30pm start

Following on from last month, this completes the article. His motives seems to have been threefold:

 Religious: Cyrus worshipped Zoroaster, a god who allowed other gods to be his helpers in the world, so when he talks in his edict of ‘The Lord God of Heaven’ it is doubtful that he meant the Jewish God Jahweh, even though the writer of the Old Testament Book of Ezra adds the extra words: ‘Who is in Jerusalem’. Nevertheless, Cyrus was remarkably tolerant of other religions in his empire.

 Political: Cyrus believed that he could stabilise his empire in the long term through loyalty rather than fear, an idea much ahead of his time. By allowing captured peoples to return to their homelands and follow their own customs he hoped to win their affection. Indeed, some of the Jewish writers saw him as doing their

God’s work.

 Geographical: Cyrus needed Judah to be a strong point in his empire as it was on its Southern border with Egypt, which remained a major threat.

The first group of returning exiles left Babylon in 536 BCE, probably led by Sheshbezzar, youngest son of King Jehoichin (who presumably had died by then). There were probably about 1,000 people in all, mostly connected with the building work on the Temple, but with only four priestly families. They received a very hostile reception from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, especially the Samaritans who had been put in charge of the city. There was also famine and drought to contend with, and it is probably not surprising that more of the exiles did not return, given that they were doing rather nicely in Babylon. The returned exiles started to rebuild the Temple, refusing help from the Samaritans because they were impure, hence the reference in our ritual to allowing no strangers to partake in the work. But it was slow going and they were soon disheartened. The Samaritans also tried to stop the Hebrews rebuilding the walls, hence the reference in our ritual to the sword and trowel.

In 522 BCE, the Samaritans sent word to the new King of Persia to say that the returned exiles were plotting against him, which they weren't, and he ordered the work to stop. However, when King Darius the Great of Persia assumed power two years later, he authorised the return of a much larger group of Hebrew exiles, led by Zerubbabel, the grandson of King Jehoichin, assisted by Joshua the High Priest and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.

Once back in Jerusalem, Haggai seems to have been the driving force behind restarting the work on rebuilding the Temple, which was finally completed in 515 BCE. The early years of King Darius's reign were a period of uncertainty as to whether he would be able to keep his empire together, and factions in Jerusalem, encouraged by Haggai and Zechariah, thought that the Messiah’s coming was imminent and that they should join in the unrest. However, Zerubbabel resisted these pressures, much to the dismay of Haggai and Zechariah. Nevertheless, once Darius had reestablished his position, the news of the unrest in Jerusalem reached him and he dismissed Zerubbabel and appointed a new governor to administer Judah.

Zerubabbel was thus the last King of Judah, despite having four or five sons, and his ultimate fate is unknown. From then on, the High Priest became the leader of the Jewish nation and the final arbiter of all religious and civil

King Cyrus

matters. Hence the importance of his position in the time of Jesus. Joshua was now effectively in charge and his descendants filled that office for the next 200 years. Haggai returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem and, according to one record, his mission lasted just four months. If this is correct, it must have been pretty intense!

Nehemiah was a remarkable man. He rose from relatively humble origins to be the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I Longimanus of Persia. In 444 BCE, he was sent to Jerusalem as Governor of the Persian Province of Judah. He was immediately struck by the poor condition of the city and its inhabitants and set about making improvements. The city walls were rebuilt in 52 days, though rebuilding the fortifications and towers took another twoand-a-half years. He then set about serious social reforms, including cancelling the debts of the poor, enforcing observance of the Sabbath and restoring the Sacred Law. He also induced many prominent members of the community to move into the city to improve its security and he tried to bring about a rapprochement with the Samaritans, though this particular effort was short-lived. After twelve years as Governor, Nehemiah returned to the Persian Emperor’s court at Susa.

Finally, we come to Ezra. The Bible says that he came to Jerusalem ‘in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes’ , but it is not clear whether this means Artaxerxes I (i.e. 457 BCE) or Artaxerxes II (i.e. 398 BCE). The Jewish tradition is that it was the earlier date, that he was accompanied by another large group of returning exiles and that he and Nehemiah worked together, but modern scholarship has cast doubt on this. Certainly, he was a Priest of the line of Zadok and a Scribe in the Jewish sense (i.e. a legal scholar). His Persian title was ‘Scribe’ (i.e. royal secretary). Irrespective of when he lived, he worked hard to restore the purity of Torah Law, beginning with persuading all the Jewish men who had married foreign wives to divorce them and marry Jewish women. During this time, the Torah was edited into more-or-less its present form, the square characters of Hebrew text were introduced and the KnessethGedolah (great assembly of the people) was established.

Whether Ezra and Nehemiah are the authors of the books in the Bible bearing their names is still debated, most probably they wrote parts of them, but they were then edited by the author of the Books of Chronicles sometime later.

Thanks for information from Solomon under UGLE