Who Returned First—Ezra or Nehemiah? - The BAS Library
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Home > Magazines > Bible Review > April 1996

Who Returned First—Ezra or Nehemiah?

By Aaron Demsky

Forty-seven years after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 B.C.E. and deported many of the people to exile in Babylon, Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, who had conquered the Babylonians and ruled most of the then-known world, allowed the Jews to return to their ancient homeland. They returned in waves. Sheshbazzar, apparently the first Jewish governor of Yehud (Judea), led the first wave and laid the foundation to rebuild the Temple, that is, to construct the Second Temple (Ezra 1:7–11, 5:14–16). Not only did Cyrus permit the rebuilding, he even paid for much of it […]

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Endnotes

1.

Geo Widengren in John H. Hayes and J. Maxwell Miller, eds., Israelite and Judean History (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), p. 538.

2.

For example, Nehemiah 12:10–11, 22, 47.

3.

For example, Nehemiah 7:6–72, 11:3–36, 12:1–26.

4.

Aaron Demsky, “Pelekh in Nehemiah 3, ” Israel Exploration Journal 33 (1983), pp. 242–244.

5.

For example, those who place Nehemiah before Ezra will delete the references to the two being contemporaries as late glosses that are historically unreliable. Or they will emend the 7th year of Artaxerxes to the 37th year (the three Hebrew words in “37th year” all begin with the letter S, so, the theory goes, the “thirty” element was accidentally dropped). Other scholars suggest that the reference to Artaxerxes at the time of Ezra’s return is to Artaxerxes II (404–358 B.C.E.). For a summary of the different theories, see Widengren in Israelite and Judean History, pp. 503–509.

6.

This was the year that Lycias besieged Beth-zur (1 Maccabees 6:49, 53; Josephus Antiquities 12.378). During the sabbatical year 136/135 B.C.E., Simon the Hasmonean was murdered, and a siege was placed against the fortress of Dagon (1 Maccabees 16:14–16; Josephus Antiquities 13.230–247).