Reading for April 16th

 Read Ezra 7.11-20. In 7.11-28: King Artaxerxes' commission to Ezra.  The letter that Artaxerxes purportedly gave to Ezra elevates Ezra from a religious teacher to an imperial official, undertaking an important mission at the request of the king.  While portions of the letter may well be genuine, there are serious questions about the authenticity of other sections, and the author seems to have taken some significant liberties in editing the document. In verse 12: Artaxerxes, king of kings: Persian kings did refer to themselves this way, suggesting part of an authentic Persian letter. In verse 14: You are sent by the king and his seven counselors: Persian monarchs had a high council of seven trusted advisers who were called upon to help with significant decisions. Ezra is instructed to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem, a vague task. According to the law of your God may suggest that Ezra is ensuring that the worship in the Temple is being properly conducted. Which is your hand has been variously interpreted. On its simplest level,  it means that Ezra is physically carrying a copy of the Pentateuch from Babylon to Jerusalem, although in Hebrew there are more direct ways the express this. The phrase in your hand is attested in several Persian period documents as meaning "in your power" or "in your sphere of authority" in this understanding, Artaxerxes is directing Ezra to conduct his inquiry in terms of the laws that are relevant to the inquiry, laws that apply to Ezra's task. In verse 19: The vessels that have been given you: Like the vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken and Cyrus had returned to the Temple (17-11), these vessels are a royal gift bestowed on the Temple as a sign of gratitude for God's granting Artaxerxes' rule. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 15th

EZRA'S INQUIRY

Chs.7-10: With little in the way of transition, a first-person narrative recounts the conditions under which Ezra was authorized to undertake a trip to Jerusalem, and his initial concerns once there. The use of a first-person narrative maybe the result of the author's use of an authentic source (an "Ezra memoir") or may be a literary device intended to give immediacy and emotional power to the narrative. 

 Read Ezra 7.1-10. In 7.1-10: Introduction to the mission of Ezra. The purpose of this third person narration is to give the reader a sense of who Ezra was and what was significant about his role in relation to the community. In verse 5: Son of Eleazar, son of the chief priest Aaron: Ezra is given a distinguished lineage, concluding with the most important aspect of his family line, that he was a descendant of the primary line of priests in ancient Israel. In verse 6: A scribe skilled in the law: The ability to read and write led people to expect that scribes could also explain legal issues. Law of Moses: apparently the Pentateuch in some form. The king granted him all that he asked for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him. There is no explanation of how a person who was a specialist in a religious tradition whose followers were a small minority with in the empire could get repeated to the king. Hand of the Lord ...  was upon him: A common expression of the presence of God in some sense guiding the person's career. In verse 7: Some people of israel: presumably only a small portion of the Jewish community in Babylon chose to return Jerusalem. Life in exile was more that likely not too difficult, and the prospect of returning to a land deastated by warfare and economic ruin not very attractive. The seventh year of King Artaxerxes would be 458 BCE if this was Artaxerxes I of Persia, Since Ezra's opposition to inter marriage receives no mention in the account o Nehemiah, and Nehemiah addresses the same issues as if they had never been raised before, some have argued Ezra really came under Artaxerxes II (the seventh year being 398 BCE). The confusion over Ezra's chronological relation to Nehemiah comes about from trying to read Ezra-Nehemiah as straight history rather than as an apologetic. The author intents the reader to believe that Ezra came first. In verse 10: Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it: Not only was Ezra a student of the law, but he sought to observe its requirements in his everyday life. Out of his study and experience, Ezra would teach the people. Comments or Questions.. 

Reading for April 14th

 Read 6.19-22. In 6.19-22: The first Passover in the rebuilt Temple. The shift back to Hebrew from Aramaic draws attention to just as Israel was not a physical nation until they could worship God following their escape from Egypt, celebrated in the Passover, so the exilic community could not be considered a nation until the house of God was fully functioning. With the Temple in place, the Passover celebration had a renewed importance for the community as a sign of their coming into a new status. The author skillfully connects this with the physical separation of the community from the physical separation of the community from the surrounding peoples, a point that Ezra will hammer on as the center piece of his reforms. On verse 20: The priests and the Levites had purified themselves: Following the return from exile, there was a new emphasis on the purity regulations of the Pentateuch and on extending the areas of life they affected. Before undertaking the Passover, the ritual purity of the priests and Levites had to be assured. In verse 21: The people of Israel who had returned from exile, and ... all who had joined them and separated themselves from the pollutions of the nations: As a celebration of God's miraculous deliverance and the formation of the people into a nation,Passover was a powerful symbol of identity.Those who had been exiled and returned clearly would be recognized as part of Israel. The population that remained behind joined the exile community by separating from the surrounding peoples. Pollutions: a term normally reserved for severe violations of the sacral order. It was because of their pollutions, according to some parts of the hebrew Bible, that God removed the Canaanites from the land (Lev20.22-24). In verse 22: Had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them so that he aided them in the work: An echo of Ezra 1.1-4. The use of the title king of Assyria is unclear, though the Persian king did not adopt this title since the former Assyrian territory was under his rule. It may be a deliberate reference to King Esarhaddon of Assyria (Ezra 4.2); some of the peoples he transported to the territory north of Jerusalem had indeed "come over" to the side of the returning exiles in opposition to their fellow countryfolk, who opposed the Temple. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 13th

 Read Ezra 6.13-18. Artaxerxes of Persia: In a literal historial reading this makes no sense, since the physical Temple was completed in the reign of Darius, and Artaxerxes had nothing to do with it. However, the formation of the "house of God" involved not only rebuilding the Temple, but also rebuilding the city and separating the community from the surrounding peoples by prohibiting intermarriage. The later steps, under the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah, occurred in the time of Artaxerxes. In verse 15: The third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius: 515 BCE. Some believe the day was originally the twenty-third day of Adat, which would have put the completed rebuilding near the celebration of the completion of the original Temple (2 Chr 7.10) and approximately 70 years after the destruction of that Temple. In verse  17: As a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel: Without a functioning Temple, it was not possible for the priesthood to maintain regular purification offering for the nation. The offering may be indebted to the vision of a renewed Temple by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 43.22-27) in which the sin offing purifies the Temple from the pollutions of Israel's past. In verse 18: As it is written in the book of Moses: In 1 Chr 23-26 it is David who sets up the courses of the priests and Levites for the worship in the Temple. There is no prescription for these orders as described in the Pentateuch, normally what the author mean by the book of Moses, With the arrangements for the offerings and who would be responsible for them, the Temple is now fully functioning. Comments or Questions.. 

Reading for April 12th

Reading for Ezra 6.1-12. In verse 2: Ecbatana, the capital of the province of Media: The search began in Babylon since important royal decrees would be archived there. Ecbatana, at a higher elevation than the main capital of Persepolis, was the location of  the Persian king's summer palace. In verse 4: Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury: Cyrus' detailed specifications of the size and form of construction, limit how much the rebuilding would cost, since imperial finds were paying for it. In verse 10: So they offer pleasing sacrifices ... and pray for the life of the king and his children: Persian imperial support for local religious centers is well attested. It was part of a larger policy of bringing local customs into the framework of loyalty to the empire. Darius probably did not worship Israel's God, but that did not prevent him from seeking to convince those who did that Israel's God was concerned with the king's well-being. Comments or Questions.. 

Reading for April 11th

 Read Ezra 5.6-17. In verse 6: The copy of the letter: The author offers extracts from official memoranda to fill out the story line. While there can be no certainty, it appears the author was working from actual documents, which may have been modified slightly to fit the narrative. In verse 12; But because our ancestors had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand hand of King Nebuchadnezzar: The case for rebuilding the Temple depends in part on the assertion that the Temple was destroyed not because the southern kingdom rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, an imperial king, but because God was angry. In verse 13: King Cyrus ... made a decree: See 1.1-4. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 10th

 Read Ezra 5.1-5. In 5.1-6.18: Overcoming opposition and rebuilding the Temple. This section of the book highlights the continued commitment of the community to rebuilding the house of God, understood as both the physical Temple and the renewed city of Jerusalem. The section is in Aramaic and, as in the earlier sections, carries that narrative forward by extensive quotation from various official documents. In 5.1: Haggai and Zechariah: The section opens at the end of the sixth century, where ch. 4 ended, with mention of two prophets who, along with Zerubbabel the governor Joshua the high priest, directed a new effort to rebuild the Temple. There are probably the prophets behind the canonical books bearing their names. In verse 3: Who gave you a decree: the officials who are inquiring about imperial permission may not be opposing the rebuilding of the Temple as much as showing concern that all is being done in accord with imperial sanction Comments or Questions..