HISTORY OF ISRAEL LIBRARY

THE PERSIAN SUPREMACY.

B.

EZRA THE SCRIBE AND THE GOVERNOR NEHEMIAH.

I.

EZRA.

Ever since its foundation the new Jerusalem had hailed with joy the arrival of reinforcements, whether in the shape of settlers, or treasure, or other assistance, from the worshippers of Jahveh who remained behind in the countries of the east; and the prophet Zechariah, who on one occasion, as we have seen, celebrated the advent of new guests from thence, at the same time summoned Zion that dwelt in Babylon to flee from the growing insecurity of the north into the quiet haven of the new city of Jahveh. But, however great the number of immigrants may gradually have become who removed from the east to the newly-founded city, the arrival of no one of them was so important in its consequences as that of Ezra, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, BC 459. It was his name which became the most famous throughout the whole Persian period, and his activity first gave the new community that firm constitution after which it had long consistently aspired, and which, in its essential features, it could never again abandon at any future time.

Ezra belonged to the family of the high-priest, but not to Joshua’s branch of it, in which the dignity had again become hereditary since the rebuilding of Jerusalem. This priestly extraction acted certainly as a powerful lever for directing his vigorous efforts specifically to the promotion of religion and learning among his people; and since he became the type of the kind of priest, required by these centuries, he bears in history the unqualified surname of the Priest, a surname which has never obtained so high a significance in the case of any other priest by birth. But this importance was due, not so much to the accident of his birth in the priestly order, as to two other attributes, which he combined in himself to a remarkable degree, and which alone placed him, hereditary priest as he was, in a position to exercise such a salutary and abiding influence on his age.

On the one hand, from his early youth he had attained extraordinary perfection in all the branches of knowledge and skill which belonged to the calling of a scribe. His reputation as a scribe was already high when he came from the east to settle in the new Jerusalem, and there he founded a scriptural art and school (so to speak), which have made his name immortal; for the surname of the Shopher, i.e. the Scribe, with special reference to the law of Moses, became in his case a still higher distinction than that of priest. This style of learning had always been native both to Palestine and Phoenicia; but the severe devastations which the small kingdoms west of the Euphrates had suffered for centuries did not allow it to flourish in the west again before the time of which we are speaking, and then only with difficulty; whereas, in the east the high standard of ancient learning and literary culture which is generally known to us as the Chaldean or Babylonian was maintained undisturbed. The seat of empire, moreover, in spite of the repeated conquest and destruction of Babylon, was still in the east; Babylonian culture was respected under the Persians also; and Aramaic continued to be the language of the edicts of the government for all the countries west of the Euphrates. The Aramaic language, accordingly, both for conversational and literary purposes, gained the upper hand in the new Jerusalem, by slow degrees, but all the more irresistibly and lastingly, as will be further described below; and Ezra certainly contributed largely to this result by his emigration from the east, and the deep impression of his whole work.

In this connection it is impossible not to lament the very slight degree of acquaintance we possess with the culture of those Judeans who remained behind in eastern Asia, on the Euphrates and the Tigris, or who afterwards settled there, up to the time of the destruction of the second Temple. The Macedonian conquest and the supremacy of the Seleucids certainly interfered with it not a little; and the Parthian supremacy completed the alienation between the eastern and western countries. In comparison with the freer movement and the loftier efforts which the genius of Judaism now achieved once more in its ancient fatherland, the life of the Judeans in those eastern countries must certainly have retained a somewhat depressed and restricted character. They were, however, always numerous enough to form compact and respected communities, a privilege possessed since the reigns of Cyrus and Darius; and they included the remnants of many of the noblest of the people who had formerly been carried away from Jerusalem, and even retained in their midst several members of the high-priestly family. In this way, they afforded to the world the first great example of distinguished communities in distant lands attached to the Temple; they often made pilgrimages to it, or gave rich contributions for its maintenance, as a kind of sacrifice, the amount and collection of which subsequently became the object of regular ordinances.

Of the glowing religious zeal and the simple fidelity and piety of life which long survived in undiminished strength in these very communities, remote, oppressed, and surrounded by the heathen as they were, we have ample evidence, not only in the history of Ezra and Nehemiah, now to be considered in detail, but also in the books of Tobit and Baruch, which will be described hereafter. These two little works, which in all probability sprang from these communities, stand alone, but are sufficient to constitute glorious monuments of the spiritual life to which men there aspired. The special feature, however, of the eastern culture was the preservation of an accurate knowledge, and, when possible, the use of the sacred language of ancient times, on behalf of which a still warmer zeal than in Jerusalem itself was early kindled among them. The exiles who reassembled in Jerusalem might indeed suppose that the ancient language of the country, which had been in common use before would still be easily understood by them as a matter of course; but the communities of the east, on the contrary, could not help dreading the complete disappearance of any accurate knowledge or use of it unless they made a special and zealous effort to preserve the language which was that of their forefathers, and, at the same time, of their law, of their ancient prophets, and the songs that were ever on their lips.

The phenomenon has been often repeated in history in which scattered communities, for fear of losing their ancestral language, are the foremost to embrace it with the greatest resoluteness, and hence develope an unexpected zeal for its learned study and more careful preservation. Now, if we may suppose (and there is no reason why we should not) that the Tigris and Euphrates were already the seats of the Syrian schools of learning which we see flourishing there subsequently down to Christian and Islamite times, and in which language and literature were special objects of study, we can understand how the Judeans also of the same district might early apply a really learned care to their own ancient language, and the writings contained in it, at a time when nothing of the sort was as yet even thought of in Palestine. Even Ezra was assuredly distinguished in this branch of learning, though it is equally certain that as yet it was far from being developed to the point at which we afterwards see it step into the light on the great stage of history.

In endeavoring, however, to ascertain more definitely to what subjects his rare learning and skill as a scribe were specially applied, and in what particular direction his efforts and achievements lay, we must be on our guard against ascribing to him without distinction all the labors and services which were afterwards put down to him by those who no longer had any clear notion either of him or of the age in which he lived. In particular it would be an error of no ordinary gravity to ascribe to him the last redaction and editing of the law of Moses,—though this was actually done in later times from ignorance and confusion, and the mistake is repeated even at this day by certain writers, because it is so convenient. It has been shown already that the last editor of the Pentateuch lived while the kingdom of Judah was still standing; and since the written law of Moses had come into general acceptance from the days of Josiah onwards, the Law already presented itself during the exile as the one lofty object which, despised and rejected now, would in the future once more win from all mankind a lofty reverence and unique acknowledgment. The prophets, however, who made these predictions, evidently comprehended under this designation the essential contents of that book from which they themselves, together with all the poets and every lofty mind of their time, drew such inexhaustible consolation, and passages from which they had already acquired the habit of repeating word for word. But, with the general ruin which followed the Chaldean conquests, a grievous blow was inflicted also on the studies of the scribes, which had already been carried to a tolerably advanced stage in the ancient fatherland itself while the kingdom of Judah was still in existence. The whole course of daily life should have been regulated by the written law, but it had been in too fluctuating a condition from the days of Josiah to the time when it was overthrown and interrupted by the exile.

The period immediately succeeding, however, gathered round the new Jerusalem too many pressing, necessities and restless movements to leave any hope that the work of completely restoring the law of Moses, so far as altered circumstances would permit, could be immediately taken up with any beneficial result. In fact, a difficult and twofold task had to be performed.  In the first place, the internal organization of the life of the community had to be wholly reestablished, and at the same time a great deal had to be added, which, under the earlier kingdom, had not been regulated in sufficient detail, or brought into general adoption; and secondly, all this had to be carried out with due allowance for those vast changes in their outward circumstances, which, after the disappearance of even the shadow of external independence, could not be any longer ignored. The basis of this reorganization was to be laid in the ancient law, now accepted in the form of a great literary work. To accomplish even this task was sufficiently difficult, and demanded not only a perfect technical knowledge and mastery of the ancient writings, but skill in applying them properly to the present as well. But, in the meantime, the external position of the kingdom had been completely transformed, and no new organization could be established without the permission of the great king, who was an alien; and, in short, much of the ancient law in its literal acceptation was now inapplicable.

This, and this alone was the problem of the age, and for its solution the learning of the scribe, especially in the ‘law of Moses’, was the most indispensable, though by no means the only sufficient resource. Similar necessities had no doubt to be satisfied, though within narrower limits, and under less perilous circumstances, amongst the Babylonian Judeans; and it would seem that it was only in consequence of his having already distinguished himself there in this direction that Ezra so easily obtained, through the favor of the great king, full powers to arrange everything on a similar basis in Jerusalem, where the want was far more urgent. The high degree of royal confidence which he already enjoyed before he left the east is expressly attested. With equal certainty we know that even after his settlement in Jerusalem he always remained well disposed to Persia, though this was only because he saw that there was nothing better to be gained under the circumstances, and it did not involve the smallest sacrifice of the higher religion and his own manly faith in its truth. The language of the royal edict which designated Ezra clearly proves that accounts had reached the east of the inadmissible nature of the arrangements hitherto made in Judah, rendering it necessary to appoint someone on the spot with full powers to establish the authority of the law in a manner conformable to the religion of Jahveh and the Persian supremacy, and also to institute and train, with the same purpose, competent judges and instructors of the people. Under these circumstances Ezra might very well bring with him to Jerusalem the great book of law which was afterwards called in Greek the Pentateuch, together with the book of Joshua. If, moreover, this work had already been in existence before the destruction of Jerusalem, and had passed with the exiles into the countries of the east, the wisest amongst them might have come to the settled conviction that it was the best work of its kind, and had great advantages over Deuteronomy by itself. If it was Ezra’s authority which now gave it the sole ascendant at Jerusalem (and after him it could hardly have acquired so entirely unique a position), we must admit that he really did render it essentially the great service which later tradition, though it becomes more and more obscure and confused as it advances, distinctly indicates.

But what could all his lofty accomplishments as a scribe, his ability in other respects, and the royal favor, have done for Ezra, had he not been possessed in a manner altogether new by the purest and most glowing zeal for the truth of the religion of his fathers, and its recognition among men, marvelously strengthening and inspiring his whole life! We have already observed that before the time of which we are now speaking the exiles of Israel among the heathen had already excited, with a force hitherto unknown, the most living consciousness of the truth of its religion. We call, therefore, understand how that profound conviction, now that Jerusalem had risen again, would unite in the hearts of the descendants of the Judeans who had remained behind, or those who for any other reason were residing among the heathen, with a similar unspeakably deep concern for the sanctity of the ancient holy land, and the honor of their brethren who were living there once more. This little relic of the great holy people of old was all that they could see still dwelling in the holy land to serve as the central mother-community of all the scattered brethren, to sustain the most elevated memories, and the most elevating hopes. This would tend to produce amongst the Judeans born in foreign countries an unutterable yearning to be able to work and to help in this cause, and would result in the rise of men of such extraordinary zeal as Ezra and Nehemiah now, and ultimately that son of Benjamin from Tarsus who towers above them all. Of such a Judean, born outside the fatherland, but exercising the most powerful influence over the development of the community, Ezra affords us the first brilliant example; but at the same time his career supplies a warning of the danger involved in the introduction of a fiery zeal of this kind from abroad, the possibility, viz., of its becoming in its turn a consuming and destroying agent, if there is no stronger native force to meet and temper it. But the love which Ezra bore to the new community, so pure and self-sacrificing in other respects, revealed itself clearly enough at the very commencement of his undertaking.

Armed with the favor of the great king, and with a brief certificate of authority, he might have proceeded to Jerusalem and begun his labors without more ado. Instead of this he was impelled by a heart-felt yearning towards the beloved holy city, which still suffered from such various and pressing wants, to bring with him a rich contribution, or rather a pious offering, of all kinds of aid which would be valuable. Its greatest need was a good supply of capable inhabitants. He, accordingly, determined to gather together and bring with him, besides rich gifts of all kinds of treasure, the largest possible number of new and picked settlers; and his name must already have been so distinguished in the east that not only did a great company, consisting in part of men of noble birth, unite around him, but considerable presents of sums of money and of sacred utensils were entrusted to him from all quarters, even from the court, as offerings to the God of Heaven in Jerusalem. Moreover, the powers conferred upon him by the king extended in other directions as well. Besides what referred to his own special office, they included permission for all the Judean priests, Levites, and laymen who were willing to accompany him voluntarily, to depart for Judah. He was allowed to take with him all the presents of gold or utensils which might be given him for the Temple from the court or elsewhere, and to lay them out in sacrifices or any other requirements of the sanctuary; and further, in order to meet these requirements, a stated contribution of considerable amount, in money and provisions, was to be paid him from the public treasury in Syria, and any assistance he might desire was to be furnished to him by the king's officers in the neighborhood. In addition to this, Ezra requested and obtained as a special favor from the king the restoration of the ancient immunity from taxes on the part of all the priests and other servants of the Temple. His credentials were also endorsed by the seven leading members of the royal council. As far as power to punish those who resisted the imperial or the sacred law was required by the nature of the office he held from the king, and which may be briefly designated as that of the chief judge, full authority was accorded him; so that the immunities and privileges which Ezra brought with him to his governorship, to enable him to carry out a strict legal organization, really deserved abundant gratitude.

For those of his countrymen who were intending to proceed with him to Jerusalem, Ezra appointed a rendezvous on the Ahava, a river little known to us now, on the banks of which no doubt large settlements of Judeans had been made by Nebuchadnezzar. The number which assembled was about fifteen hundred, exclusive of women and children, and amongst them were several of high-priestly and Davidic descent. They were for the most part relatives of the families which had emigrated with Zerubbabel, but the family of Adonikam is the only one of which it is expressly mentioned that the last of its members now returned to the land of their fathers. Ezra had a temporary camp pitched by the river; and, when he found on inspection that they had not a single Levite among them, thinking it answered but ill the dignity of the priests who accompanied them, and of the great train itself, that no descendants of those who had formerly been the lower priests and public servants of the Temple should be associated with them, he sent a formal embassy to the neighborin Casiphia, where many of them lived together, and succeeded in inducing thirty-eight Levites and two hundred and twenty servants of the Temple to join their expedition. The valuable offerings to the Temple in money and in costly utensils he placed under the care of twelve of the most distinguished Levites; but he was so far from feeling any petty fear for his own life or that of his companions, and was so full of trust in God and lofty courage, that he expressly refrained from asking for a royal escort for the caravan, although this precaution was quite customary at the time, on account of risks from robbers by the way. After he had endeavored to inspire all his companions with similar confidence by fasts and other pious exercises, they started on the twelfth day of the first month (in the spring) of the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes I, i.e. 459 BC, and reached Jerusalem without accident at the beginning of the fifth month. They now produced their commission, offered rich sacrifices for their safe arrival, and soon had the pleasure of seeing that the high Persian officers were ready to offer their good services both to the people and to the sanctuary.

In accordance with the royal decree, Ezra was now to be firmly established in Jerusalem as chief judge. The city and its territory were to be the scene of his labors. He was empowered to settle everything relating to the religion of the Judeans and the life which was regulated by it, and to maintain everything quietly as it was established by law. But the manner in which the details were to be carried out could not be traced beforehand by the Persian king : it depended solely on the ancient sacred law and the actual circumstances of the time. After the heavy blow which the Messianic aspirations of the people had sustained immediately on the establishment of the new order of things, everything favored the tranquil development of the hagiocracy, as has been further shown above. This did not spring from the design or will of any single individual, but it was the only constitution which the community could produce in order to preserve and develop itself in peace as far as its position now allowed. No one, however, was so competent to lay its foundations as Ezra, not only in consequence of the special advantages which we have described him to possess, but also on account of the great disorder which he still found existing in Jerusalem.

Scarcely had the new chief judge, in the course of the first few months, settled down in Jerusalem in tolerable quiet, when his attention was officially directed by the chiefs of the community to a dispute which thenceforth became interwoven with all its profoundest and most vital problems, and gave occasion, in the midst of life-long toils and struggles, to the severest transformation which it underwent. He then became aware how deeply the custom of mixed marriages between Judeans and heathens had entered into the fiber of the new community ever since its establishment, the nobles and chiefs (or elders) being indeed implicated in it in a quite special degree. On his first glance, Ezra was seized with the most vehement horror. The intensity of his feelings can only be explained on the supposition that, after having long cherished rigid views on the subject of these mixed marriages, he now suddenly discovered in Jerusalem a deeply-rooted and careless tendency to contract them, which he would have thought wholly impossible, and to which he had seen nothing comparable in the east. The small and scattered communities of the east may have presented a stricter front to the heathen, even in domestic matters; for, generally speaking, wherever coreligionists are living very much dispersed among foreign nations, and under foreign rulers, they cling together all the more intimately and firmly. But, in the new Judah, where they had no fear of losing their fatherland or its faith by individual alliances with heathen families, and where the oppression of the times made them hesitate to reject them when advantageous, they had from the first been far less scrupulous in this respect, and had probably reflected little on the possible consequences which might ensue. Even in the last centuries of the ancient kingdom of Judah, the wiser individuals feared that the spread of these heathen connections would lead to a corresponding spread of heathen feeling and belief, and had therefore discouraged these mixed marriages, though at that time they had certainly never been punished as a civil offence, and so made quite impossible. Hence it was not surprising that the scrupulousness which was gaining so much hold of the people easily impelled the more conscientious to still greater strictness. At no previous period had even the smallest fresh infusion of heathen life and belief into the nation, however reduced and weak it had become, been regarded by the deeper minds with more suspicion and aversion than at this time. Never had the fear of swerving, even in the most trifling detail, from the will of God when once it was made known beyond a doubt, and of thereby rousing his wrath afresh against the community which he had already chastised so severely, been so strong. Never had it so readily and completely pervaded the whole people. Seeing, indeed, that they had already shut out the Samaritans from all share in the Temple, it was but consistent to exclude them, and all the heathen with them, from the fellowship of their domestic sanctuaries too; and the men who considered marriage something more than a mere carnal connection were necessarily the strongest advocates of this course. In a mind, therefore, so keen as Ezra’s, the prohibition discovered by him in the old sacred books did but unite with the general tendencies of the age, which had set powerfully in the same direction, to make him the most uncompromising opponent of the laxer view. Had he not found the prohibition in the old sacred books he would hardly have acted with such inexorable stringency. As it was, he gladly bowed as a believer and a scribe to the external commandment, and felt that, armed as he was with the powers of chief judge, as well as clad in his sacred mail, he could not yield a single inch of the question in dispute. The prohibition of mixed marriages and the complete extermination of their issue had never yet been strictly carried out, either in the new or the ancient Israel, and consequently Ezra’s undertaking was really one of extraordinary difficulty, and ran off into the deepest ramifications. Nothing but the most glowing zeal and untiring labor could secure success. Ezra was after all a member of this community himself, and, in addition to its critical nature, his task was to be attempted now for the first time. He could only, therefore, gain his object by means of the free consent of all. Should he succeed, however, without departing from the most rigid consistency, he would at the same time lay a firm foundation for a complete remodeling of the community. Moreover, Ezra was exactly the man to carry a labor so prodigious right through to the end, so far at least as its very nature allowed of its being brought to a satisfactory close at all.

Overwhelmed with the horror we leave described, he sank involuntarily on the ground, and all the men of more tender conscience gradually assembled round their leader, still utterly unstrung, and wailing deeply; but not till about the time for evening sacrifice could he recover from the profound shock he had sustained sufficiently to pour forth his feelings in prayer. In words wrung from his inmost soul he implored God to have pity on his people, who, though long sunk so low by their ancient sins, had now, by this violation of his express command, imperiled even the feeble commencement of a somewhat improved condition, but now vouchsafed them by the grace of God. He continued without pause his deeply moving prayers and lamentations, which gradually collected more and more of the people around him. At length, a distinguished layman, named Shechaniah, as though involuntarily overcome with sympathy for the chief judge, thus sitting mourning in his holy zeal, and moved by the truth of his complaint, could no longer refrain from declaring in the name of the whole community the guilt of the people, and their true desire to act in full compliance with the law, even in this respect. Then, at last, Ezra arose somewhat more tranquil, and withdrew into the Temple chambers, after having obtained from the people, who had gathered in great numbers, a promise under oath that within three days a general assembly should be summoned at Jerusalem, to decide what course should be pursued.

Thus, under the fiery zeal of Ezra, this single day proved the crisis of the whole affair. Although it was winter and the weather was rainy, the general assembly, which alone was competent to pass a decree that would be universally binding, met in full numbers on the appointed clay, the twentieth of the ninth month, as if under the common impulse of a sudden fright. There Ezra proposed that in recognition of the guilt hitherto incurred by the community, and in order to show their reverence for God and his commandment, they should not only in future abstain from contracting any mixed marriages, but should even dismiss at once their foreign wives and the children they had borne them.

The second part of this requisition was indeed the new duty, to which Ezra was the first to give such rigorous utterance. In support of it he could not, strictly speaking, appeal to any express command of what would be called in the narrower sense the law of Moses, but only to the typical history of Abraham and Hagar, though the rigid application of the principle might lead to great hardships and manifold tribulations. The assembly, however, consented, and only requested that in consideration of the inclemency of the season, and the extent to which they were involved, a little respite might be allowed before the decree was actually put into execution. Under the supervision of the chiefs of the whole community, assisted by the superintendents of each of its divisions, all the guilty individuals were to be ascertained, and brought to account on an appointed day. To this Ezra assented, and he was empowered to select a committee of elders to carry on the investigation. This body entered upon its labors at once, at the beginning of the tenth month, and had already completed its scrutiny when the new year commenced. An accurate list was drawn up of all the men who had one or, in some cases, several foreign wives; and it appeared that mixed marriages had already become tolerably frequent amongst all ranks and families, without much distinction. Even in the high-priestly house of Joshua four men were found to be involved in the guilt, but they took the lead before all the rest in promising under oath to purify their houses and to acknowledge their offence by a public sacrifice.

Thus much is known to us of Ezra’s activity in the first eight months after his settlement in Jerusalem; and what abundant fruit it must have subsequently produced we may infer with equal certainty from the perfectly trustworthy description of his life during that single year. He lived and labored many years longer in Jerusalem; and he did not draw up the record of his life until after the end of the reign of Artaxerxes I, which lasted forty years. But the only portion of this memoir which the Chronicler has handed down to us in full is the section which refers to that one year, and no doubt this was of the most decisive importance. Of his subsequent labors, all that we can state with confidence on the authority of older sources may be summed up in the following account.

In the first place, we may take for granted that the work, so energetically and successfully begun, of leading back the whole national life, as far as possible, to the letter of the written law, was not allowed to rest. By the vigorous dealing already described, the community was once for all accustomed to the piercing insight, the stringent logic, and the severe discipline of its remarkable chief judge. Its ambition was excited powerfully enough to rise into a region of new clearness and purity, and it had firmly grasped the only thing by which it could reasonably expect permanently to survive, with its most characteristic pretensions and hopes. The expulsion of the foreign wives and their children led, without loss of time, to that of foreigners generally, so far as they had not been or could not be circumcised, or at least their rigorous exclusion from the feasts and all other privileges of the community. From this time, therefore, they could only remain on sufferance, as had been the case in the ancient community, and even under these circumstances the chief judge and the governor exercised the right of banishing them whenever it seemed expedient. In the same spirit the great yearly feasts were now celebrated with the utmost precision, in exact accordance with the descriptions of them found in the old sacred books; so that it might be said with justice that since the days of the ancient Joshua the Feast of Tabernacles had never been kept as it was now, for they were never weary of re-arranging the details of their solemnities on the pattern of the past.

But if Ezra desired to establish his laborious work upon a lasting basis, it was necessary that he should attract towards it a number of younger scribes and judges, to preserve and develop still further in the community his own special kind of ability, both as a scholar and a judge. These were still times in which a man, even in the lofty position which he occupied, had to become the public teacher of his knowledge and his skill, particularly in a country so shattered and impoverished as Judea still continued; and we can recognize many indications of Ezra’s unwearying perseverance in educating an active band of scribes and judges. It is only from his time forward that we find in the new Judah the intelligent ‘or learned’, who easily passed into teachers, distinguished as a fresh and special class of men, and often mentioned as an order receiving great respect from the common people, although it was then composed almost entirely of Levites; a and all the later and better known schools of scribes certainly trace their lineage to Ezra’s great labors. This learning, from the very nature of its origin and object, must have turned especially on the law of Moses and the ancient books immediately connected with it. These writings included so much that was already, the present age, that they needed something to bring them once more nearer to the life of the people, to explain their obscure expressions, and to make their whole contents living and fruitful for the present. This task the new learning undertook with unwearied zeal. “They read the law of God distinctly, explaining the sense, so that the mass of the people properly understood the writing that was read”. Such is the description of the service rendered by the scribes whom Ezra educated, already given by the Chronicler, who rightly lays great stress on the special fact that the people thoroughly comprehended and joyfully appropriated all that they heard.

With all his duties, however, as chief judge, Ezra maintained at the same time his high standing as a priest, and he never relinquished his right to the exercise of a constant activity in this position also. He was thus enabled to direct public, worship in addition to his other labors, and he so organized it that in this department also the traces of his creative power were borne by all coming time. It is certainly to him that the arrangement is due by which on every day devoted to this purpose the reading and exposition of the holy scripture was united with the usual prayers, hymns, and sacrifices; and, indeed, in accordance with the deep significance henceforth acquired by the scripture, its explanation and application necessarily became the chief part of the employment of the community on holy days. From early morning to midday was occupied with a service. Song and prayer constituted the first part, and reading of the holy scripture the second, the whole being concluded by the transaction of business connected with any question of the day which had to be brought to a decision. Such were the main features of divine service as it took shape under Ezra’s hand.

It must have been a source of real gratification and joy, and of no little pride as well, for the faithful in Israel, that they were permitted to share the spectacle of Ezra’s administration, especially in later years, when it was already fully developed and moved in its regular organization. The people in general, men and women, learned and unlearned, were now in the highest degree willing and eager to take every opportunity of listening to passages of the holy scripture, with their explanation and practical application. It became necessary to fix upon some large open space in the neighborhood of the Temple as the place for the solemnities, so great was the press of anxious hearers. Here a lofty wooden tribune was raised, which Ezra ascended, surrounded by the sacred number of thirteen priests as his immediate assistants, six of them standing, at his right hand and seven at his left.

The same number of Levites stood on another platform to lead the singing, while other Levites stood in readiness before each of the separate groups of the great assembly to hold forth in exposition and instruction from the holy scripture. The solemnities began with holy song. As soon as Ezra opened the sacred book to address the whole assembly, they rose up in reverence; and when he pronounced the blessing, they prostrated themselves in joyous accord before the one true Lord of the community. When he had concluded his discourse, which was often very minute and extensive, the Levitical scribes began separately to edify the people in smaller sections, by exposition of the scripture. This instruction often touched the people so deeply that they were almost ready to burst into tears, and seemed to fall into a most serious and even mournful frame of mind. This was, no doubt, especially the case when they heard from the scripture the details of the former grandeur of their forefathers, and the wonders which a living, true religion had worked among them; but on these occasions they were exhorted by the most distinguished members of the community to master this gloomy feeling on the holy day, and rather to enjoy, both in the public assembly and in their private homes, these happy hours, and by gifts of love to the poor, to enable them to do the same.

At other suitable seasons, the day following one of these festivals being especially preferred, Ezra held equally zealous meetings in the smaller circle of the spiritual and temporal leaders of the community, in which he explained the law to them in accordance with the holy scripture, and concerted further measures for bringing the general organization of the community into accordance with this canon of all pious life. Moreover, the practices which were thus developed in the great central community at Jerusalem must gradually have repeated themselves on a smaller scale in the communities scattered up and down the rest of the holy land or elsewhere; though it cannot be said that any specific statements about this process have come down to us from that epoch.

Such was the form assumed by Ezra’s long and fruitful labors in the recollections which, current at the time of the Chronicler, had not yet lost their freshness. In him the seat of Moses was set up in the community once more, so far as these later and far altered times, and the supremacy of foreigners, allowed its restoration; and through him the community gained all the inner consciousness of its best ancient blessings, and especially the fullest degree of internal cohesion, order, and self-completeness, which it could well realize at this stage of its long history. The effects of Ezra’s activity are consequently to be traced through every later age, and their results undergo a continuous development.—But the most striking witness to his power of transforming and reorganizing appears during his own lifetime in the person of his fellow-worker, Nehemiah.

II.

NEHEMIAH.

Nehemiah resembled Ezra in his fiery zeal, in his active spirit of enterprise, and in the piety of his life; but he differed widely from him in position and calling. A younger contemporary of Ezra, he was almost unconsciously seized by the better impulses of the time so strongly stirred by him; and in spite of the very different and purely secular nature of his labors, he yet cooperated most effectually with him, and completed all which was still wanting, and which could hardly be supplied except by a strong secular arm. His relation to Ezra was much like that of Joshua to his older contemporary, Moses, by whom he had been first aroused, so far as the vast changes which had taken place since then admit of such a parallel.

We are not informed from what family Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah, was descended. Had he been able to boast of any ancestral honors, some opportunity would, no doubt, have been found for mentioning the fact. His personal beauty and youthful attractions alone seem to have secured for him, early in life, the good fortune to be brought, by the important and lucrative office of a royal cup-bearer, into the notice of Artaxerxes I and his first queen, into whose closest confidence he was soon received. This position, had he shared the tastes and opinions of the world, would have enabled him to push his fortune at court for the rest of his life. But, young as he was, he remained, like a second Joseph in Egypt, of a very serious disposition, in spite of all the light­heartedness which his court-life might have required, a pattern to the youths of Hebrew blood growing up among the heathen. He never forgot the condition, the history, the glory, and the loftier calling of his people, and was sufficiently educated to form his own independent judgment with regard to them.

It happened, then, in the distant city of Susa, where, the court was at that time residing, in the month of Chisleu (December) in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes I, 445 BC, that one of Nehemiah’s relatives, who, with several others, had made a pilgrimage to the holy city, gave him a very minute description of the melancholy ruin in which the walls and gates of Jerusalem were still lying. The young courtier had never received such precise information before. As he listened, his heart smote him heavily, and he felt most profoundly that in this condition of the holy city of his fore­fathers, not only so unprotected and so full of danger in time of war, but so ignominious also, the distant consequences might be traced of the great sins of all the people, the burden of which he, too, must bear. He must have seen that nothing but extraordinary devotion could heal such grievous wounds.

No one but a man of sufficiently high standing, and provided with every kind of resource, could be of any real use at this juncture, and it was indispensable that he should possess in a special degree the favor of the great king. Moreover, it was no priest and chief judge such as Ezra that the circumstances demanded, but rather someone who would take his position in the world at the head of a civil and military power; and in this direction he could neither begin nor finish anything unless he wielded the authority of a governor. But if the king’s favor could be secured for his cause, the right moment for refortifying Jerusalem had now come. The neighboring peoples were certainly still disposed to obstruct any fortifications of this sort, as well as anything else which would conduce to the honor of the holy city; yet the intense hostility which they had formerly entertained had already lost its first bitterness, and another king, who would not be bound by his predecessor's prohibition of the fortification, had long sat on the throne. Moreover, since the commencement of Ezra’s labors, Jerusalem had been penetrated by an aspiration towards fresh order and cohesion, which would certainly also tend to promote such undertakings.

As a man of wealth and position, enjoying the favor of the great king in a higher degree than any of his brethren in the faith, Nehemiah felt himself under an obligation of a quite special nature to lend assistance in this work. But though he was deeply conscious of this high duty from the first moment, and spent many days of prayer in vehement mourning and fasting, as if some heavy guilt lay on him, it was long before he could find an opportunity of disclosing his sorrow to the king. At  last, in the month of Nisan (April), the king one day asked him the cause of his grief. With tremulous anxiety and silent prayer to God he explained it. He found a more gracious hearing than he had expected, received leave of absence for a certain time, safe conduct by the king’s command, with a strongly armed escort, and was appointed governor, with special powers to fortify the Temple mountain, the city walls, and the governor’s palace, and also to take timber for the city gates at the public cost. He asked for nothing more, well knowing that the actual labor of building the walls could only be undertaken by the inhabitants themselves, for whose benefit it was to be performed. He seems, however, to have retained his appointment as cup-bearer, since he had only got leave of absence. At any rate, this is the easiest explanation of the fact that when he was established at Jerusalem, although he departed from the example of his predecessors in declining to accept even the smallest salary for his official labors, he was still able to display so much external power, to keep open house every day for residents and foreigners, like a prince, and, in addition, to bestow such an unusual number of benefactions. He must also have possessed considerable means from other sources, for he brought with him to Jerusalem a number of brethren, i.e. Judeans, whom he had redeemed with his own money, as well as a strong band of private servants, and carried royal letters of recommendation in the heartiest terms, addressed to the superior magistrates in Syria.

Meanwhile, he had made himself carefully acquainted with the complicated relations of Jerusalem to the neighboring nations; nor was he ignorant of the prejudices and scruples by which any undertaking might easily be opposed on the part of the very individuals whose advantage it was intended to serve. With the same perfect tact, foresight, and even craft, which he throughout displayed, he had not breathed a word to anyone, even after he had been three days in Jerusalem, about his important design; but on the following night he rode out almost alone, himself the only one mounted (and even thus he could not always find means of passage), and closely examined the walls and satisfied himself of their thoroughly lamentable condition. The day after he came forward for the first time with a public declaration of his intentions, and, by putting the situation in its true light and pointing to the history of his own past life and the favor of the king, he contrived to satisfy the assembly so soon and so completely of the necessity of building the walls that everybody present gladly promised his assistance.

But cares and toils of the heaviest kind were only now beginning. The former walls, indeed, had only been so far destroyed by fire as to enable breaches to be effected in many places; but though they had only to be restored where they had been burned down, though the old stones could still be to a great extent employed again, and the walls in general required no special reconstruction except a completely new covering, yet the heaps of ruins and rubbish which buried them on every side were very heavy to remove, and the workmen repeatedly complained of the enormous labor involved in this operation. The gates, on the other hand, had to be restored altogether. Thus a variety of preliminary labors had to be undertaken before the actual building could be begun, and they must all be performed as quietly as possible for fear of disturbing the neighboring peoples too soon; and when the time came, the construction itself must be finished with all possible speed, so as to take them by surprise. Moreover, as there was no money forthcoming with which to hire special workmen, all these tasks had to be performed by the people themselves; and further difficulty arose from the fact that no actual compulsion could be applied to the indolent or to those who withdrew altogether when the local overseers were disinclined to the work. It was also resolved that the walls should take in the complete circuit of the ancient city. The common people displayed the best spirit; but the patience of many was worn out even by the tedious business of clearing, away obstructions and filling up the gaps. It soon appeared that the poorer people, torn away from their customary occupations, could only provide for the necessaries of life and the royal tribute by pledging their possessions and even giving their sons and daughters as slaves to their richer fellow-citizens, and perhaps suffering their daughters to be abused by them. In addition to all this, famine would set in, as a natural consequence of the suspension of ordinary employments. From these causes bitter complaints arose, and internal dissensions threatened to break out and frustrate the whole undertaking. Nothing but Nehemiah's strenuous exertions and holy zeal, together with the lofty example of noble unselfishness with which he always led the way himself, succeeded in averting these dangers in time. He called a general assembly of all the faithful, and persuaded them, for fear of God, lest they should become a reproach among the heathen to imitate his own example of remitting all debts unconditionally until the walls should be finished. Only when he had accomplished this in the case of the rich laymen did he exact the same promise from the wealthy priests.

While he was thus taking the greatest pains to remove all possible internal obstructions from the work, he was no less embarrassed by the neighboring peoples, and indeed the guilt of certain of his own countrymen rendered the opposition from this quarter much more trying. In spite of the long established jealousy which the neighboring nations still cherished against Jerusalem, and the neglect and contempt which they had always shown to the new city under the misfortunes already men­tioned, many of their nobles nevertheless desired the closer friendship and matrimonial alliance of the noble Jewish houses, and many of these latter also found these connections advantageous. The intercourse of common life among all these small kingdoms continued to be on a peaceful footing under ordinary circumstances, for the simple reason that they all shared alike the fate of subjection to the Persians; and the endeavor to isolate Israel and cut it off more completely from other nations, which now broke out so powerfully in Jerusalem, was nevertheless checked in every direction by the indestructible impulses which perpetually urge men to union. Amongst these high personages belonging to the neighboring peoples two were especially prominent at this time. The foremost and most powerful of them all was Sanballat of Horon, once a city of Ephraim. He was governor of the Samaritans, and on that account was particularly jealous of Jerusalem.

Although at the time of which we are speaking he had not become connected with any of the noble houses of Jerusalem, yet afterwards, apparently during Nehemiah’s absence, he obtained as his son-in-law a young grandson of the high-priest Eliashib. He had also great influence with the Persian force which was permanently encamped in Samaria, no doubt under a Persian captain, and was charged with the supervision of all the ancient Palestine. Next to him came Tobiah, the governor of the little nation of Ammon, beyond the Jordan, Israel’s ancient foe, from which he was also descended. He had formerly been a servant of honor (or page) at the Persian court, and, as so often happened, had been entrusted with his office in consequence of the personal favor he enjoyed with the king. Long before this time he had formed very intimate relations with several noble families of Judah. By his own marriage and that of his son he was doubly allied with them, and had thus become distantly connected with the high priest; and he was moreover highly valued and renowned amongst many of them for the benefits which he had conferred upon them. As a third and similar case, we may add that of Geshem, or, with the full pronunciation, Gashmu, prince of the Arabs living to the south of Palestine, who had probably overthrown Edom already and laid the foundations of the Nabatean power, which afterwards rose to considerable importance. At any rate, this last individual stands in very close collocation with the other two, and, as an Arab prince, he would hardly be absent where war and plunder were to be had.

Sanballat and Tobiah, on receiving intelligence (through their connections at the Persian court) of Nehemiah’s impending arrival, were greatly exasperated. They knew perfectly well that he could have no other motive in undertaking the post but his great love for his coreligionists; but they felt that they could not take any immediate steps against him. When they heard of the project of rebuilding the walls they were unable at first, remembering the events already mentioned, to treat the intention as serious. Meanwhile they endeavored to terrify the new governor and others by secret written negotiations, the purport of which was to ask whether they intended to rebel against the court; but Nehemiah intimated to them that they had no authority of any kind in Jerusalem, and did not allow himself to be intimidated. At length came the tidings of the actual commencement of the building. This threw Sanballat into a fit of mingled rage and scorn. He could not even then bring himself to believe in the success of the work, and he thought that if the worst came to the worst he would tear it down by force: “What then were these feeble Jews doing? they could not really fortify their city, they could neither seriously begin such an undertaking nor finish it at once; nay, they could not so much as recover the burned stones from the heaps of rubbish”. Tobiah, in unmingled scorn, declared that though they might build stone walls, even a fox would be able to break through them. But when they heard that the walls were already carried up more than half way, they were no longer able to ignore the seriousness of the crisis, and turned their thoughts to war and a sudden assault. Accordingly, they entered into a league against Judah with all the surrounding peoples, and especially with the Philistines of the adjacent Ashdod, so that Nehemiah was obliged to post guards both day and night as a precautionary measure. At this moment the danger rose to its highest point, and Psalm 58—that deep cry for help from the community to its God—seems to belong to these days. At the same time the internal discontent and dissensions of Jerusalem, already described, broke out more and more openly, while many of the nobles kept up their secret communications with the national enemies, and even wished success to their plans, taking no pains to conceal their to Nehemiah. But the bulk of the people within and without Jerusalem remained well disposed towards him; and this feeling deepened with the success which attended the progress of the work. One good result of this was soon apparent. While the enemies outside were concerting the sudden assault in which they were to burst into Jerusalem with their united forces in a single day, and bring the whole work to ruin at one blow, the Judeans, who came by turns to Jerusalem from the country towns to help in the building, brought faithful accounts of all that they had heard in the border districts of the movements and plans of their various foes, and always pointed out the direction from which the enemy intended to fall upon the city. Nehemiah, accordingly, regularly drew up the whole people fully armed and in battle array over against the point from which the enemy was expected. He stationed them behind the lofty walls, but yet in some sunny open space, so that they could be seen from a great distance, and inspired them with suitable language to fight in the holy cause for all the blessings they possessed, divine and human. Thus, when the enemy approached, they saw from a distance the whole people awaiting them in perfect equipment, order, and spirit, and accordingly turned back. After having made as many as ten of these futile attempts, they became tired of this sort of attack, for the time being at any rate, and the people were thus once more at liberty to continue their labors at the walls.

Nehemiah, however, did not relax his precautionary mea­sures in any particular. By his arrangement the whole people divided itself into two halves until the work was completed. One half was always engaged in building and carrying, but each person still kept his sword girt to his side, and placed his spear at no great distance. The other half; completely armed, kept constant watch, while Nehemiah himself always had a trumpeter at his side, by means of whose call he could assemble the entire force round him at a moment’s notice, however widely they might be scattered at their tasks. All the people, master and man, except the few who were keeping their turn on guard, were allowed to sleep quietly every night in the city, that they might be able to work the better by day; but he himself, with all his household and the governor’s body-guard, never took off his clothes.

This laborious undertaking was thus drawing to a close, and nothing remained to be done but to set up the folding gates, when Sanballat and Tobiah made their last attempt to frustrate the whole affair. They invited the governor to a conference in the country district west of Jerusalem at Ono, as if he would have more security there on account of the open nature of the country far and wide; but Nehemiah, suspecting treachery, alleged in excuse the continued pressure of his labors. Four times they repeated this artifice in vain. On the fifth occasion Sanballat alone sent him the same invitation, together with a letter, in which he represented to him that a report was spreading everywhere among high and low that he intended to revolt against the king and have himself proclaimed as king of Judah, and that he had instigated certain prophets to do this. This would come to the ears of the king; but as he himself wished him well, he hoped he would come to a conference with him. Nehemiah, however, declared all that was said against him to be simple calumny on the part of his enemies to enable them to attain their well-known object.—Even prophets, and a certain prophetess, Noadiah, were found base enough to allow themselves to be bribed against him by the national enemy. He had once occasion to go to a certain Shemaiah, hitherto an eminent prophet, but at that time prohibited from entering the Temple, though a priest by birth, on account of some bodily uncleanness. This man confided to him, in the profoundest secrecy, that it had been revealed to him by God that someone was going to murder him on the following night, yet, in spite of his sickness, he would himself go into the sanctuary with him, and shut himself in there with him. Nehemiah, however, replied that he did not think it would be seemly in him to shrink from even a manifest danger, and further that as a layman he must not break the divine command by entering the sanctuary itself, and so rouse the anger of the Holy One. Not till afterwards did he see the real motive of this prophet too! Even at the last, when the walls were quite finished, and the heathen had already lost almost all heart for making any kind of attack, the baseness of some of the nobles showed itself in full colors; for they still kept up their secret correspondence with Tobiah, and informed him that Nehemiah had boasted in their presence of having received threatening letters from him.

The building was completed in September, probably in the twenty-fifth year of Artaxerxes I (BC 440), about five years after Nehemiah’s arrival as governor! All the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many from the country, priests and Levites as well as laymen, had shared in the labor. It is especially noticed that the nobles of Tekoah refused to work by the side of the common people of that place, but all the others who took a part have received a noble memorial from Nehemiah himself, in the careful mention inserted in his narrative of the special portion of the great task in which they gave proof of their devotion. The whole work was divided into forty-two parts, some of which consisted of gates, some of sections of wall, and some of both together. Each division was under­taken by some person of position, with the aid of his connections; if he lived in Jerusalem, he built by preference the portion over against his own house. When the list of these was exhausted, the remaining portions were executed by some wealthy guilds and provincials. Nehemiah, also, with all his dependants, took a most active share in the work, without, however, devoting himself specially to anyone of the forty-two divisions. The consecration of the walls was at last performed in full solemnity, with intense joy and rich sacrifices. Nehemiah arranged two festal processions, one of which marched round the southern and the other the northern side of the city, by the outer walls, until they met together at the Temple, each one headed, by priests with trumpets, and accompanied by Levites singing praise; Ezra led the first, and Nehemiah closed the second.—But even after this Nehemiah had strict watch kept constantly at the gates of Jerusalem, by his brother and by Hananiah, the captain of the fortifications.

This description of the festive procession after the successful completion of the building of the walls was perhaps the only passage in Nehemiah’s record in which he expressly mentioned the great scribe of his age. The two men were totally different in position and calling; and since Nehemiah strictly confined himself in his memorial to the mention of his own duties and services at Jerusalem, it is by no means surprising that he says but little of his great contemporary. But he sprang, like Ezra, from the dispersion (Diaspora), and shared with him that spirit of rigor which was not unnaturally characteristic of the settlers at Jerusalem. He arrived there at a time when the tendency to greater strictness of national and priestly life, excited and powerfully sustained by Ezra, was at its height; and hence, in after years as well, he remained faithful to this tendency, and furthered it with all the power which his office and his reputation gave him. Continuing to take the most zealous care of the well-being of Jerusalem, he observed with great dissatisfaction the paucity of the inhabitants within its extensive walls, and was led by this to make closer investigations into the primitive relations of the new colony. On taking a census of the people he discovered that, contrary to the documentary regulations established under Zerubbabel, not so much as one-tenth of the whole population of Judea was residing at Jerusalem, and accordingly he transferred as many individuals thither as that fundamental law permitted. He showed equal zeal, moreover, in contending constantly against everything which seemed, when viewed in the light of the stricter notions, irreconcilable with the sanctuary and the law; and he took special interest in enforcing the rights granted by the written law to the priests and Levites, although, when sanctity itself appeared to suffer wrong, he did not spare the very highest priests. Thus, for example, at a time when he was away at the court, the high-priest Eliashib assigned one of the very large buildings in the fore-courts of the Temple, formerly used for keeping all kinds of priestly and Levitical stores, to his relative the well-known Ammonite Tobiah, as a residence during his frequent visits to Jerusalem; but no sooner had Nehemiah returned than he compelled the high-priest to consecrate the vestibule to its original object again. He maintained the strict observance of the day of rest with all his might, in spite of the great indifference of the nobles, and he even endeavored, by drawing the Levites together, to guard it with far greater rigor than before; while he contended against mixed marriages and all their consequences amongst high and low with inexorable severity.

From the first moment that he set his foot in Jerusalem he was absolutely untiring in this general effort, and as his life went on he only became more and more zealous in it. After laboring in Judea for twelve years (till 433), he was obliged to present himself before the Persian king, as his leave of absence had expired; but at last, before the death of his royal patron (in 424), he received leave of absence a second time, and returned as governor with the same powers as before. After the death of the king he seems to have lost his post, for he never indicates in his memorials that he still occupied it; but in this very record of his services to Jerusalem the same spirit of lofty zeal for God and his Temple and for the welfare of his people is everywhere displayed. He desires no recompense or thanks from any single man, but he appeals again and again all the more urgently to his God to think of his zeal for holiness and for Israel. It seems almost as though the bitter hostility and persistent misunderstanding which had pursued him clouded the peace of this man of many deeds and many services even in extreme old age, so that he could only find the higher peace in the recollection of his undeniable services and an appeal to his God.

But even if the serenity of Nehemiah’s old age was again obscured by the envy and quarrelsomeness of many of the contemporary nobles of Jerusalem, of whom he so often complained, yet the services he rendered to his time are unmistakably great. In general terms, he supplemented and completed the work of Ezra, and owed his greatness to the very fact of having accomplished that which Ezra was precluded by his position and occupation from achieving, but without which his work could not have gained nearly so much internal cohesion and permanence. The unwearied valor of Nehemiah’s arm and his unshaken loyalty to conviction brought vigorous assistance to Ezra’s genius for organization, and, indeed, the example of such a layman must have produced a more powerful effect than all the mere precepts of the priests. By his means Jerusalem had not only renewed her fortifications, in which all might alike rejoice as in their own laboriously accomplished task, but had also attained to greater order in herself and a prouder consciousness towards her neighbors. The people of Israel could now gradually raise its head among the nations, crowned once more with honor and with pride, and step by step it ripened to a new and mightier race. This consciousness of renewed strength makes itself heard once more in many ways in the songs of the age, the last which have found their way into the Psalter. It was only by his instrumentality, therefore, and by his cheerful cooperation with Ezra, that this whole period reached a distinctive development and a fuller measure of tranquility; so that his name also was soon indissolubly linked with that of Ezra.

III.

THE LATER REPRESENTATIONS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

The Chronicler himself unites these two men very closely in his representations, and depicts their period as the golden age of the priests and Levites, so far as such an age was possible in the later centuries. In after times, when the ancient history was more briefly touched upon, and its details became gradually confused, one of the two was sometimes named without the other. Thus, the son of Sirach mentions Nehemiah alone, but passes over Ezra in silence. In other cases, what belonged to one was ascribed to the other. In the account preserved in the second book of Maccabees, for example, Nehemiah is credited with an activity in collecting the holy books, which should rather have been attributed to Ezra. Nehemiah’s memoir shows, it is true, that for a layman he used his pen with skill; but any proper literary activity was quite foreign to his character as known to us, though no doubt he might have sanctioned, as governor, the ordinances recommended by Ezra and the other scholars.

The succeeding centuries, as we shall presently see, proved less and less faithful to historical fact, and their spirit was such that as the reverence paid to the two leaders of the people rose higher and higher, all kinds of loose representations connected themselves with their names, even at a tolerably early period, and they frequently became the subjects of half poetical narrative and purely literary art. Thus they were often regarded as the first founders of the new Jerusalem, and events and actions were ascribed to them which stricter history at best only admits as possible in the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua. As early as in the book of Enoch the three who return from the exile together to rebuild Jerusalem are Zerubbabel, Joshua and Nehemiah, for though they are not designated by name there is no doubt that they are meant. The author of the second book of Maccabees, however, accepted a very free account of Nehemiah as the founder of the new sanctuary, which was doubtless to be read already in works current in his time. This story centers in the conception of the holy fire of the Temple, and, not content with the indestructible endurance implied in its higher signification, desires to establish a literal belief in its external preservation during the interval subsequent to the destruction of the Temple by the Chaldeans.

At the time of that disaster Jeremiah and certain other priests had taken the holy fire from the altar and secretly conveyed it in safety to the bottom of the shaft of a dry well. Many years after Nehemiah sent the descendants of these same men, who knew the secret, to bring it up again. As we can easily understand, they could find no fire there; and he accordingly bade them sprinkle the sacrificial wood and the offering itself with water drawn from that same well. When this was done, at the prayers and songs of the priests, the sun, scattering the clouds on a sudden, kindled the wood and the offering into a great blaze of fire. Nehemiah then gave orders for the rest of the water to be poured out upon some large stones. Bright flames gleamed forth from these also, but as they did not shine on the right spot they were at once consumed by the fire of the altar which glowed over against them. It was this occurrence which induced the Persian king to decree that the great sanctuary should be laid out and built on this very spot. This, it will be seen, is but one of the many stories which sought in later times to enhance the very high sanctity of the Temple with reference even to its origin; but when, in conclusion, the narrator adds that this wonderful fire from the earth has usually been called Naphtha since that time, he betrays clearly enough that the well-known Zarathustrian-Persian notions of the sacred fire of the earth and sun, and the sacred naphtha fountains, hovered before him, and that it was only under their influence that he gave his narrative its present form. In a similar spirit the author of the fourth book of Esdras (the further discussion of which belongs to the history of the first century after Christ) makes Ezra live in the middle of the Chaldean exile, and in its thirtieth year see the wonderful history which God was conducting; so that he is here actually confused with Salathiel.

But it was Ezra especially who rose higher and higher in importance as time went on and the mere learning of the scribe grew to be the ruling power among the remnants of the ancient people, until at last he was elevated indefinitely above all the limits of time. He was regarded as the wonderful master of all the learning of the scribes, as the restorer of the collection of the holy books and the author of many like them, and at last as master, to be put on the same level of lofty jurisdiction with Moses, empowered to decide on every question concerning the holy scripture, and even as the originator of the Masora of the Bible, and all the reading marks (points, &c.). At the same time, many were disposed to consider him identical with the prophet Malachi. Nay, there were certain bold writers in the century of the birth of Christ whose reverence for him rose so high that they reckoned him, like Elijah, one of the Immortals who retain in Paradise perpetual youth, and reappear on earth, something like the Phoenix, at great crises. But these late rabbinical dreams have no further place in our history, though their reflected light glows clearly enough even upon the Koran, and many of the earlier Christians also gave them only too easy credence. Under every aspect, it is remarkable and significant enough that in Ezra we have the last Old Testament man of God, the undying significance of whose life seemed to posterity to place him on a level with an Enoch, a Moses, a David, an Elijah, and a Jeremiah. No one belonging to a later period than this, not even any of the Maccabees, was thought of as blooming in the unfading and eternal youth of Paradise.

In the same way, we are ignorant when and where Ezra and Nehemiah died; though tolerably early in the Middle Ages a tomb was pointed out as Ezra’s grave.'

C.

THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE PERSIAN AGE.