Sunday Sermonette: Who ' dat?

In Nehemiah 8, a character named Ezra appears. Is this the same dude who is the protagonist of the Book of Ezra? Doesn ' t seem to be -- he has a different job description. Previously, he was in charge, in basically the same role Nehemiah has in the current story. Now he ' s a priest and " teacher of the law " (rendered " scribe " in the KJV). Did Nehemiah show up and demote him? What this really shows is that the book Ezra/Nehemiah grew by accretion and there was no editor to assure continuity. Exactly how different protagonists got assigned to the two versions of the story there ' s no telling.The " Book of the Law of Moses " is probably Deuteronomy. The law was first promulgated in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, but that ' s three books and anyway it was interwoven with narrative. Recall from Kings that the priests purported to have " discovered " the book of the law in the Temple during the reign of King Josiah, but in fact they had just written it themselves. It ' s a compilation of the laws from the earlier books, hence the name, which means " Second Law. " The festival proclaimed starting at verse 14 is Sukkot. The footnote refers to its establishment in Leviticus, but it is also proclaimed in Deuteronomy. Sukkot is still celebrated although obviously without the pilgrimage and the sacrifices. People make the booths at their homes -- city dwellers will do it on a balcony or porch, as they do on their roofs and courtyards here -- but they don ' t normally really li...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs