah asks God to “remember.” Ezra is identified as a priest seven times: four times in the Book of Ezra and three times in Nehemiah. The word ra' (evil) appears a total of seven times in these books: once in Ezra and six times in Nehemiah. This identical distribution occurs for the word “prophet.” A pattern of sorts is seen in these latter occurrences:

God's prophets (Ezra 9:11)                  God's prophets (Neh. 6:7)

false prophetess (Neh. 6:14a)                  false prophets (Neh. 6:14b)

God's prophets (Neh. 9:26)                 God's prophets (Neh. 9:30)

“our prophets” (Neh. 9:32)

Another symmetrical pattern cutting through 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)

There are additional patterns present in both Ezra and Nehemiah such as shown below:

                            “strengthen the hands”       “weaken the hands”

EZRA                             1:6

                                                                                4:4

                                       6:22

NEHEMIAH                  2:18

                                                                                6:9a

                                       6:9b

Proposed Overall Organizations

There have been at least three prior attempts to see Ezra-Nehemiah as a literary unity without resorting to textual rearrangement. Hubbard proposes a two-fold division based on the different time periods described: Ezra 1-6 and Ezra 7-Neh. 13. He and many other critical scholars see the second half of this division as composed mainly of the following original sources:

Ezra 7:1-10:4                 1st half of Ezra's memoirs

Neh. 1:1-7:73a                           1st half of Nehemiah's memoirs

Neh. 7:73b-10:39                       2nd half of Ezra's memoirs

Neh. 11:1-13:31                         2nd half of Nehemiah's memoirs

Howard echoes the above divisions but includes all of Ezra 10 in the first source. Neither Hubbard nor Howard explains why the second half of “Ezra's Memoirs” (more properly called the “Ezra Source”) refers to Ezra in the third person, unlike the other three sections which are written in the first person.

Another attractive proposal for the organization of Ezra-Nehemiah comes from Green, who sees two “chapters” to the combined work: Ezra 1-Neh. 6 and Neh. 7-13, each with parallel development of related themes:

Building the City of God         Defining the People of God

Introduction                  Ezra 1:1-2:70                                   Neh. 7:1-73a

            First Step                      Ezra 3:1-6:22                                   Neh. 7:73b-8:18

            Second Step                 Ezra 7:1-10:44                                  Neh. 9:1-10:39

            Climax                         Neh. 1:1-6:16                                    Neh. 11:1-13:3

            Subversion                   Neh. 6:17-19                                     Neh. 13:4-31

Green cites two correspondences to confirm his proposal: (a) the similarities between the two openings (in Ezra 1 and Nehemiah 7) in God stirring the heart of the main character and (b) the presence of Tobiah and the topic of intermarriage in the two subversion sections. However, it should be noted that (a) none of the key words in the two “parallel” openings is identical and (b) Tobiah, subversion and intermarriage occur in a number of other places in the text as well.

An interesting phenomenon to note is that David Dorsey’s persuasive analysis of Ezra-Nehemiah has little in common with my own proposal (see Figure 1 below) in terms of the individual section limits and internal organizations. However, the overall structures resulting from these two diverse approaches are both seven-membered chiasms centered around Ezra 10. Dorsey’s major sections and parallels are: Ezra 1-2 // Neh. 7:4-13:31; Ezra 3-6 // Neh. 3:1-7:3; Ezra 7-8 // Neh. 1-2; and Ezra 9-10. In addition to this symmetrical arrangement, he notes that there are two simultaneous parallel patterns, paired and alternating, to these seven sections, as shown below:

    A. Zerubbabel’s return (Ezra 1-2)

            A'. Zerubbabel’s accomplishment (Ezra 3-6)

    B. Ezra’s return (Ezra 7-8)

            B'. Ezra’s accomplishment (Ezra 9-10)

    C. Nehemiah’s return (Neh. 1-2)

            C'. Nehemiah’s accomplishment (Neh. 3:1-7:3)

                    D. Final reforms and lists (Neh. 7:4-13:31)

It could be added that Section D above is a fitting conclusion since it contains both elements of return and accomplishment, as well as highlighting in turn (by Clines’ analysis) the persons of Zerubbabel (Neh. 7:4-73a), Ezra (7:73b-9:37) and Nehemiah (9:38-13:31). This mixed nature of Dorsey’s final section does present one objection to his chiastic arrangement for the combined books. The supposed parallelism of the last section with the first (Ezra 1-2) hinges around only a minor portion of their total verses: those dealing with Zerubbabel’s return and the list of returnees (found in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7:4-73 only). Two additional problems with Dorsey’s proposal might be cited: (a) the lack of a coherent literary structure for Ezra 1-2 and (b) some section divisions not well supported in the literature. However, neither of these is a fatal flaw to his analysis, and the present proposal is certainly not immune to the second criticism.

Ideally, a structure for Ezra-Nehemiah should clearly demonstrate the relationship between the two books while preserving the canonical distinction between them 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 above divisions meets all of these tests, one such organization is proposed below (Fig. 1). For defense of this arrangement, see my post “Ezra-Nehemiah: Introduction to the Literary Structure.”

Figure 1: Proposed 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)

Implications of the Structure

It has been proposed by some that the order of the two books should be reversed (See Yamauchi for the pros and cons regarding this theory). The proposed combined organization shown in Fig. I is one strong argument against this suggestion.

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. (Childs) Thus, the second reading of the law, as described in Nehemiah 8-12, is a celebration by the already forgiven people of God, not a critical call to repentance.

The parallelism of sections III and III' (see Fig. 1) 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. (Childs, Green) The real danger is, of course, not as much from the physical storming of these walls as from internal moral decay. “Assimilation and intermarriage will weaken the piety and the order of the community...It undermines the Covenant. It threatens the mission with which the Jewish nation has been entrusted. It offers to destroy us from within as we could never have been routed from without.” (Roiphe)

In his discussion on the similarities between sections II and II', Howard states that the “reading of the law is to be understood in the same way as the rebuilding of the altar and Temple foundation some ninety years earlier. They were both great, significant, and happy occasions.” Beyond that assertion, we should understand that God's reconstructed dwelling place was human as well as architectural and that, in Childs' words, “the political and religious work of the two men [Ezra and Nehemiah] functions together in the reconstitution of the community.” Of the two efforts, however, the spiritual one is the most important since, in Neugeboren's words, “it contains within it those elements that possess the possibility of sustaining the Jewish people in all circumstances – with or without the existence of the Temple, in exile or in the Holy Land.” However, the opposite emphasis has also been voiced : “To build or rebuild a structure carried powerful emotive associations. It was more than a mere engineering activity; it was a movement from chaos to order, from death to life.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

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 single-handedly 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 (Section I, especially Ezra 1:1); proceeds with the familiar pattern of godly leaders superintending the people of Israel as they overcome obstacles to accomplish God's plans; and ends (Section I', especially Neh. 13:4-31) 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.

This “subversion,” to use Green's terminology, at the end of the book from external and internal sources is subtly reinforced throughout Ezra-Nehemiah by (a) the presence of Aramaic in place of Hebrew in extended passages, and not just as part of official documents being quoted; (b) the use of both Persian and Hebrew calendars to order the book; and (c) the listing of three false prophets after three true prophets in the text, presaging the period of prophetic silence for Israel that would soon occur. “What is the significance of this subversion? The reader rejoices that the restoration community has reached its goal but is left wondering how permanent that success will be.”