Jewish Affairs in and Around

Jewish Affairs in and Around Jerusalem -- CA. 450 BCE

Comparatively little is known about Jewish life under Persian rule. Although during this time, Babylon had one of the highest populations of Jewish communities in the world, the significance of Jerusalem remained (as it always would) due to the Temple. During the period CA. 450 BCE, however, a glimpse of the state of Jewish life within Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and the reformational atmosphere experienced during that time, is given by the events surrounding the return of Ezra.

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem approximately eighty years after the initial Jewish return of 539 BCE, he was none too pleased. Although few can blame the apparent backsliding of some of the Jews that lived in Jerusalem during the rocky period surrounding the Persian rule of the area, when the High Priest Ezra returned in 458 BCE, he set his sights on immediate and thorough reform:

7,7 and there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 1-7,8 and he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 1-7,9 for upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. 1-7,10 for Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances. (Mechon Mamre (Hebrew Bible, English translation), 2004)

Not only does this period give one a glimpse into the nature of life under Ezra's reforms, but also just how life was in and around Jerusalem prior to those reforms -- perhaps, one of the most significant indicators of which seems to be the issue of Gentile wives.

Indeed, perhaps one of the most referenced of Ezra's reforms seems to surround his abolition of mixed marriages. In fact, it seems that Ezra was so dismayed by the apparent proliferation of Jewish/Gentile unions that "he wept and cried out to the Lord."(Medial, 2002):

10,1 Now while Ezra prayed, and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there was gathered together unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; for the people wept very sore. {S} 1-10,2 and Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra: 'We have broken faith with our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. 1-10,3 Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of the LORD, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 1-10,4 Arise; for the matter belongeth unto thee, and we are with thee; be of good courage, and do it.' (Mechon Mamre, 2004).

Of course this, rather harsh requirement points to two aspects of the Jewish life and collective psyche in the area at the time. for, although such a command may seem harsh, it is nonetheless reflective of the imperiled and challenged state of Jewish society during the time. After all, following such a harsh and long exile, there could be little tolerance for assimilation or laxity in Judaic religious practices or ritual. For those like Ezra, such a situation threatened the very survival of the nation and faith itself. However, in addition to the idea of the "imperiled nation" embedded in the Jewish psyche during the time (and, perhaps during modern time as well), it also pointed to the lax state of Jewish life and ritual in Jerusalem during this period -- as well as the turmoil that must have existed at the time these reforms were implemented.

Although it might be imagined that at the very lease the social reform concerning mixed marriages would result in emotional turmoil -- it also resulted in real danger. This is because following his declaration that mixed marriage should be immediately dissolved, the Samaritans and other involved groups were understandably offended to a degree in which violent attack against the Jewish community became a real possibility. As a result, Ezra decided to embark on rebuilding the city walls (WUJH, 2004). However, this act was not in Ezra's Persian-granted authority, and he was ordered to stop issuing such orders (WUJH). Obviously, again, this points to the difficult position of Jerusalem Jews under Persian rule. However, soon after the Persian order to stop building, Nehemiah arrived in 445 BCE, ordered and completed the walls in 52 days, not only in the face of Persian authority, but any other enemies of the Jewish society.