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§ 197, a.

CONSTITUENT PORTIONS, AND AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH.

The passage, i.-vii. 5, is written by Nehemiah in his own manner, which is quite peculiar. After this, he inserts an old catalogue which he had found, as he says himself, (verse 5,)—“I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first." This is to be found also in Ezra ii. It includes vii. 6-73, as far as the words" in their cities." But verses 70-72 have been wrought over with reference to Nehemiah and his time, though scarcely by his hand, but by that which wrote viii.—x.' But this passage connected therewith

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[He has some remarkable phrases: according to the good hand of my

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which my God put in my heart; ii. 12.

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, hear, O our God; iii. 36, (iv. 4.) 7 7 2 12, from fear of God; v. 15. 3i, remember me, O my God, for good; v. 19. See, also, vi. 9, 14, 16, vii. 5.]

6 [The catalogue agrees in many points with that in Ezra ; but some of the numbers are widely different, as will appear from the following, in which the dissimilar numbers are given:

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and extending from vii. 73," and when the seventh month came," to x. 40, is an interpolation.

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This appears from the following considerations:

The

1. The style is different. The personal character of Nehemiah does not appear; it is Nehemiah the Tirshatha, (governor,) viii. 9, x. 2; while elsewhere he is called the Pachah, (prefect,) v. 14, 15, 18. names Jehovah, Adonai, and Elohim, are used promiscuously, viii. 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, and elsewhere, while in all other parts of Nehemiah, except i. 5, 11, iv. 8, Elohim is the prevalent name." On account of a certain degree of affinity between this and the genuine and spurious books of Ezra, Hävernik ascribes the whole passage to Ezra himself. Kleinert, however, refers only chapters ix. and x. to him, and ascribes viii. to an assist

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Yet the sum total is said to be the same in both, though differing widely from the amount of the separate numbers given. There is also a difference in the sums of money contributed for the temple. Ezra says, the chiefs of the fathers gave sixty-one thousand gold daricks, and five thousand pounds of silver, and one hundred priests' garments; while Nehemiah makes the contribution of these chiefs twenty thousand gold daricks and two thousand two hundred pounds of silver. He adds, also, the Tirshatha gave one thousand gold daricks, fifty basins, and five hundred and thirty priests' garments, and makes the rest of the people add twenty thousand gold daricks, two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven garments. Besides this, Nehemiah adds some names omitted in Ezra; e. g. (vs. 7) Nahamani, one of the companions of Zerubabel. There is also a slight deviation from the order followed in the previous account. A name mentioned in Ezra is omitted in Nehemiah; e. g. children of Magbish, 156, Ezra ii. 30. There is sometimes a difference in the names; e. g. Neh. vii. 54, Bazlith; in Ezra, Bazloth; Neh. Fherida; Ezra, Pherouda; and others.]

a See Kleinert, p. 132, sq.

ant of Ezra and Nehemiah. But the passage could not have been written by a contemporary of Nehemiah, nor by the author of Ezra iii. Indeed, the argument that Ezra died before Nehemiah's time,- which otherwise might be of use," in spite of Nehemiah's silence respecting him, (i. 1—vii. 5,) — is not tenable; for in that case we should be obliged to regard the mention of him in xii. 36, as an interpolation.

2. The reading of the Law (viii. 1, sqq.) is mentioned here as if it now took place for the first time. In verse 14, the feast of tabernacles, which had already been celebrated, (Ezra iii. 4,) is regarded as something which has just been learned out of the Law, and (verse 17) the celebration is mentioned as the first that has taken place since the time of Joshua. Besides, in Ezra x. 3, sqq., an oath had been taken by the people that they would not marry foreign women; but here the same oath is required anew, (x. 29, 30.) Again: in the mention of the profanation of the Sabbath, and the measures for preventing that (xiii. 15-22) and the marriage of foreign women, (verses 23-31,) no reference is made to the account of the same thing in x. 29, sqq.

3. Again this passage is shown to be an interpolation, from the verbal affinity between the beginning of it and Ezra iii. 1.

Ezra iii. 1. "And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem."

Neh. vii. 73, viii. 1. "And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man," &c.

The same thing also appears from the connection

" See Josephus, Ant. xi. 5. Augusti, § 152. Bertholdt, p. 1023.

between this and the document interpolated at the end of chap. vii., which is parallel with Ezra ii. Chap. x. has the appearance of a contemporary document, for the author speaks in the first person, (verses 1, 31, 33, 40,) and it contains a list of those who signed the covenant, (verses 2-27.) But the spuriousness of many of the names shows it is a forgery of a later time."

§ 197, b.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

Chap. xi. contains a list of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and is connected in a certain manner with vii. 5. This may have been written by Nehemiah, and is at least from his time. 1 Ch. ix. is, it is well known, a later recast of the same thing. But, according to Bertholdt, the list contains, also, the inhabitants from Zerubabel's time. But this may be doubted.

Chap. xii. 1-26, contains a list of priests and Levites, which comes down to Jaddua, a high priest, who

a

[But it sometimes contradicts Ezra. Comp. viii. 17, with Ezra iii. 4. ] According to this passage, Zerubabel's contemporaries are Seraiah, x. 2, mentioned in xii. 1, and Ezra ii. 2; while, instead of him, in Neh. vii. 7, we have Azariah, who reappears in this passage. Seraiah, indeed, occurs as a priest in Neh. xi. 11; but the similarity of the name with Jeremiah, a contemporary of Zerubabel, (xii. 1,) favors the former opinion. Hattush occurs verse 4, as in xii. 2: one of that name occurs, indeed, in Ezra viii. 2, but he is a descendant of David, while this one is a priest. Shebaniah (verse 5) is the same with Shechaniah, (xii. 3.) Mallech (verse 4) occurs in xii. 2; Harim, (verses 6, 28,) — in Zerubabel's time, there were only sons of Harim, Ezra ii. 32, x. 21, 31. Meremoth (verse 5) occurs in xii. 3; Mijamin (verse 7) as in xii. 5; yet a priest Minjamin occurs in xii. 41. Maaziah and Bilgai (verse 8) are called Maadiah and Bilgah in xii. 5. Jeshua and Binnui (verse 9) are found in xii. 8. Kadmiel (verse 9) and Sherebiah (verse 12) appear in xii. 8; Bigvai (verse 16) in Ezra ii. 2.

• P. 1027.

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is contemporary with Alexander the Great, as Josephus says. This is probably derived from the history of the times referred to, verse 23, and cannot be the work of Nehemiah. In order to ascribe this to Nehemiah, Hävernik, without any reason, assumes that it relates to the consecration of the walls, (xii. 27, sqq.,) and attempts to make it probable that Nehemiah lived to the time of Jaddua. According to xiii. 28, he outlived the sons of Joiada, who was the grandfather of Jaddua.

The passage, xii. 27-43, relating to the consecration of the walls, is from Nehemiah's hand.

The clause, xii. 44-xiii. 3, is an interpolation which fills up a chasm in Nehemiah's memoirs, and is probably from the hand of a later priest, perhaps the compiler of the book. Chap. xii. 47, combines the times of Zerubabel and Nehemiah. The use of the name Elohim, in xiii. 1—3, favors the opinion that Nehemiah wrote the passage; but there is nothing else to support it. His memorials commence again with xiii. 4, and continue to the end of the book. It is, therefore, obvious that the whole book did not originate with Nehemiah, but is the work of a compiler who lived considerably later.

[Bertholdt thinks xiii. 28, is an interpolation. His reason is, that it contradicts the well-known passage in Josephus. The verse says, a son of Joiada, the high priest, married the daughter of Sanballat, while Josephus, who relates the story more in detail, says it was a son of John, the high priest, and therefore a grandson of Joiada, who engaged in this alliance. Besides, this

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Josephus, Ant. xi. 7, 8. See, also, Rambach's Annot. in hoc loco. Vitringa, Observ. sac. L. vi. p. 337. Leclerc, in loc. The two last think the passage is an interpolation. Darius the Persian (verse 22) may be Darius Nothus, as Hävernik thinks.

¿P. 1033.

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Ant. xi. 8, 2.

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