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Notes on video lecture:
Ezra-Nehemiah and Haggai on Temple Rebuilding
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on January 20, 2016 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
rebuilding, collectively, texts, purify, committed, laws, thriving, together, Jerusalem, downfall, interested, Zion, stop, well, urgency, sixth, want, altar, ruin, Torah, paneled, Babylon, obstacles, memoir, prophet, perspective, two, collaboration, exilic, allowed, Persian, torn, prophecy, Cyrus, 539, participate, Artaxerxes, narrative, pessimistic, enemies, centuries
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often distant communities would not celebrate traditions based on the text of the            but would write back to religious authorities in Jerusalem
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letters back, however, would often not quote the Torah or religious           
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how this period is depicted within the Bible
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Ezra
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subject is the Return to          following the close of the Babylonian captivity
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first part
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the story of the first return of exiles in the first year of            the Great (538 BC)
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the completion and dedication of the new temple in Jerusalem in the            year of Darius (515 BC)
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second part
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the subsequent mission of Ezra to Jerusalem and his struggle to              the Jews from what the book calls the sin of marriage with non-Jews
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Nehemiah
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told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah
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the dedication of the city and its people to God's         
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Nehemiah is a Jew who is a high official at the                court
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together Ezra and Nehemiah are the final chapter in the historical                    of the Hebrew Bible
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Haggai
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only        chapters
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historical setting dates around 520 BCE before the Temple has been rebuilt, around the time of the start of the Persian empire in        BCE a period that saw major leaders such as Zerubbabel help lead the Jews in their return to the land.
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filled with an                for the people to proceed with the rebuilding of the second Jerusalem temple
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book ends with the prediction of the                  of kingdoms
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the common story of captivity and return
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Babylonians came
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destroyed Jerusalem
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took all the Jews and went to               
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there the Jews wept by the rivers of Babylon when they remembers Zion
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the collected their writings and they longed to return
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as soon as Jewish captives are allowed to go back, they do
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when they come back they bring their Biblical writings with them
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archeologically we have evidence that there were communities of Jews who were not interested in returning
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documents that come decades and                    after 586 BC
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some Judeans remain there in and around Babylon living,                 , and not interested in going up to Zion
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Ezra-Nehemiah on this period of time
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538 BC begins with the first year of Cyrus
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he conquers Babylon
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with Persians, he takes over the Babylonian empire
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Ezra 1:1-4
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In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: "The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at                    in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem."
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Jewish community begin work on temple
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set up the           
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lay the foundation
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the                of the Judeans come and thwart their building project
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the enemies want to                        but are not allowed
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therefore they try to          the project
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building of temple is delayed until the reign of Darius (522-486 BC)
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one of the most historical sources through the Bible is found in this book
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Nehemiah             
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450 BC: a cup bearer who comes from the court of                     
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wants to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem
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but the problem is that he faces many                   
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from enemies from around the area
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but the community that lives in Jerusalem is in                            with these enemies
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Haggai
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a                who rises up in the second year of Darius
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issues a word of the Lord, a                 
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In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest: This is what the Lord Almighty says: These people say, The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your                houses, while this house remains a ruin?
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Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a         , while each of you is busy with your own house.
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the point is:
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it is not going          with you guys
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you are very                      in your own individual houses
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while you allow the temple to lie in ruins
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so go up to the hill and start                     , and then things will start changing for you for the better
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this is not any more historically accurate than Ezra or Nehemiah
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but offers a new                       
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Ezra-Nehemia says the reason why we didn't finish it when the decree was sent out by Cyrus was because the enemies stopped us
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Haggai indicates that the reason they were not building is because they didn't really          to
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Ezra-Nehemia explains
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Jewish community was all taken to Babylon
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returns all together
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they are given the decree to rebuild, but then they are stopped
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this is a very positive image of Judahite history
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they want to rebuild the temple but were not                to because of enemies
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Haggai gives us a more                        view
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the community itself was really not                    to the project at all
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the Biblical authors of these books are facing a situation in which the community is
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         apart
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not committed to coming                 
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not committed to doing something                          in order to rebuild their temple and ruins
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not committed to education and the study of the Torah
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yet all of this is often thought to be case in the post-             period
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Maps of Historical Biblical Regions
Interview with Bill Deaver
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The Kingdom of Judah and Sennacherib
The Fall of Judah
The History of Israel According to Genesis and Exodus
Archaeological Theories on the History of Israel
The Rise of the Iron Age Kingdoms
Bronze Age vs. Iron Age Material Culture
History of the Central Highland States
Judah After the Babylonian Conquest
Factors Leading to the Depopulation Of Israel
The Elephantine Papyri
Judahite Communities in Babylon
Ezra-Nehemiah and Haggai on Temple Rebuilding
The Biblical Project
From the Bible to the Sumerian King List
Genesis Chapter 26: Isaac, Abimelek and Rebekah
The Biblical Authors' Portrayal of Women and Heroism
The Bible's Treatment of Heroic Death
Portrayal of Death in the Bible