Chapter 11 of Provan, Long, and Longman’s book, A Biblical History of Israel, takes us from the Fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC all the way through to the Post-Exilic Period. Let’s look at the particulars of what Provan discusses in this chapter.
The Deportation
Despite what most might assume, Provan tells us that when Nebuchadnezzar sent the Jews into exile, he did not, in fact, exile the entire population of Judah. In fact, a close reading of Jeremiah and II Kings bears this out. II Kings 25:11-12 says that the poorest people were left in the land to work the vineyards and fields. Jeremiah 52:28-30 says that 3,023 Jews were taken into exile in Nebuchadnezzar’s 7th year, 832 from Jerusalem in Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th year, and 745 into exile by Nebuzzaradan, for a total of 4,600 people. So basically, it was the urban elite who were taken into exile. As Provan puts it, “They would no longer be able to serve their own interests but would have to do the Babylonian’s bidding” (385).
As for those who were left, the last few chapters of Jeremiah tell of a number of tragic events that further transpired. As I just said, Nebuchadnezzar left the poorest people in the land. He also stationed a garrison of troops in the land and appointed a man name Gedaliah as the governor, who then moved the capital to Mizpah, a town north of Jerusalem. A Jew named Ishmael led some men to Mizpah, assassinated Gedaliah, and massacred the Babylonian troops. After that, the Jews left in the land were afraid that Nebuchadnezzar would come back and kill them all, and so, led by a man named Jonathan of Kareah, and despite the pleadings of Jeremiah himself, they fled to Egypt, forcing Jeremiah to go with them.
The Fall of Babylon
As for Babylon, the empire didn’t last much longer after Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC. The final king of Babylon was Nabonidus (555-539 BC) who is known for two things: (1) He elevated the moon god cult over that of the worship of Marduk, and then (2) He moved to Tema (in modern Saudi Arabia) and left his son, Belshazzar, on the throne in Babylon as co-regent. This is the Belshazzar mentioned in Daniel 5. It is worth noting that in Daniel 5, it is said that Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar’s father—that isn’t true. He was the son of Nabonidus, who was not from the family of Nebuchadnezzar. So why did the writer of Daniel say that? I think it has to do with literary creativity for continuity within Daniel 1-6. The writer isn’t interested in providing accurate historical details every step of the way. He is interested in showing the rise and fall of Babylon and the faithfulness of the Jews during the exile.
The Postexilic Period
The biblical sources for the postexilic period include Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, as well as the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In addition to those, we also have a few extra-biblical sources: The Cyrus Cylinder, The Behistun Inscription, The Inscription of Udjahorresnet and various Aramaic Elephantine papyri. In addition, there are references to the Jews of the postexilic period in the writings of the Greek historians Herodotus, Zenophon, and Ctesias.
The Cyrus Cylinder reveals Cyrus’ policy of letting foreign people return to their homelands and restore their own religious practices. This fits nicely with the story of the Judean exiles returning to the land of Judah. Now, the first wave of returning exiles took place roughly around 539 BC, while the second wave returned in the late 520s. Sheshbazzar, who is called a prince of Judah, led the first exiles back to the land. It is speculated that he was in the royal line of David, but after the brief mention of him in Ezra 1:8-11, and 5:14-16, he is never mentioned again. We don’t know anything more about him.
The second wave of returning came under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who became the governor, and Joshua the priest. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah also prophesied during this time. In fact, when we look at the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, they are dated so specifically, we know the actual dates on which they were spoken. Haggai’s four prophecies are dated (with our modern calendar) to August 29, 520 BC, October 17, 520 BC, and two on December 18, 520 BC. Zechariah’s prophecies are dated to either October or November of 520 BC, February 15th, 519 BC, and December 7, 518 BC.
Both Haggai and Zechariah prophesied that the Jew had to finish rebuilding the Temple. The story as to what happened is quite interesting. When the Jews first returned in 539 BC, they began to rebuild the Temple. Ezra 4 tells us, though that the building was halted by King Artaxerxes in 530 BC, though in reality, it was Cambyses who ruled from 530-522 BC. It wasn’t until 520 BC when, inspired by the prophesies of Haggai and Zechariah, the Jews began to resume work on the Temple, even though they didn’t get official permission. When this point was brought up to the new king, Darius, he consulted the records, found the decree by Cyrus the Great that said it was okay for foreign peoples to rebuild their temples, somehow missed the command by Artaxerxes/Cambyses that halted the work, and therefore allowed the work to be completed.
The “Enemies” in the Land
When one reads both Ezra and Nehemiah, one learns that there were certain people in the land who were hostile to the returning exiles. Understanding who these people were is quite interesting. Basically, we need to first look back at Assyria’s destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC. Assyria’s policy was to deport the majority of the defeated population to other parts of its empire while importing various foreign peoples into the conquered country. The result was that the ten northern tribes were effectively eliminated for good. The people left in the former land of Israel were a combination of Israelites (who were quite pagan, though were quasi-YHWH worshippers) and completely foreign people. Over time, they intermarried and settled into the land.
On top of that, after the Babylonian exile, the Judeans who were left in the land also slowly intermingled with those Israelite-foreigner group. And so, when the Jews who were exiled to Babylon came back to the land (first under Sheshbazzar, then Zerubbabel, and eventually Nehemiah), they encountered an ethnically-mixed and religiously-syncretistic people. To put it bluntly, to Nehemiah, these people were bastard offspring of foreign pagans and idolatrous pagan Israelites.
That being said, a few clarifying words need to be made about Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra the priest came to Judea in 458 BC, while Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer to Artaxerxes, came to Judea in 445 BC to be the governor. That means both men came a good 50-70 years after the first exiles had returned. And what they found was that the original exiles had settled in, intermarried with the people of the land, and were living their lives. To Ezra and Nehemiah, though, this was horrible, and they basically went about enforcing the Torah and expelling any foreign elements from the Jewish community, including forcing Jews to divorce their foreign spouses and kicking them out, along with their “tainted” children, of the community.
If you think that sounds a bit harsh, and a tad racist, well…I have to agree. But it really isn’t that simple. Although Provan doesn’t address this issue, really, I want to share just one or two thoughts. We see in various prophets (i.e. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) that the exile was seen as the “death” of the nation, whereas the return from exile was described as a “resurrection” of the nation and a sign of God re-creating His people. The natural question, therefore, was, “What will this re-created people of God look like?” If the Old Mosaic covenant was broken, if there was to be a new covenant (as Jeremiah prophesied) that wouldn’t be like the old covenant, what did that mean? For in the same prophets (especially Isaiah and Zechariah), there are declarations that Gentiles would somehow “get in” to being part of God’s people.
Thus, you had an unresolved dilemma at this time. The position of Ezra/Nehemiah was this: “The reason we were sent into exile was because we broke the Torah and let foreigners influence us. Therefore, we must expel those foreigners and build Jewish life around the Torah.” –and to a degree, that makes sense. But then again, like I said, there were passages in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah (and I would argue Jonah) that effectively said that God was going to welcome Gentiles as well. So how would that happen? At this point in Israel’s history, it isn’t answered. I think the answer to that question is what is presented in the New Testament, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The Book of Esther
The final item in the postexilic period Provan addresses is the Book of Esther. The story happens is set during the reign of Ahasuerus/Xerxes, who reigned from 486-465 BC. This would have been during the years shortly before the return of Ezra (458 BC) and the return of Nehemiah (445 BC). To put it another way, if Esther is historical, the events would have happened while Ezra and Nehemiah were still in Persia. Of course, that’s the question: Is the story of Esther actually historical?
The simple answer is that the evidence is really slim. There is no extra-biblical mention of a queen Esther who was married to Ahasuerus/Xerxes, although, of course, Ahasuerus/Xerxes certainly is historical. On top of that, the story of Esther tells the reason for the Jewish Feast of Purim, and so one would think there must be some sort of historical nugget that Purim celebrates. Nevertheless, Provan argues that although this historicity of the Book of Esther is in dispute, the story does give us a glimpse of the Jewish community that chose to not return, but rather to stay in Persia.
problem with Esther’s husband!
As a further point of historical interest, although King Darius of Persia’s advance into Greece was stopped at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, King Xerxes was able to defeat Athens and set it on fire early in his reign. That action caused the Greeks to resolve to fight back against Persia, and that led to the famous Battle of Thermopylae in 481 BC, in which Xerxes defeated Leonidas of Sparta. So yes, Esther’s husband in the Book of Esther is the same man who defeated Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae…and is thus a character in Gerard Butler’s 300!
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of Provan’s A Biblical History of Israel. Nevertheless, in the 2nd edition, Provan provides an appendix in which he addresses the criticisms by numerous minimalist scholars of the 1st edition. I will thus have one more post in which I discuss the appendix and give my final thoughts on Provan’s work and the topic of the historical reliability of the Old Testament as a whole.
I read that Ruth was written as a balance/contrast to Ezra/Neh marriage annulments.
On gentiles, at least the Torah we have, which may be finalized around the time of Ezra, talks about (God fearing) gentiles residing in Israel-land as having a subset of laws to obey.
I have also read that about Ruth, from an book of essays by Isaac Asimov. I don’t recall if it was his idea, but he fleshed out an argument for it.
Further to the previous, it’s a book called “The Story of Ruth”.