Understanding Religion - The Book of Ezra (an Exoteric Summary)

Ezra (an Exoteric Summary)

This blog entry is just an "Exoteric" summary of the Book of Ezra (I may throw in some "Esoteric" ideas)

"Exoteric" means "understood by the general populous" compared to "Esoteric" which means "understood by a small group".

The notes for this blog on the book of Ezra have been taken from "The Bible Made Clear," you can listen for yourself here: "The Bible Made Clear - The Book of Ezra"

The version of the Bible I'm reading is called "The Companion Bible" here is a 38 page PDF on the Book of Ezra from the "Companion Bible” - https://www.companionbiblecondensed.com/OT/Ezra_Neh.pdf

THE BOOK OF EZRA

Fifteenth Book of the Bible / Fifteenth Book of the Old Testament / First book in a small section of prophet and narrative books.

Chapters: 10

Verses: 280

Name: The book is named for "Ezra the Scribe" (Ezra the Priest), who was a Jewish scribe and priest; "Ezra" is a Hebrew word which means "help" (Source: Dictionary dot com)

The Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah were originally together as one book, the two books became separated in the first printed rabbinic bibles of the early 16th century (Wikipedia Ezra Entry)

The Book of Ezra

Timeline of Post Exilic Prophets and Narrative Books 

Timeline: 537 B.C. to 430 B.C. 

Prophets (The Prophets Prophesy occurs in Ezra Chapter 5)

Haggai and Zechariah, the Temple is completed in 515 B.C.

Malachi in 430 B.C.. the last Old Testament prophet before the 400 year gap and the arrival of Jesus in the New Testament. 

Narratives

Chapters 1 to 6: Set Worship in the Temple (Between 537 B.C. and 515 B.C.)

Ezra is not a prophet nor a narrative, he's a scribe

Esther, this narrative occurs between Chapters 6 and 7.

Ezra enters the scene between Chapters 7 to 10 (515 B.C. to 445 B.C.)

at the end of Ezra's time enters Nehemiah (445 B.C.) to build the Wall

Chapters 1 to 6

Chronology of the Restoration Period

538 to 515 B.C. = Haggai and Zechariah

482 to 473 B.C. = Esther

Chapter 7 to 10

458 B.C. = Ezra, leading into the book of Nehemiah

Timeline of the 70-year Captivity 

Timeline: 675 B.C. to 375 B.C.

First Deportation is about 605 B.C.

First Return of the Exiles 537 B.C.

Second Deportation 586 B.C. 

The 70-years is from the first deportation

Work on the Temple ceased for 15-years from 535 to 520 B.C.

515 B.C. = the completion of the Temple

Timeline of Ezra's arrival

Timeline: 675 B.C. to 375 B.C.

725 B.C. = Isaiah's prophecy of Cyrus

539 B.C. = Daniel's 70, 7's prophecy

538 B.C. = Cyrus Decree

537 B.C. = Remnant Returns

515 B.C. = Temple Dedication

458 B.C. = Ezra comes from Babylon

Ezra's Journey of 900 miles (Ezra 6:2) from Persia (Iran) to Jerusalem

Quick Summary

The Book of Ezra tells the story of the fulfillment of that promised return. 

Two Distinct Periods

Chapters 1 to 6

Rebuilding the Temple

49,897 returned under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, governors of Judah and Joshua the high priest to build the Temple.

This was done under Cyrus's decree

Chapters 7 to 10

Ezra's return from Babylon

Ezra was a priest and a scribe, when he returned, he called back Babylon for Levites (38) and Nethinims (220) to come to Judah.

This was done under Xarxes' decree.

Ezra - Outline

Part One - The Restoration: first return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel 

Chapter 1  - The Decree of Cyrus

Chapter 2 - The Census of the People

Chapter 3 - The Construction of the Temple

Chapter 4 - The Opposition, Construction Stopped

The Temple is the priority, the first thing to be done when back in the land. The reason is worship is the foundation of both the spiritual and physical lives of the Jews. To delay worship, would misalign all other activity and be putting the cart before the horse. Without the Temple to worship at, the Jews would be building a life on pagan principles and Babylonian perspectives, not the Mosaic covenant and God's direction. 

The Construction was stopped by the people of the land who did not want the Temple rebuilt and the Jews to become a dominating people again in the land. When they could not stop from outside, they offered to help join the building process; this was not part of God's plan for Israel. God's covenant and worship was to be from the people of Israel. The addition of pagans who mixed false worship with the true was blasphemous. 

Rejecting the Pagan Help

 Ezra 4:1 to Ezra 4:3 - "Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him.

"You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us". 

Ezra Outline (Continued)

Chapter 5 - The Construction is renewed

Chapter 6 - The Temple Completed

Part Two - The Reformation of the People, under Ezra

Chapters 7 and 8 - The Return to Jerusalem

Chapters 9 and 10 - The Revival of Jerusalem

Timeline of Persian Kings

Timeline: 538 B.C. to 440 B.C.

538 B.C. = Cyrus's Decree

Under King Cyrus

537 B.C. - Remnant Returns

535 B.C. - Opposition stops the Work

Under Cambyses II

 515 B.C. - Temple Dedication

Under Darius

520 B.C. - Work Resumed

Under King Xerxes 

483 B.C. - Esther Crowned

Under Artaxerxes 

458 B.C. - Ezra returns with the second group

448 B.C. - Nehemiah Arrives

Complaints about the Temple

The rebuilt temple lacked the splendor of Solomon's and those old enough to remember it, complained that the rebuilt Temple was not as glorious.

The Problems

Pagan Wives (Strange Wives = Foreign Wives)

Once they got by the opposition, external problems, and finished the Temple, Ezra faced a different kind of problem with the Jews themselves, internal problems.

They had taken pagan wives and intermarried with the people of the land. This had to be addressed because it violated the Mosaic Law and the genealogical purity of the people of the tribes.

The Law

From Deuteronomy Chapter 7 

When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following me, to serve other gods;; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 

Problems (Continued)

For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass. 

Problems Corrected

Ezra had to bring the people back under the Law, so that their worship would be authentic.

Ezra 10:3 - "Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

The solution was separation or proselytization. Keeping the pagan mix would make their worship no different than what sent them to Babylon in the first place. Mixing pagan worship = idolatry. 

It took 3 months to fix the problem with the pagan wives.

Ezra 10:17 - "By the first day of the first month they finished questioning all the men who had taken pagan wives"

The reformation resulted in the continued racial, and more significantly, spiritual purity of Abraham's descendants for another generation. However, Nehemiah faced the problem of mixed marriages again only a few years later