references to the rebuilding of the Temple in the reign of Artaxerxes
(1 Esdras ii. 18, not in Ezra iv. 12; but both in a context relating to
the history of the Temple), and (b) by the otherwise inaccurate statement
that the Temple was finished according to the decree of “Cyrus,
Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia” (Ezra vi. 14).
The untrustworthy account of the return in the time of Cyrus (Ezra i. sqq.) or Darius (1 Esdras iv. seq.; probably the older form) is curiously indebted to material which seems to have belonged to the history of the work of Nehemiah (cf. Ezra ii. with Neh. vii.), and the important return in the reign of Artaxerxes (Ezra iv. 12) seems to be connected with other references to some new settlement (Neh. xi. 20, 23, 25, especially xii. 29). The independent testimony of the names in Neh. iii. is against any previous large return from Babylon, and clearly illustrates the strength of the groups of “southern” origin whose presence is only to be expected (p. 285). Moreover, the late compiler of 1 Chronicles distinguishes a Judah composed almost wholly of “southern” groups (1 Chron. ii. and iv.) from a subsequent stage when the first inhabitants of Jerusalem correspond in the main to the new population after Nehemiah had repaired the ruins (1 Chron. ix. and Neh. xi.). Consequently, underlying the canonical form of post-exilic history, one may perhaps recognize some fresh disaster, after the completion of Zerubbabel’s temple, when Judah suffered grievously at the hands of its Edomite brethren (in Malachi, date uncertain, vengeance has at last been taken); Nehemiah restored the city, and the traditions of the exiles who returned at this period have been thrown back and focussed upon the work of Zerubbabel. The criticism of the history of Nehemiah, which leads to this conjecture, suggests also that if Nehemiah repulsed the Samaritan claims (ii. 20; cf. Ezra iv. 3, where the building of the Temple is concerned) and refused a compromise (vi. 2), it is extremely unlikely that Samaria had hitherto been seriously hostile; see also C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies, pp. 321–333.
Biblical history ends with the triumph of the Judaean community, the true “Israel,” the right to which title is found in the distant past. The Judaean view pervades the present sources, and whilst its David and Solomon ruled over a united land, the separation under Jeroboam is viewed as one of calf-worshipping northern tribes from Jerusalem with its one central temple and the legitimate priesthood of the Zadokites. It is from this narrower standpoint of an exclusive and confined Judah (and Benjamin) that the traditions as incorporated in the late recensions gain fresh force, and in Israel’s renunciation of the Judaean yoke the later hostility between the two may be read between the lines. The history in Kings was not finally settled until a very late date, as is evident from the important variations in the Septuagint, and it is especially in the description of the time of Solomon and the disruption that there continued to be considerable fluctuations.[1] The book has no finale and the sudden break may not be accidental. It is replaced by Chronicles, which, confining itself to Judaean history from a later standpoint (after the Persian age), includes new characteristic traditions wherein some recollection of more recent events may be recognized. Thus, the south Judaean or south Palestinian element shows itself in Judaean genealogies and lists; there are circumstantial stories of the rehabilitation of the Temple and the reorganization of cultus; there are fuller traditions of inroads upon Judah by southern peoples and their allies. There is also a more definite subordination of the royal authority to the priesthood (so too in the writings of Ezekiel, q.v.); and the stories of punishment inflicted upon kings who dared to contend against the priests (Jehoash, Uzziah) point to a conflict of authority, a hint of which is already found in the reconciliation of Zerubbabel and the priest Joshua in a passage ascribed to Zechariah (ch. vi.).
23. Post-exilic Judaism.—With Nehemiah and Ezra we enter upon the era in which a new impulse gave to Jewish life and thought that form which became the characteristic orthodox Judaism. It was not a new religion that took root; older tendencies were diverted into new paths, the existing material was shaped to new ends. Judah was now a religious community whose representative was the high priest of Jerusalem. Instead of sacerdotal kings, there were royal priests, anointed with oil, arrayed with kingly insignia, claiming the usual royal dues in addition to the customary rights of the priests. With his priests and Levites, and with the chiefs and nobles of the Jewish families, the high priest directs this small state, and his death marks an epoch as truly as did that of the monarchs in the past. This hierarchical government, which can find no foundation in the Hebrew monarchy, is the forerunner of the Sanhedrin (q.v.); it is an institution which, however inaugurated, set its stamp upon the narratives which have survived. Laws were recast in accordance with the requirements of the time, with the result that, by the side of usages evidently of very great antiquity, details now appear which were previously unknown or wholly unsuitable. The age, which the scanty historical traditions themselves represent as one of supreme importance for the history of the Jews, once seemed devoid of interest, and it is entirely through the laborious scholarship of the 19th century that it now begins to reveal its profound significance. The Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis, that the hierarchical law in its complete form in the Pentateuch stands at the close and not at the beginning of biblical history, that this mature Judaism was the fruit of the 5th century B.C. and not a divinely appointed institution at the exodus (nearly ten centuries previously), has won the recognition of almost all Old Testament scholars. It has been substantiated by numerous subsidiary investigations in diverse departments, from different standpoints, and under various aspects, and can be replaced only by one which shall more adequately explain the literary and historical evidence (see further, p. 289).
The post-exilic priestly spirit represents a tendency which is absent from the Judaean Deuteronomic book of Kings but is fully mature in the later, and to some extent parallel, book of Chronicles (q.v.). The “priestly” traditions of the creation and of the patriarchs mark a very distinct advance upon the earlier narratives, and appear in a further developed form in the still later book of Jubilees, or “Little Genesis,” where they are used to demonstrate the pre-Mosaic antiquity of the priestly or Levitical institutions. There is also an unmistakable development in the laws; and the priestly legislation, though ahead of both Ezekiel and Deuteronomy, not to mention still earlier usage, not only continues to undergo continual internal modification, but finds a further distinct development, in the way of definition and interpretation, outside the Old Testament—in the Talmud (q.v.). Upon the characteristics of the post-exilic priestly writings we need not dwell.[2] Though one may often be repelled by their lifelessness, their lack of spontaneity and the externalization of the ritual, it must be recognized that they placed a strict monotheism upon a legal basis. “It was a necessity that Judaism should incrust itself in this manner; without those hard and ossified forms the preservation of its essential elements would have proved impossible. At a time when all nationalities, and at the same time all bonds of religion and national customs, were beginning to be broken up in the seeming cosmos and real chaos of the Graeco-Roman Empire, the Jews stood out like a rock in the midst of the ocean. When the natural conditions of independent nationality all failed them, they nevertheless artificially maintained it with an energy truly marvellous, and thereby preserved for themselves, and at the same time for the whole world, an eternal good.”[3]
If one is apt to acquire too narrow a view of Jewish legalism, the whole experience of subsequent history, through the heroic age of the Maccabees (q.v.) and onwards, only proves that the minuteness of ritual procedure could not cramp the heart. Besides, this was only one of the aspects of Jewish literary activity. The work represented in Nehemiah and Ezra, and put into action by the supporters of an exclusive Judaism, certainly won the day, and their hands have left their impress upon the historical traditions. But Yahwism, like Islam, had its sects and tendencies, and the opponents to the stricter ritualism always had followers. Whatever the predominant party might think of foreign marriages, the tradition of the half-Moabite origin of David serves, in the beautiful idyll of Ruth (q.v.), to suggest the debt which Judah and Jerusalem owed to one at least of its neighbours. Again, although some may have desired a self-contained community opposed to the heathen neighbours of Jerusalem, the story of Jonah implicitly contends against the attempt of Judaism to close its doors. The conflicting tendencies were incompatible, but Judaism retained the
- ↑ It is at least a coincidence that the prophet who took the part of Tobiah and Sanballat against Nehemiah (vi. 10 seq.) bears the same name as the one who advised Rehoboam to acquiesce in the disruption (1 Kings xii. 21–24), or announced the divine selection of Jeroboam (ib. v. 24, Septuagint only).
- ↑ See Hebrew Religion, § 8 seq., and the relevant portions of the histories of Israel.
- ↑ J. Wellhausen, art. “Israel,” Ency. Brit. 9th ed., vol. xiii. p. 419; or his Prolegomena, pp. 497 seq.
