Construction on the Second Temple Begins

Ezra 3-4

            The exiles began work on a new temple quickly after their return, the seventh month according to 3:1—at least that’s when they began to rebuild the altar of burnt offering. As noted yesterday, faithfulness to the Law of Moses was high on their list of priorities, and they celebrated the Feast of Booths and all sorts of other regular observations, just as they had been commanded.

            Seven months later, they were ready to begin the temple proper. When the foundation was laid, we have the intriguing note that many of the old timers, the ones who had seen the original temple, wept aloud, and their weeping is distinguished from the shouts of joy of others. Why would they weep for sadness? Two reasons present themselves to me. It’s possible they are weeping for grief of the last 50 years losses and for the idolatry that led to those losses. It’s also possible that they wept because the new temple wasn’t going to be anything like the first temple. I tend to favor the latter reason, although, honestly, it could be a bit of both.

            As chapter 4 opens, we are told that the Israelites’ neighbors offer to help them build their temple, claiming to have been worshiping the same God for 200 years. I’m of two minds about this rejection. On the one hand, I think we’re supposed to see it as a good thing. After all those centuries of syncretism, the mixing of religions, they have finally learned not to mix religions. On the other hand, I mentioned yesterday that their emphasis on purity, in the centuries to come, would lead to self-righteousness and arrogance. I wonder if things might have gone differently in Israel’s later history, if these returnees had embraced the help and taken the time to teach them the proper worship of the Lord.

            Either way, their help rejected, those neighbors caused problems for the returnees, from the reign of Cyrus to the time of Darius, who began to reign in 522 BC. Here’s where things get complicated: the letter they write during the reign of Artaxerxes is a flash-forward; Artaxerxes doesn’t reign until 465 BC. That letter is really about the walls, not the temple, and it belongs to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, 60 years after the second temple is completed. So, the opposition to the temple does not delay its building until the reign of Artaxerxes. Instead 4:24 pulls us back to the narrative’s present (about 520 BC). The temple is delayed some 20 years. (I don’t know why the letter is in its current place, except maybe to show that opposition to the returnees is a long-standing problem.)