Nehemiah (biblical figure)

Nehemiah is a biblical figure who is credited with helping to rebuild Jerusalem in the fifth century B.C.E. after its destruction by the Babylonians. Nehemiah is the focus of the Book of Nehemiah, one of the last chapters of the Jewish texts that make up the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is also the basis for the Old Testament, which is one of the foundations of Christian biblical tradition. The Book of Nehemiah is typically linked with that of the Book of Ezra, which roughly covers the same historical period and relates the story of the prophet Ezra. It is believed that the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah initially formed a single text that was divided into two separate works centuries later. According to Jewish tradition, Nehemiah is regarded as the author of his own story, as it is written from a first-person perspective.

Brief History

Jerusalem was the capital of the ancient Jewish state of Judah. In 587–586 B.C.E., the Babylonians destroyed both Jerusalem and the First Temple of Solomon during their siege of the city. As part of the Babylonian protocols for dealing with conquered states, Jerusalem's leadership was dismantled and many Jews were exiled to Babylon. While a population still remained in the city after its fall to the Babylonians, the people were very vulnerable in their now reduced state to attacks from such outside groups as the Phoenicians and the Samaritans. After the fall of the Babylonians to the Persian king Cyrus II in 539 B.C.E., Cyrus allowed a group of exiles to return to Jerusalem to begin the reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon, a building that is typically called the Second Temple.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was cupbearer—a position of prestige—to the Persian king Artaxerxes I. Upon hearing about the decayed state of Jerusalem and the poor condition of the Jews who remained there, he requested permission from Artaxerxes to go to Jerusalem around 445–430 B.C.E. His goal was to rebuild the city's walls to protect and restore its Jewish community. Artaxerxes was very fond of Nehemiah, so he agreed to send him to Jerusalem as its secular governor. He provided Nehemiah with letters ensuring his safe passage and a supply of timber to rebuild the city's gates and walls.

As governor, Nehemiah restored both the city's infrastructure and its spiritual foundations. Nehemiah was regarded as a responsible leader and fair administrator. Under his oversight, the Book of Nehemiah reports that the protective walls of Jerusalem were completed in only fifty-two days, an effort that was undertaken as part of a unified national effort. Upon completion of the walls, Nehemiah established political reforms intended to promote greater equality in the areas under his jurisdiction. Foremost among these, he forced the city's landowners to restore all the original lands and funds that had been seized as repayment of debts to their original owners.

Nehemiah is presented as a figure of great humility who rejected all of the special allotments that his position entitled to him so that the people could be fed first. Jerusalem enjoyed greater religious freedom during this era, as the Persians were comparatively tolerant of the Jewish people. While his decrees enjoyed popular support among most Jews, Nehemiah was opposed by both internal and external forces. In Jerusalem, the moneyed classes were unhappy about his democratic policies, and there were attempts on his life. Among his listed rivals in the Book of Nehemiah were Sanballat, the governor of Samaria; Geshem, a Nabatean leader; and Tobiah, a powerful Ammonite official who may also have been of Jewish descent.

Importance of Nehemiah

Nehemiah has great symbolic value to the Jewish people. In particular, the metaphor of "building walls" has both historical and allegorical importance. The original joint Book of Ezra-Nehemiah charts the historical return of the Jewish people to their homelands after their Babylonian exile and the reconstruction not only of the city of Jerusalem but also of the Jewish religious community. The metaphoric walls of the city are often invoked as a message to readers of the Bible to rebuild the walls of faith during periods of spiritual doubt.

Equally important is Nehemiah's role in helping to reestablish Jewish identity during a period of great political and civil turmoil. Having only a small population in a volatile region, the Jewish people had strayed from the foundations established by God during the exile. Nehemiah helped lead them back into God's favor by forcing them to honor the Sabbath and to contribute to the maintenance of the temple through an annual tax. In his efforts, he was joined by two other major figures in the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah: Zerubabbel, who is credited with leading the first wave of refugees back to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple, and Ezra, who restored Jewish law to the citizens of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah's restoration of the Jewish kingdom also helped to establish the Jerusalem familiar to readers of the Christian New Testament. Prior to Ezra-Nehemiah, the Jews and Jerusalem were in a state of great spiritual and national disarray. Under Nehemiah's oversight, the Jewish people began a period of renewal. With Ezra's help, he restored Mosaic Law to the Jewish people and helped bring them back to a place of righteousness. In the Book of Nehemiah, the reader begins to see the elements that would become familiar to readers of the New Testament.

Topic Today

In 2007, several artifacts from the era of Persian-controlled Jerusalem in the fifth century were identified at the base of an ancient wall. Archaeologists have linked these materials to the same period as the wall's construction, thereby potentially offering a degree of historical legitimacy to the story of Nehemiah's reconstruction of Jerusalem's walls.

Regardless of its historical validity, Nehemiah's story retains value as a message of Jewish identity and faith. Nehemiah sacrificed a position of authority and respect to journey to Judea to rebuild the spiritual and physical walls of Jewish faith. As a result, he is regarded as a figure of strength, belief, and leadership. His story has been interpreted as an identifiable message that depicts the impact a single individual can have in his or her desire to serve God. He is also presented as a figure of devotion whose singular focus on God resulted in great works.

Bibliography

Doherty, Regan E. "Biblical Wall Located, Archaeologist Says." National Geographic, 30 Nov. 2007, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071130-AP-israel-jerusalem.html. Accessed 12 Oct. 2016.

Hirsch, Emil G., et al. "Nehemiah." Jewish Encyclopedia, jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11422-nehemiah. Accessed 12 Oct. 2016.

"Introducing Nehemiah." InterVarsity Press, www.ivpress.com/bible/neh/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2016.

Klingbeil, Gerald A. "Between the Traditional and the Innovative: Ezra-Nehemiah in Current Research." Religion Compass, vol. 3, no. 2, 2009, pp. 182–99.

Laird, Donna. "The Nehemiah Memoir." Negotiating Power in Ezra-Nehemiah. Society of Biblical Literature, 2016, pp. 197–228.

"Nehemiah." Insight for Living Ministries, www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-historical-books/nehemiah. Accessed 12 Oct. 2016.

Power, Cian. "Constructions of Exile in the Persian Period." Myths of Exile: History and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme and Ingrid Hjelm, Routledge, 2015, pp. 65–78.

Willette, Dorothy Resig. "Nehemiah—The Man Behind the Wall." Bible History Daily, 17 Sept. 2014, www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/nehemiah%E2%80%93the-man-behind-the-wall/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2016.

Wright, Jacob L. Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and Its Earliest Readers. de Guyter, 2004.

Zakheim, Dov. Nehemiah: Statesman and Sage. Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2016.