|

Bible - OT - Ezra-Nehemiah: Jacob Limping

[Print] | [Email]

Matthew Levering wisely rejects von Balthasar’s notion that Ezra-Nehemiah is “like a brook in the process of drying up”: “Why should the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of obedience to the Torah, despite the diminishment of the splendor of the temple and the continuing failure fully to observe the Torah, be counted as small things”?

More positively: “the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of obedience to the Torah are precisely the kind of wrestling to be faithful to God’s gifts that one would expect from true sons and daughters of Jacob. A spiritually weak people would not have bothered to reclaim their temple and Torah, but would instead have been content gradually to blend into the wealthy and powerful society of Babylon religiously, economically, and politically. His wrestling with God at the threshold of the holy land may leave Jacob/Israel permanently limping . . . but this is a glorious wound, not a sign of drying up.”

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, May 30, 2008 at 9:47 am

Bible - OT - Ezra-Nehemiah: Purity and holiness

[Print] | [Email]

Hannah Harrington gave a very fine presentation on the holiness and purity terminology in Ezra and Nehemiah. She showed that these post-exilic texts display an expansion of holy space to encompass the whole city as well as an expansion of the duties of Levites, a closing of the gap between Levites and priests. These two changes are perfectly consistent, displaying a general trend of “up-grading” the holiness of Israel after the exile. The people of Israel become the new sanctum, which can be contaminated and against which sacrilege might be committed.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 4:10 pm

|

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.