Transforming Authority by Katharina Pyschny Sarah Schulz

Author:Katharina Pyschny, Sarah Schulz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2021-09-06T12:14:42.839000+00:00

The temple building account of Ezra 1–6, which recounts the story from the Edict of Cyrus to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, presents itself as a collection of different texts and documents that have been composed into a more or less coherent narrative. A reading of these first six chapters discloses the many different authorities that play a part in the restoration of the community and the construction of the temple. At the same time, the reader faces the problem of putting all of the authorities and protagonists of this early restoration period into a reasonable chronological order. This paper attempts to shed some light on the nature and function of the multiple restoration traditions that have been integrated into this temple building account.

Ezra 1–6 can be subdivided roughly into a Hebrew part, which comprises the first three chapters of the book, 1 and an Aramaic part starting with Ezra 4:8. 2 The Aramaic part can be further subdivided into two sections: Ezra 4 and Ezra 5–6. In Ezra 4, the reader is presented with the correspondence of Artaxerxes which, due to its setting after the reign of Darius and its focus on the rebuilding of the city instead of the temple, seems strangely out of place. For these reasons, it has been suggested that (this self-contained passage of) Ezra 4 is a later insertion bridging the time between the beginning of the temple restoration under Cyrus as portrayed in Ezra 1 and its completion under Darius (cf. Kratz 2000, 66; Rothenbusch 2012, 58; Grätz 2009, 260–262; 2006, 405, 414–416). 3 The question of the scope and function of this insertion would require a discussion of its own. Thus, due to limitations of space, I will not discuss Ezra 4 in my remarks on the conflicting roles of leadership.

In Ezra 5–6, we are then presented with the so-called Aramaic Chronicle. These two chapters deal with questions of legitimacy of the temple rebuilding during the time of Darius. At the same time, they refer back to the so-called Edict of Cyrus, which had supposedly guaranteed the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the temple (2 Chr 36:22–23 // Ezra 1:1–4). With respect to their content, Ezra 5–6 are closely related to the Hebrew chapters Ezra 1–3.

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