Study Questions

1. What does Ezra’s name refer to?
2. How does the Masoretic Text treat Ezra and Nehemiah?
3. After the return to Jerusalem, when do the priests begin to offer the sacrifices?
4. In which year of Darius’s reign is the temple completed?
5. How does Ezra arrange for safety for himself and his party as they journey to Jerusalem?
6. How many Jews does Nehemiah feed from his own resources for twelve years?
7. According to Judaism, what did Ezra establish?
8. Who wrote the first detailed Christian commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah?
9. Who came first to Jerusalem, according to traditional understanding: Ezra or Nehemiah?
10. What type of form is the book of Nehemiah?
11. In Ezra and Nehemiah, what does resumptive repetition often indicate?
12. According to Eskenazi, a comparison of the society Ezra and Nehemiah with what other contemporary society argues for an egalitarianism?
13. In Hoglund’s reconstruction, what purpose did the structure associated with Nehemiah serve?

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