An Atheist Explores the Apocrypha Part Three: Wives and Children? Meh. (1 Esdras 6-9)
1 Esdras 6-9
Wives and Children? Meh.
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, 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/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
1 Esdras 6
“By whose appointment do ye build this house and this roof, and perform all the other things? and who are the workmen that perform these things?”
I feel stupid for not recognising it earlier, but “Esdras” is surely an alternative of “Ezra”. I knew the Zorobabel sounded familiar – in Ezra he’s “Zerubbabel” and his friend “Jesus” is “Jeshua”, but they’re obviously the same people. In Ezra they have more of a support role than here, where Zorobabel/Zerubbabel has taken a fairly prominent role.
I recognised the connection now because in this section “Sisinnes the governor of Syria and Phenice, with Sathrabuzanes and his companions” get snotty about planning permission and, acting like petty local bureaucrats or interfering neighbours, write to Darius to check that the Jews are allowed to build their temple.
Luckily the Babylonians are evidently good record-keepers because Darius finds a copy of Cyrus’ permission to the Jews in his archives, and sends a letter back in support of them. This includes such things as “And out of the tribute of Celosyria and Phenice a portion carefully to be given these men for the sacrifices of the Lord, that is, to Zorobabel the governor, for bullocks, and rams, and lambs And also corn, salt, wine, and oil, and that continually every year without further question, according as the priests that be in Jerusalem shall signify to be daily spent”. Part of me thinks that this kind of thing was inserted to try to give such a claim authority. “See”, the Israelites could say, “It’s written here that this is what Cyrus said. Surely you can’t deny this second-hand claim?”
I went back to compare with Ezra. In there, first of all “Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe” write to complain to Ataxerxes, and then the whole thing is repeated when “Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and his companions the Apharsachites” write to Darius. It’s pretty obvious that “Setharboznai” and “Sathrabuzanes” are meant to be the same person. “Tatnai” and “Sisinnes” are a bit more of a trickier equivocation.
I was also reminded that Chapter 2 of Ezra is a remorseless list of the Israelites who were “Children of [x]”. If I feel that my stamina is up to it, I may compare this to the equivalent 1 Esdras chapter.
1 Esdras 7
“And thus was the holy house finished in the three and twentieth day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius king of the Persians”
Now that planning permission is granted, Sisennes and Sathrabuzanes help the Israelites finish their temple, and once it’s done there’s another big sacrifice for consecration and then everyone celebrates the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
That’s about it, this chapter is a merciful fifteen verses long. I note that there is reference to the prophecies of “Aggeus” and “Zacharias”, who presumably are Haggai and Zechariah. I went and checked Haggai, and he appears to be prophesying at the time that the temple is rebuilt, so, no, this isn’t any kind of fulfilment of what he says. Zechariah is more wordy, but he’s also prophesying at a time when Zerubbabel and Jeshua (called Joshua in Zechariah) are already building the temple. It’s not much of a prophecy to say that a building that is currently being built will one day be finished.
Both prophets, though, also say something along the lines of the renewed kingdom conquering all her neighbours. This bit, as yet in Esdras, has not come to pass.
1 Esdras 8
“For Esdras had very great skill, so that he omitted nothing of the law and commandments of the Lord, but taught all Israel the ordinances and judgments.”
My word but this chapter goes on a bit! It’s 96 verses long. Here Esdras enters the story, and since from time to time the chapter slips into first person we must assume that he’s the one writing his eponymous book. And he certainly does have a skill for omitting nothing.
The chapter starts with the words of an official letter from King Ataxerxes giving Esdras leave to take what he needs to help rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. This is pretty much the same as that already attributed to Darius, and now we get a third Babylonian king (allegedly the one between Cyrus and Darius although this doesn’t seem to have been the case) doing the same thing.
After this goes into some detail about the treasures that may be taken with them, we then get another long list of the sons of whomever and how many followers they take with them with Esdras. Hilariously, after thirteen verses describing this (and, for some reason mixing “seventy” and “threescore and ten”), and getting a total of 1500 followers, Esdras pitches camp by the River Theras and suddenly realises he forgot to pack the Levites.
So he sends some men back to talk to either two guys called Saddeus and Daddeus or the same guy who changes spelling in the space of two verses, and 258 extra people that are Levites and other sundry temple servants descended from those chosen by King David. Oh, I forgot that Esdras also gives us his family tree back to Aaron, the brother of Moses.
Before they set out for Jerusalem, Esdras and his troupe pray to God for protection, because they are too embarrassed to take up King Ataxerxes’ offer of an armed escort lest it make God seem like He can’t protect His chose people. Luckily they “found him favourable unto us”.
There then follows another remorseless cataloguing as Esdras unpacks all the treasures they bought with them. Well, at least he’s meticulous in his record keeping. At least, I assume he is; I haven’t bothered to compare the inventories to see if they match. Esdras even mentions how efficient he is – “And all the weight of them was written up the same hour”.
But then, calamity! Word is bought to Esdras that the Israelites have been marrying from “of the Canaanites, Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, and the Moabites, Egyptians, and Edomites”. Esdras, racial purist that he is, reacts badly. “And as soon as I had heard these things, I rent my clothes, and the holy garment, and pulled off the hair from off my head and beard, and sat me down sad and very heavy”.
He offers up a prayer to God that basically says, look Lord, you’ve just banished us for seventy years as slaves because we weren’t racially pure enough, and now as soon as we’re back the people have started taking up with foreign weirdoes again, so I really wouldn’t blame you if you gave us all a good smiting right here and now.
For some reason, God doesn’t do this, but everyone nonetheless agrees to “put away all our wives, which we have taken of the heathen, with their children”. And here the chapter at last ends, on a bit of a cliffhanger no less. What kind of “putting away” are we going to get? The pointy kind?
1 Esdras 9
“And when he opened the law, they stood all straight up. So Esdras blessed the Lord God most High, the God of hosts, Almighty.”
A proclamation is sent out for all to gather at the Temple, with the threat of confiscation of cattle for any that don’t. It was a dark and stormy night (“And all the multitude sat trembling in the broad court of the temple because of the present foul weather”) when Esdras tells the Israelites to “put aside” their strange wives and sons, which everyone instantly agrees to do (apparently), except that they ask for a few days to get this done on account of the bad weather.
I don’t think anyone gets killed, only unceremoniously booted out of the house. There’s one of Esdras’ favourite lists of all the people that had strange wives – a List of Shame. Looks like everyone that was named in the list of people that came with him, in other words *everyone* had a foreign wife. Did Esdras forget to bring any women along as well as temple functionaries?
Then Esdras reads The Law and is really great and everyone thinks he’s brilliant and weeps with joy (it’s good writing your own account isn’t it, you can claim all sorts of stuff) and it gets declared a holiday. The End. Nobody seems overly concerned about having to get rid of wives and children; maybe they weren’t considered very important anyway.
Wives and Children? Meh.
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, 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/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
1 Esdras 6
“By whose appointment do ye build this house and this roof, and perform all the other things? and who are the workmen that perform these things?”
I feel stupid for not recognising it earlier, but “Esdras” is surely an alternative of “Ezra”. I knew the Zorobabel sounded familiar – in Ezra he’s “Zerubbabel” and his friend “Jesus” is “Jeshua”, but they’re obviously the same people. In Ezra they have more of a support role than here, where Zorobabel/Zerubbabel has taken a fairly prominent role.
I recognised the connection now because in this section “Sisinnes the governor of Syria and Phenice, with Sathrabuzanes and his companions” get snotty about planning permission and, acting like petty local bureaucrats or interfering neighbours, write to Darius to check that the Jews are allowed to build their temple.
Luckily the Babylonians are evidently good record-keepers because Darius finds a copy of Cyrus’ permission to the Jews in his archives, and sends a letter back in support of them. This includes such things as “And out of the tribute of Celosyria and Phenice a portion carefully to be given these men for the sacrifices of the Lord, that is, to Zorobabel the governor, for bullocks, and rams, and lambs And also corn, salt, wine, and oil, and that continually every year without further question, according as the priests that be in Jerusalem shall signify to be daily spent”. Part of me thinks that this kind of thing was inserted to try to give such a claim authority. “See”, the Israelites could say, “It’s written here that this is what Cyrus said. Surely you can’t deny this second-hand claim?”
I went back to compare with Ezra. In there, first of all “Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe” write to complain to Ataxerxes, and then the whole thing is repeated when “Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and his companions the Apharsachites” write to Darius. It’s pretty obvious that “Setharboznai” and “Sathrabuzanes” are meant to be the same person. “Tatnai” and “Sisinnes” are a bit more of a trickier equivocation.
I was also reminded that Chapter 2 of Ezra is a remorseless list of the Israelites who were “Children of [x]”. If I feel that my stamina is up to it, I may compare this to the equivalent 1 Esdras chapter.
1 Esdras 7
“And thus was the holy house finished in the three and twentieth day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius king of the Persians”
Now that planning permission is granted, Sisennes and Sathrabuzanes help the Israelites finish their temple, and once it’s done there’s another big sacrifice for consecration and then everyone celebrates the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
That’s about it, this chapter is a merciful fifteen verses long. I note that there is reference to the prophecies of “Aggeus” and “Zacharias”, who presumably are Haggai and Zechariah. I went and checked Haggai, and he appears to be prophesying at the time that the temple is rebuilt, so, no, this isn’t any kind of fulfilment of what he says. Zechariah is more wordy, but he’s also prophesying at a time when Zerubbabel and Jeshua (called Joshua in Zechariah) are already building the temple. It’s not much of a prophecy to say that a building that is currently being built will one day be finished.
Both prophets, though, also say something along the lines of the renewed kingdom conquering all her neighbours. This bit, as yet in Esdras, has not come to pass.
1 Esdras 8
“For Esdras had very great skill, so that he omitted nothing of the law and commandments of the Lord, but taught all Israel the ordinances and judgments.”
My word but this chapter goes on a bit! It’s 96 verses long. Here Esdras enters the story, and since from time to time the chapter slips into first person we must assume that he’s the one writing his eponymous book. And he certainly does have a skill for omitting nothing.
The chapter starts with the words of an official letter from King Ataxerxes giving Esdras leave to take what he needs to help rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. This is pretty much the same as that already attributed to Darius, and now we get a third Babylonian king (allegedly the one between Cyrus and Darius although this doesn’t seem to have been the case) doing the same thing.
After this goes into some detail about the treasures that may be taken with them, we then get another long list of the sons of whomever and how many followers they take with them with Esdras. Hilariously, after thirteen verses describing this (and, for some reason mixing “seventy” and “threescore and ten”), and getting a total of 1500 followers, Esdras pitches camp by the River Theras and suddenly realises he forgot to pack the Levites.
So he sends some men back to talk to either two guys called Saddeus and Daddeus or the same guy who changes spelling in the space of two verses, and 258 extra people that are Levites and other sundry temple servants descended from those chosen by King David. Oh, I forgot that Esdras also gives us his family tree back to Aaron, the brother of Moses.
Before they set out for Jerusalem, Esdras and his troupe pray to God for protection, because they are too embarrassed to take up King Ataxerxes’ offer of an armed escort lest it make God seem like He can’t protect His chose people. Luckily they “found him favourable unto us”.
There then follows another remorseless cataloguing as Esdras unpacks all the treasures they bought with them. Well, at least he’s meticulous in his record keeping. At least, I assume he is; I haven’t bothered to compare the inventories to see if they match. Esdras even mentions how efficient he is – “And all the weight of them was written up the same hour”.
But then, calamity! Word is bought to Esdras that the Israelites have been marrying from “of the Canaanites, Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, and the Moabites, Egyptians, and Edomites”. Esdras, racial purist that he is, reacts badly. “And as soon as I had heard these things, I rent my clothes, and the holy garment, and pulled off the hair from off my head and beard, and sat me down sad and very heavy”.
He offers up a prayer to God that basically says, look Lord, you’ve just banished us for seventy years as slaves because we weren’t racially pure enough, and now as soon as we’re back the people have started taking up with foreign weirdoes again, so I really wouldn’t blame you if you gave us all a good smiting right here and now.
For some reason, God doesn’t do this, but everyone nonetheless agrees to “put away all our wives, which we have taken of the heathen, with their children”. And here the chapter at last ends, on a bit of a cliffhanger no less. What kind of “putting away” are we going to get? The pointy kind?
1 Esdras 9
“And when he opened the law, they stood all straight up. So Esdras blessed the Lord God most High, the God of hosts, Almighty.”
A proclamation is sent out for all to gather at the Temple, with the threat of confiscation of cattle for any that don’t. It was a dark and stormy night (“And all the multitude sat trembling in the broad court of the temple because of the present foul weather”) when Esdras tells the Israelites to “put aside” their strange wives and sons, which everyone instantly agrees to do (apparently), except that they ask for a few days to get this done on account of the bad weather.
I don’t think anyone gets killed, only unceremoniously booted out of the house. There’s one of Esdras’ favourite lists of all the people that had strange wives – a List of Shame. Looks like everyone that was named in the list of people that came with him, in other words *everyone* had a foreign wife. Did Esdras forget to bring any women along as well as temple functionaries?
Then Esdras reads The Law and is really great and everyone thinks he’s brilliant and weeps with joy (it’s good writing your own account isn’t it, you can claim all sorts of stuff) and it gets declared a holiday. The End. Nobody seems overly concerned about having to get rid of wives and children; maybe they weren’t considered very important anyway.
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