EZRA-NEHEMIAH SUMMARY

Ezra-Nehemiah (I am writing it this way because like Chronicles they were originally one book) covers two time periods after the exile: (1) the rebuilding of the Temple (520-516 BC); and (2) the returns of Ezra and Nehemiah in the the middle of the 400's BC. The book itself was written shortly after Chronicles

Rather than pointing to the same author, the quotation of the end of Chronicles in the beginning of Ezra-Nehemiah indicates the continuity of the postexilic community with the the preexilic community.

Brevard Childs has done much work in Ezra-Nehemiah. He identifies some main themes as: opposition from the people of the land; separation from foreigners; and the Lord's use of foreign leaders. Ezra the scribe read the Law of Moses to the people. Childs says that the situation was not that Ezra read the Law to reform the people, but to a reformed people.