Nehemiah: A Commentary (Critical Commentaries)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Lisbeth Fried’s commentary on Nehemiah is the second instalment of her two-volume commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah. The first instalment, Ezra, was published by Sheffield Phoenix in 2015. Like her commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah too takes full advantage of recent results in archaeology and numismatics, as well as in the mechanisms of Persian and Hellenistic rule, and in the influence of the Hellenistic and Maccabean Wars on Jewish writings.
Like her Ezra, the present volume includes a new translation of the book of Nehemiah, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues.
Although not finalized until the Maccabean period, the book of Nehemiah contains a temple foundation document from the time of Darius I, a story of rebuilding and dedicating a city wall around Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century, and a memoir from a fifth-century governor of Judah. Numerous additions and lists that date from the Hellenistic and Maccabean periods complete the book.
Fried concludes that the book of Nehemiah contains two separate first-person reports—one by the wall-builder, wine steward of Artaxerxes I, whose name we do not know, and one by Yeho’ezer, a fifth-century governor of Judah. We know his name from seals found at the governor’s mansion at Ramat Raḥel. Nehemiah, whose full name was actually Nehemiah Attiršata ben Ḥacaliah, neither built the wall around Jerusalem nor served as a fifth-century governor of Judah, Fried argues. Rather, he was a Persian Jew who had charge of the temple priesthood under Zerubbabel in the days of Darius I.
Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Nehemiah.
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- Provides a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues
- Takes full advantage of recent results in archaeology and numismatics
- Includes a new translation of the book of Nehemiah, plus text-critical notes on each verse
- Introduction to the Book of Nehemiah
- Nehemiah 1.1a, Superscript
- Nehemiah 1.1b-4, Prologue to the Story of the Wall Builder: The Protagonist Hears the Terrible News
- Nehemiah 1.5-11, The Prologue Continues: Nehemiah Prays
- Nehemiah 2.1-10, The Prologue Continues: Nehemiah Receives Permission to Build a Wall around Jerusalem
- Nehemiah 2.11-16a, The Prologue Continues –Nehemiah Arrives in Jerusalem and Prepares to Rebuild its Walls
- Nehemiah 2.16b-20, The Plot Begins, the Wall is Begun, but Nehemiah Makes a Fateful Decision
- Nehemiah 3.1-32, Building Jerusalem’s Wall
- Nehemiah 3.33-38 [ET 4.1-6], The Plot Thickens—Enemies Threaten Work on Jerusalem’s City Wall
- Nehemiah 4.1-17 [ET 4.7-23], Nehemiah Takes Charge and Defends Jerusalem
- Nehemiah 5.1-5, Famine and Debt Crisis in Judah
- Nehemiah 5.6-13, The Governor’s Reaction
- Nehemiah 5.14-16, The Governor Reflects on his Time in Office
- Nehemiah 5.17-19, The Governor’s Meals
- Nehemiah 6.1-9, The Wall Building Resumes and the Threat Continues
- Nehemiah 6.10-14, The Prophets Make Nehemiah Afraid
- Nehemiah 6.15-19, Success! The Wall Is Completed, but There Is No Safety for the Wall Builder
- Nehemiah 7.1-3, Yehoʻezer, the Governor, Establishes Guards for Jerusalem
- Nehemiah 7.4-5, A Segue to the Register of the Inhabitants of Judah (Nehemiah 7.6-68 = Ezra 2)
- Nehemiah 7.64-72 [ET 65-73] = Ezra 2.62-70, Attiršata—Name or Title?
- Nehemiah 8.1–12.26, Late Intrusions into an Original Wall-Building Story
- Nehemiah 8.1-12, Ezra Reads the Law
- Nehemiah 8.13-18, The Holiday of Sukkot
- Nehemiah 9.1-4, A National Day of Lamentation
- Nehemiah 9.5-37, The Levites’ Prayer
- Nehemiah 10, A Religious Association in Second Temple Judah
- Nehemiah 11.1-24, Repopulating Jerusalem
- Nehemiah 11.25-36, Inhabited Towns Outside of Jerusalem
- Nehemiah 12.1-9, The Priests and Levites Who Went Up with Zerubbabel
- Nehemiah 12.10-26, The Priests and Levites down to the End of the Persian Empire
- Nehemiah 12.27-43, The Dedication of Jerusalem’s City Wall and of the Temple of Yhwh in Jerusalem
- Nehemiah 12.44-47, Appointment of Temple Personnel
- Nehemiah 13.1-3, A Curse on Anyone Who Would Destroy the City
- Nehemiah 13.4-31, The Conclusion of the Governor’s Report
- Nehemiah 13.4-9, The Governor Ejects Tobiah from the Temple
- Nehemiah 13.10-14, The Persian Governor Appoints Temple Officials
- Nehemiah 13.15-22, The Persian Governor Determines Who Enters the City and When
- Nehemiah 13.23-31, The Persian Governor Fulminates against Intermarriages
- Title: Nehemiah: A Commentary
- Author: Lisbeth S. Fried
- Series: Critical Commentaries
- Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Pages: 462
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- ISBNs: 9781914490033, 1914490037
- Resource ID: LLS:NEHEMIAHACOMM
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-24T19:57:09Z