An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 82: Wherein Petty Bureaucrats Are Worse Than Armies (Ezra 1-5)

Ezra 1-5
Wherein petty bureaucrats are worse than armies.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Ezra 1

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”

Ezra begins with pretty much the same verses as Chronicles ends, with Cyrus of Persia suddenly having God-given visions to restore Jerusalem. This is to fulfil the prophecies of Jeremiah, which we have not been given yet (I notice a Book of Jeremiah later on…). Not only does Cyrus grant the land back, but he also gives many gifts of silver and gold, including the temple artifacts plundered by Nabuchadnezzar. It’s a short chapter, setting up what is to come, I assume.

Ezra 2

“Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;”

This chapter is basically a register of all of the tribes, or perhaps families as the names are not the classic twelve tribe names, that return to Jerusalem/Judah from Babylon. The desendants are numbered, ranging from forty two to several thousand per group. Some of the Levite descendants can’t provide enough proof of their lineage to be able to officiate, but it seems that there are enough officers of the temple to return to proper function.

Ezra 3

“From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.”

Two men, Jeshua and Zerubbabel take leadership of the Israelites, and begin with restoring burnt offerings before the temple is built. But eventually they send to Tyre and Zidon for cedar trees and craftsmen, and begin construction of a new temple. There’s a nice little touch at the end where some of the people sing songs of praise (including the sons of Asaph, those sacred singers from amongst the Levites) but some of the older members who remember the old temple (so the captivity was only a short period of time – I’d always assumed that it was for many generations) start weeping, and those listening from far off are unable to tell if the sounds are those of joy or sorrow. I like that kind of ambiguous mix, because of course, it’s both and probably many people present would be feeling a mix of both.

Ezra 4

“And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.”

Here’s a fun thing – there are enemies of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who decide to start a letter-writing campaign against the temple. These guys, Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe are the antecedents of people that write passive-aggressive letters to local newspapers about building developments, or the kind of work sneak that writes an email to the boss behind a cow-workers back. They write in Syrian, so maybe they are Syrians; also we get a whole load of new tribes of people that are different from our old friends the Philistines and the Ammonites. Possibly they will collectively become the Samaritans as they settle Samaria.

Anyway, the text of the letter warns Ataxerxes/Ahasuersis of Persia (who has replaced Cyrus) that Jerusalem has in times past been a rebellious city, and that by allowing they to rebuild their walls he will be storing up trouble for himself. Ataxerxes checks his records and confirms this, writes back and tells Rehum and Shimshai to get the Israelites to stop building, which they do by some unspecified means (probably by constantly delaying planning permission committees). This situation lasts until the reign of Darius.

The appearance of these Persian kings means that we can now definitively date these happenings – to mid 6^th century BC. The problem is there is no Ataxerxes between Cyrus and Darius, but there are two other fairly short-lived Persian kings, and possibly the name is used in a similar sense as “Pharaoh” is used in the earlier chapters, meaning a king of Persia whose name the compiler doesn’t know, or care, about.

Ezra 5

“We asked their names also, to certify thee, that we might write the names of the men that were the chief of them.”

Some more passive-aggressive letter writing again, possibly a re-telling of the same story as the last chapter, possibly demonstrating that petty bureaucrats are rather than armies are the new enemy of the age, as the great temple planning wrangle continues, like the case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce in Bleak House. I half expect the Circumlocution Office to make an appearance.

This time, Tatnai and Shatharboznai are the bureaucrats in question, and they first confront the men building the temple, who give their names only as “servants of God”. So they write a letter to King Darius of Persia, giving a summary of the agreements with King Cyrus. They suggest to Darius that he check that such an order was actually given by his predecessor, presumably in the hopes that the answer will be “no”. We know otherwise, but the chapter ends before Darius investigates.