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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

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NEHEMIAH, Book of

One of the last of the Jewish historical books.

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• Background

• Author

• Historical Authenticity

• Chronology

• Significance

• Content

Background

In 597 BC Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon took away the first exiles from Jerusalem. In 586 BC the Babylonians returned, pillaged and burned the city and its temple, and took an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 Judeans into exile. The expatriates settled in various districts where they enjoyed a measure of freedom. They engaged in agriculture and commerce and in some instances acquired considerable wealth. The elders continued to function, prophets like Ezekiel ministered among the exiles, and resistance to religious apostasy was kept alive in the popular mind.

With the appearance of the Persian king Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC), the Jewish exiles’ prospects altered dramatically. Cyrus was a civilized and enlightened statesman, and within a short time after his conquest of Babylon, he issued an edict (Ezr 1:2-4) that granted the expatriates permission to return to their homeland. Two separate groups of exiles returned to Judah and built a new sanctuary in Jerusalem on the site of Solomon’s temple in 516 BC. Then, under King Artaxerxes I (464–424 BC), two separate groups returned from Babylon under Ezra (458 BC) and Nehemiah (445 BC), respectively. From this seedbed there sprang the theocratic people of Judah, the Jews, dedicated to the law of God, isolated from foreign influence, and centered in Jerusalem.

Author

Nehemiah’s personal memoirs form a considerable portion of the book that bears his name. These memoirs reveal a man of nobility and piety, who was compassionate, prudent, and patriotic. He was a man of generosity and fidelity, political acumen, and religious zeal, of total dedication to God, outstanding organizational ability, and dynamic leadership. At the same time Nehemiah possessed a capacity for ruthlessness when confronting the sin and waywardness of his compatriots (Neh 5:1-13) and the intrigues of powerful non-Jewish enemies (13:8, 28). Not surprisingly, then, a dispirited and dejected people awoke from their lethargic and apathetic state and responded to Nehemiah’s stringent approach to their situation (2:4; 13:14, 22, 31).

Historical Authenticity

According to Josephus and other early writers, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah formed one book in the early Hebrew Bible entitled the book of Ezra. The earliest Hebrew manuscript in which the two books are divided is dated 1448, and modern Hebrew Bibles refer to them as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. In manuscripts of the Greek OT (LXX) they also formed one book. Origen, in the beginning of the third century, is the first to attest to a division. There is general acknowledgment of the genuineness of the personal memoirs of Nehemiah, which constitute a major part of the book.

The historical framework of the book is confirmed by papyri that were discovered between 1898 and 1908 in Elephantine, an island in the upper Nile. Here Psammetichus II (593–588 BC) established a Jewish colony. The Elephantine papyri are well preserved, written in Aramaic, and are the fifth-century BC literary remains of this Jewish colony of the Persian period.

The most important item among the papyri is a copy of a letter sent to the Persian governor of Judah in 407 BC. Three years earlier the Jewish temple in Elephantine had been destroyed. This disaster was the occasion of a letter to Jehohanan, the high priest in Jerusalem (see Neh 12:12-13). Now, in their letter to the governor in Judah, they asked permission to rebuild their temple and said that they had sent a similar request to Delaiah and Shelamiah, the sons of Sanballat (Nehemiah’s enemy, 2:10, 19; 4:1). The Elephantine papyri reveal that Sanballat was governor of the province of Samaria and that Tobiah was governor of the province of Ammon in Transjordan (2:10, 19). Here, then, is evidence that there was in Judah a twofold authority, civil and religious, and that the high priest of 408–407 BC was Jehohanan (12:13).

Chronology

The question about whether Ezra or Nehemiah came to Jerusalem first has been hotly debated. There is no doubt that Nehemiah arrived in the city in 445 BC. The objections to the view that Ezra came to Jerusalem 13 years earlier, in 458 BC, raise questions concerning historical and textual data that are of such complexity as to preclude discussion of them here. However, achieving an understanding of the spiritual values of the book does not depend on a correct interpretation of the details of chronology. Arguments against the traditional chronology are neither altogether decisive, nor do they dispel the inherent complexities.

Significance

When the exiles returned to Jerusalem, Judah had neither nationhood nor political status. Only one thing remained to them: their religion. They were the “remnant” of Yahweh’s chosen people, from whom would rise the new and glorious Israel. It was this vision that explains Nehemiah’s insistence that the Jewish people maintain the purity and exclusiveness of their religious faith and practice in order to rejuvenate their national life and rebuild the city walls (6:15), because this symbolized the racial and the religious purity of the people. He also insisted on separation from paganism, prohibition of marriage with non-Jews (13:23-28), and careful observance of the laws of the Sabbath (vv 15-22).

It is, therefore, difficult to exaggerate the significance of the book of Nehemiah. Along with the book of Ezra, it furnishes the only consecutive Hebrew account of that period in Jewish history when the foundations of Judaism—with its inflexible segregation of the Jews and its passionate veneration of the Mosaic law—were laid. Of course, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi also contribute to knowledge of the period, but Nehemiah (with Ezra) provides a progressive narrative of this epoch. The return of the expatriates from Babylon to Jerusalem constitutes a resumption of the saving purposes of God for his ancient people, leading to the advent of Jesus Christ.

The account of the return from Babylon under Nehemiah emphasizes the religious aspect of the community of repatriates in Jerusalem. But other, secondary factors should be noted: Nehemiah’s preoccupation with Judah’s political security and constitutional status to ensure its independence of Samaria; the rebuilding of the city walls; Nehemiah’s resettlements of population (7:4; 11:1-2); and his appointment to the governorship of the new province. However, there is no reference in the book of Nehemiah (or for that matter in Ezra) to a restoration to nationhood under a scion of the house of David—no mention of a Messiah, no allusion to the universal kingdom of God. Nehemiah manifests absolute loyalty to the Persian overlord who, while showing remarkable openness to Nehemiah’s request (2:4-9), still continues to levy taxes (5:4, 15).

The repatriates retreated behind their city’s new walls and congregated around the second temple, completed in 516 BC. “The book of the law of Moses” (8:1), recognized by the Persian overlord as the law of the land of Judah, became central to Jewish devotion and worship. Judaism was the product of the restoration, which became both a protective barrier against, and a wall of separation from, the Gentiles. Religious institutions initiated during the Babylonian exile and transplanted to Jerusalem took deep and firm root: the synagogue where the Law and the Prophets were read and the prayers were offered; the scribes who worked with single-minded devotion; and the Sanhedrin that continued to serve the new theocracy.

The Jewish remnant of the fifth century BC parallels the modern Christian church in that both share the challenge of spiritual reconstruction and renewal essential to God’s purposes.

Content

In the winter of 445 BC, the Persian court was in Susa, the ancient capital of Elam (1:1). There Nehemiah occupied a position of honor and influence (2:1). From Jerusalem, a company of Judeans arrived, among them Nehemiah’s brother, whose description of conditions in Jerusalem horrified and grieved Nehemiah (1:2-4). Four months later, and after much prayer, he reached Jerusalem with an armed escort (1:5–2:11). After a three-day inspection of the situation, Nehemiah realized that rebuilding the walls would be his primary task (2:12–3:32).

An outburst of new national spirit caused latent opposition to surface. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem were powerful, resourceful, astute antagonists. Through ridicule and rumors, they insinuated that work on the walls was a form of rebellion against the king (2:19; 4:1-3, 7-14; 6:1-9). But Nehemiah countered every subterfuge and stratagem with prayer and with an adamant refusal to deviate from his goal. There was also hostility from traitors within the camp (6:10-19). Despite all opposition, Jerusalem’s walls were reconstructed (v 15) and rededicated amid enthusiastic celebration (12:27-43).

The community’s response to the reading by Ezra, priest and scribe, of the law of Moses and to its interpretation by the Levites (8:1-8), was a complex response of sorrow for sin and rejoicing in God (vv 9-18); of fasting and prayer (9:1-37); of renewing the covenant (9:38–10:29); and of self-commitment to obey God’s commandments, ordinances, and statutes (10:30-39). Chapters 11 and 12 refer to various offices and duties, civil and religious, and the names of the people appointed to them. Then follows the decision to exclude all people of foreign descent from Judaism (13:1-3).

At this juncture Nehemiah traveled to Susa to give an account of his stewardship; a further leave of absence being granted, he returned to Jerusalem to find that serious irregularities were again present. His enemy Tobiah and the priest Eliashib were embroiled (13:4-9); the people failed to provide the Levites with adequate maintenance (vv 10-14); the laws of the Sabbath were being violated (vv 15-22); and Jews were marrying non-Jews (vv 23-32). Due to the increase of intermarriage with foreigners, the offspring could not speak Hebrew (vv 23-25). The danger of assimilation was halted by enforcing a policy of exclusivism.

The book of Nehemiah ends rather abruptly with a description of his vigorous and ruthless handling of these deviations from the newly established principles and precepts of Judaism.