67. B.C. 444 to 312

B.C. 444 to 312

Chapter IV

Timeline View:

1. It was not until the twentieth year of Artaxerxes that the Jews received the long-desired permission to build the walls of Jerusalem. This permission was obtained by a Jew called Nehemiah, who held the high office of the royal cup-bearer, and whose concern that “the city of his fathers’ sepulchers lay waste” having been noticed by the king, led to the inquiries which induced this result. Nehemiah himself was granted leave of absence, and invested with full powers, as governor of the province, to enable him to execute his own designs, which circumstances had rendered coincident with the existing policy of the Persian government. He carried orders to the royal officers west of the Euphrates, to render him all possible assistance, and to furnish from the king’s forests in Lebanon such timber as he might require. Thus commissioned, Nehemiah proceeded to Judaea, escorted by a body of Persian officers and cavalry. In this person we have another instance of the liberality with which the great eastern monarchies treated persons of a different religion, and of foreign and captive origin. The rank and authority of Nehemiah at the Persian court are evinced by the commission itself, and by the great retinue which was allowed him; and his wealth is shown by the numerous servants he maintained, and the open table he kept at Jerusalem, which, with the other expenses of the governor, he defrayed from his own parse, declining to receive from the Jews the allowances belonging to his office.

2. A large town without walls offered so little inducement to the people, and so much temptation to enemies, that Nehemiah found Jerusalem unbuilt, and with a most scanty population. On making known his commission to tile principal persons of the nation, he found them all disposed to engage zealously in the undertaking. The building of the new wall was accordingly commenced upon the old foundations. The Samaritans, and other enemies of the Jews, took alarm at this movement, and endeavoured in every possible way to thwart the design. The Jews were, however, too much in earnest to be discouraged; they armed the workmen, and still further protected them by a guard of armed citizens, as they worked in bands upon different parts of the wall. Thus, by the most arduous and patriotic exertions, the whole wall, with its gates and towers, was finished in the short space of fifty-two days. This great work being accomplished, the governor took measures to induce a sufficient number of the people to come and settle in the city. The neglected service of the Temple was re-established, and care was taken that the people should be properly instructed in the law of Moses. The public reading of the law, and its interpretation, under the direction of Ezra, as mentioned in the former chapter, took place at this time, with every encouragement from Nehemiah. This ended in a joyful celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, which had, since the days of Joshua, been neglected and almost forgotten; and after this the people were found to be in so devout a frame of mind, that Ezra and Nehemiah seized the occasion to engage them to enter into a solemn covenant to serve God with singleness of heart, and to obey in all things the law of Moses. Of such covenants we have had more than one previous example. This one was sealed by the principal heads of families, as representing the whole of the people.

3. After twelve years Nehemiah returned to Persia, his leave of absence having apparently expired. His absence was not supplied by the presence of any person uniting the same degree of power and influence in the nation. The consequence was that the people soon began to neglect the divine law, and to contract mischievous connections with the heathen nations by whom they were surrounded. This misconduct was by no means confined to the inferior classes of the people; but the evil example was set by the leading men, by the priests, and even by the high-priest himself. The intelligence of such proceedings at length brought Nehemiah back again from the Persian court. He applied a vigorous and unsparing hand to the reformation of these abuses. The Jews who had married heathen females were compelled to part from them; the observance of the Sabbath was enforced; and the condition of the people was much improved by the abolition of illegal usury, which had operated in bringing great numbers of the poor under personal servitude to the rich.

Here, properly speaking, the history of the Old Testament closes; and our further information is obtained from Josephus, and from the books of the Maccabees.

4. After Nehemiah, Judaea ceased to form a distinct government, and was annexed to the satrapy of Syria. The internal government was, however, administered by the high-priests, under the appointment of the satraps of Syria. This annexation of the civil government to the pontificate, soon made that office one of high ambition to the different members of the sacerdotal family, and gave occasion to most disgraceful contests among them. At the time which we have now reached, there had been three high-priests since the return from Babylon, namely, Jeshua, Joachim, and Eliashib. This last died in b.c. 413, and was succeeded by his son Joiada or Judas, whose pontificate extended to b.c. 373. Until the death of Joiada nothing particularly worthy of notice occurs in the history of the Jews. They remained quiet under the Persian government, to which they were as much attached as they could be to any foreign rule, and to which they were always faithful.

5. The death of Joiada occurred in the thirty-first year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, when the satrapy of Syria was vested in Bagoses. Joiada was succeeded by his son Johanan or Jehu. But soon after Joshua, another son of the late high-priest, arrived at Jerusalem, and claimed that high office on the ground of having been appointed by Bagoses. This occasioned a violent dispute between the two brothers in the interior court of the Temple, and Joshua was slain in that sacred place. On hearing of this, Bagoses repaired to Jerusalem, and after sternly rebuking the Jews for thus defiling the Temple of their God, he imposed as a punishment a heavy tax upon the lambs offered in sacrifice, which was not remitted until after the death of Artaxerxes, when Bagoses was recalled to Persia, and the tax was not enforced by his successor.

6. In the next reign, that of Ochus, the Phoenicians revolted from the Persian yoke; and in this affair the Jews appear to have been partially involved; for after the fall of Sidon, the king went and took Jericho, and sent the inhabitants into exile. It was in the eighteenth year of this reign that the high-priest Johanan died, and was succeeded by his son Jaddua. It would seem that Jaddua was a just pontiff, who endeavoured to uphold the reforms of Nehemiah. Of this he gave a remarkable proof by expelling his own brother Manasses for marrying the daughter of Sanballat, the Cuthite governor of Samaria. Manasses then repaired to that personage; and the Samaritans, not being allowed access to the Temple at Jerusalem, were induced, by the presence of a member of the pontifical family among them, to think of having a Temple for themselves. Sanballat accordingly obtained from Darius Codomanus permission to build a Temple for them on Mount Gerizim, and when it was finished, Manasses became their high-priest. This measure greatly widened the breach between the Jews and the Samaritans. Each party contended for the exclusive claims of its own Temple. The Jews alleged that sacrifices ought to be offered only at Jerusalem; but the Samaritans affirmed that the true place of sacrifice was Mount Gerizim, where they alleged Joshua had built the first altar. The continuance and growth of this controversy produced that mortal antipathy between the two nations to which there is more than one allusion in the New Testament. Luk 9:51-56; John 4:9-29; John 8:48.

Alexander the Great

7. It was in the time of Jaddua that the great event arrived which had long been foreshown in the prophetic visions of Daniel (Dan 2:39; Dan 11:4). The great victory over the Persian king, at Issus, opened up the south to Alexander the Great, who commenced operations in Syria, and, while engaged in the siege of Tyre, summoned the neighboring nations to render their submission. The Samaritans obeyed the summons very early, and were treated with indulgence; but it does not seem that any attention was paid to it by the Jews. Therefore, after he had destroyed Tyre, be turned aside on his way to Gaza, to march against Jerusalem. As he approached, his hostile purposes are said to have been averted by an imposing and submissive procession of the priests and citizens, headed by the high-priest in his pontifical robes. In him the conqueror is said to have recognized the person who in a dream had foretold to him the conquest of the Persian empire. If so, it was quite in the power of Jaddua to fulfill this dream by showing him these prophesies of Daniel, in which his existence and victories had been clearly foretold. That the high-priest brought these prophesies to his knowledge, might account for the favor with which the Jews, notwithstanding the tardiness of their submission, were treated by Alexander. But the Greek historians who have written the history of Alexander, have no record of his visiting Jerusalem; and the whole story of the interview between him and the high-priest wants confirmation. However, when the Jews submitted, the conqueror, at their special request, secured to them the indisturbed enjoyment of their national laws, with exemption from tribute every seventh year; but he demurred when the latter privilege was also sought by the Samaritans. While he was absent, conquering Egypt, the Samaritans gave him so much displeasure that, so far from rendering them any favor, he expelled them from Samaria and re-peopled it by a colony of Macedonians. The dispossessed Samaritans then repaired to the city of Shechem, between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, which became their metropolis.

8. After the death of Alexander, the vast empire which he had won was divided among his generals, and Judaea, from its situation between Egypt and Syria, suffered dreadfully, and was deeply involved in the bitter contests in which his successors were soon engaged against each other. It is our purpose not to relate the particulars of these contests, but to glean from them the facts which directly affected the condition of the Jewish people.

9. In the first division of Alexander’s empire, Syria, with Palestine, devolved to Laomedon, and Egypt to Ptolemy Lagus. Between them a war arose, and the former was defeated by Nicanor, one of the generals of Ptolemy. All the provinces of Laomedon then submitted to Ptolemy; but the Jews manifested so much reluctance to violate their engagements, that Ptolemy advanced against Jerusalem with a large army and laid close siege to the city. Knowing that the religious veneration of the Jews for the seventh day prevented them from fighting thereon, he assaulted and took the city on the Sabbath. But he did not treat them with severity; for although he sent a large number of Jews into Egypt, it was rather as colonists than as prisoners. Indeed, before this, many Jews had been removed to Egypt by Alexander, to help to people his new city of Alexandria, where they were allowed civic privileges of the first class, the same as the Greek inhabitants enjoyed. These privileges were confirmed by Ptolemy, who also advanced many of those be took away to places of authority and trust, in consequence of which many more went to Egypt of their own accord. Eight years after, Ptolemy transported another large body of them, whom he settled in the provinces of Lybia and Cyrene. By successive deportations of this description, and by the voluntary removals of Jews who sought under the shadow of the Egyptian throne the peace which they could not find in their own country, Egypt became, and long continued, an important seat of the Jewish population.

10. Sacred Writers—The book of Nehemiah has the singularity of being written in the first person, and was, therefore, without doubt, the production of the eminent man whose name it bears. It gives a clear and plain account of his administration, and has more than any other portion of Scripture, the effect of an autobiographical narrative. Malachi, the last of the prophets, belonged to the time of Nehemiah. Nothing whatever is known of him. He reproved the abuses which Nehemiah labored to correct. It is remarkable that his prophesy closes the Old Testament with an announcement of John the Baptist, with whose birth and ministry the history of the New Testament opens.