What are now considered the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah were originally a single document. Medieval monks separated them and Rabbinical tradition accepted the separation in the 16th Century. Scholars used to attribute Ezra/Nehemiah to the Chronicler, and while composition of the book(s) probably began around 400 BC and may have been associated with Chronicles, it was revised and amended over the next 250 years before being translated into Koine Greek as part of the Septuagint. It contains interpolated documents in Aramaic as well as the main narrative in Hebrew.
It is organized around theological concerns, so the chronology is somewhat mixed up. As there is little other evidence about events in Judah following the return from exile, there isn't really any known, accurate chronology to set it against and sort it all out. The theological requirements are first that the Temple has to be restored; then the national community, then the walls that separate the community from the outside world. The character of Ezra doesn't appear until chapter 7, to carry out the second task. The third happens in what is now the Book of Nehemiah.
BTW, regarding Los Testiculos de Jehovah: The name Jehovah results from faulty transliteration of Biblical Hebrew into Greek. Biblical Hebrew lacked vowels. If you speak the language y cn fl thm n, but the Greek translators got it wrong. The name of the Big Guy in the Sky is Yahweh. That's just Los Testiculos' first mistake.
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”
5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. 6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.
7 Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.[a] 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9 This was the inventory:
gold dishes 30 silver dishes 1,000 silver pans[b] 29 10 gold bowls 30 matching silver bowls 410 other articles 1,000 11 In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
1 comment:
I don't know where this "Yahweh" shit comes from, either, 'cause when you read the stylized Hebrew in the Bible, the first syllable of god's name (as written) sounds like "yuh" (as the vowel sound in the word "good" or "could"), and the second is like "yah" (with the vowel sound of "hot").
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