On Scribes and Scripture, Satraps and Storytellers:
The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and First and Second Chronicles
After over a decade of exploration, our drop-in, come-as-you-are brown-bag
Bible study looks towards the very last books of the Hebrew Bible.
In the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we encounter the little-known tale of return and
rebirth, the end of the Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It is then,
and there, in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE – perhaps under Ezra himself – that the
Torah took its final form, scribes took over from priests and prophets, and study
began to take its place alongside sacrifices.
In the second half of the year, we turn to the Chronicles, the final books of the Bible
which reach back to the beginning, a broad sweep of the story from Adam through the
Persian period, a grand attempt to convey that God is active in history and all that
happens is a result of an intricate plan and divine pattern. Much of what we find here
seems to be a repetition – but a new telling of an old story is rarely innocent.
Chronicles presents the past through its own lens, by writers with their own agenda.
The Biblical era comes to a close, but as it does it sews the seeds for a new
transformation – an unlikely and unexpected survival, with the rise of the
synagogue…and the appearance of a group of leaders known as the rabbis.
Thursday afternoons, Noon – 1:00 PM
October 23, 2014 – May 14, 2015
Temple Shalom, 8401 Grubb Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815
War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition