and religious center, where the apostle Paul worked for an extended period of
around three years.
On the deeply indented western coast of Asia Minor a number of river
valleys descend to the sea and provide natural channels of travel and favorable
locations of great cities. Although the Cayster River of Ephesus was smaller than
the rivers on either side, it emptied into a good harbor and also gave excellent
access to the valleys of both the Hermus and the Maeander rivers.
In ancient times a gulf of the Aegean Sea evidently extended inward to
where the city was. The natural harbor provided by this gulf was gradually filled
up with the silt of the Cayster; efforts to deepen the harbor only hastened the
process of filling it in. In spite of these difficulties & because of its advantageous
situation in other respects, Strabo reports that in his time Ephesus was growing
daily and was the “largest emporium in Asia this side of the Taurus.” Today the
ancient city’s ruins lie in a swamp 6 or 8 km. inland from the sea.
The first inhabitants were driven out by Androclus, son of Athens' king,
who was later regarded as the founder of Ephesus. This took place soon after
1000 B.C. Long before their coming there existed at Ephesus the cult of a
goddess whom the Greeks identified with Artemis. The first temple of Artemis
was built by the architect Chersiphron. When Croesus of Lydia began his con-
quest of everyone west of the Halys River
the Ephesians around 560 B.C. In the extremity of the seige they dedicated their
city to Artemis. In 546 B.C., Cyrus defeated Croesus. After that victory, Harpa-
gus, general of the Persian king, systematically overcame the Ionian cities,
including Ephesus.
See also entry in the Old Testament (OT) Apocrypha/Influences outside
the OT section of the Appendix.
We have some idea of the layout of ancient Ephesus from the remaining
ruins. Beginning in the east, about 2.3 km east of the harbor is the site for the
sanctuary of Artemis. In the oldest period there was an enclosed area which
contained a stone platform about 3 by 4.2 meters where the goddess-image may
have stood, and a lower platform on which an altar may have rested. Later the
two platforms were combined into one, and after that an actual temple was built
on them.
In the middle of the 500s B.C. the great marble temple was built as
planned by Chersiphron. It must have been a structure of about 54.5 by 109
meters in size, with the shrine of the cult image directly over the place of the
oldest sanctuary. After the fire and in the time of Alexander, the temple was
raised on a large terrace about 2.8 meters higher than before. There are indica-
tions that the placement of pillars, and therefore the plan of the temple was the
same as the old one. This temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world; its worshipers feared that it might eventually “count for nothing” through
the preaching of the apostle Paul.
From this temple an ancient street led approximately 1.6 km west and a
little south to the city gate on the northern edge of the hill called Panajir Dagh,
roughly 1.1 by .8 km in size. Next to the gate on the northwest slope of this hill
was the stadium, whose southern seats were supported by the rocks of the hill.
It evidently served for athletic events and races of all sorts. Gladiators and wild
animals may also have fought there, as Paul's words in I Corinthians 15 seem to
indicate, if taken literally. An inscription shows that it was rebuilt under Nero
(54-68 A.D.).
About 600 meters south of the stadium was the great theater of Ephesus.
It was set in a hollow on the western slopes of Panajir Dagh, and faced directly
toward the harbor, about half a kilometer to the west. The seats were curved in
somewhat more than a semicircle within the hill’s hollow. The theater could
hold 24,000. It was in this theater that Demetrius instigated a riot against the
preaching of Paul (Acts 19).
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The main and most magnificent street of Ephesus ran in a straight line
from the theater to the harbor. With a monumental gateway at each end, this
thoroughfare was about ten meters wide, flanked on either side with colonnades
over 4.5 meters deep. Along the street’s north side, in the city’s very heart was
a series of buildings; the general layout dates from the 300s B.C. They were
baths, gymnasiums, and other buildings.
In the region south of the road and southwest of the theater is the agora.
An open rectangular area, 109 meters on each side, was surrounded by pillared
halls. On the east side was a fine hall, dating from the time of Nero, apparently
destroyed by an earthquake. A library and a temple were located not far from
the agora.
A little over a half-kilometer separates Panajir Dagh from the larger hill
to the west. Bulbul Dagh has a roughly oblong shape measuring 2.9 by .9 km.
On its slopes facing the agora there was another temple. Judging from a colos-
sal marble statue of Domitian, this was the temple erected at Ephesus
province of Asia for the worship of emperor Domitian, whom the Christians
regarded as their archenemy.
Christian tradition connects John the apostle & evangelist with Ephesus.
On a hill east of the temple to Artemis a church was built to mark the spot
where tradition says he viewed the idolatrous worship in the temple and where
he was later buried. The church was first a four-sided structure in the 300s A.D.
Later a large cross-shaped basilica was built by adding on to the original. The
church was rebuilt on a yet more magnificent scale under the Byzantine
emperor Justinian (527-65); it attained a length of over 130 meters, with six
large domes rising above its central portions. This was the church of St. John
the Theologian.
Between the stadium and the harbor are another large church's ruins,
built on a pagan building's foundation. Actually it was a double church, or two
churches, one behind the other. Their combined length was 242 meters & they
were erected in the 300s A.D. Inscriptions show that it was the Church of the
Virgin Mary, in which the Council of Ephesus met in 431.
On the northeast slope of the Panajir Dagh is the Catacomb of the Seven
Sleepers. Legend has it that seven young men were sealed in a cave in 250 A.D.
They fell asleep, and awoke more than 150 years later to testify again to their
Christian faith. After their death they were buried in the cave and a church was
built over it, perhaps in the 400s A.D., and thus at about the same time that the
seven youths were supposed to have been giving their final testimony, that an
inscription was found in the ruins of a gateway which bears witness to the
victory of Christianity at Ephesus, by replacing the image of Artemis that was
once nearby with a cross.
The first archaeological excavation at Ephesus was done by J. T. Wood
in 1863. Wood was able to track down the location of the Temple to Artemis
through an inscription that was found at the theater. The wall of the temple was
found in 1869.
EPHLAL (אפלל, judgment) A Jerahmeelite family or person.
EPHOD (אפד, short coat) The father of the Manassite leader Hanniel, who was
selected to help with the distribution of the western Jordanian Canaan among the
tribes to occupy that territory.
EPHOD (אפוד, to gird on, a sleeveless coat) An Old Testament term the meaning of
which is not clear.
The ephod is a priestly garment of some kind. Samuel wore a linen ephod,
as did David; some believe that here it means “covering for nakedness.” Priestly
document prescribes an ephod for the high priest. It was a costly shoulder
garment of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet. There seems to be little doubt that the
ephod was a garment and possibly a sleeveless, close-fitting garment put on
priests and possibly on idols.
There are a number of passages where the meaning is uncertain. Gideon
is said to make a golden ephod for Ophrah. This could be a golden image
representing Yahweh or the garment of the image with pockets for the oracles.
Some others see a connection between the ark & the ephod. It is clear that there
is a very close connection between ephod and teraphim, and that the ephod was
a means of consulting the oracle. The writer of this article concluded that the ark
and ephod could not be identified or compared, for the biblical ark was not an
instrument of divination. Just as a crucifix or cross may be a large object on the
wall of a church, or a small object carried on the body, so ephods may have been
of different sizes and weights.
E-49
EPHPHATHA (אפתח; effaqa) An Aramaic expression attributed to Jesus in his
healing of a deaf mute. Mark translates it as “be opened.” As elsewhere in
Mark, the retention of the Aramaic may be attributed to the desire of preserving
actual expressions of Jesus.
EPHRAIM (אפרים, double fruitful) 1. The younger son of Joseph, & the source
of the name of 1 of the 12 tribes. He was born the second son of Asenath, but
was treated as the first-born. His name was originally a geographical name &
later became the name of a tribe.
The tribe of Ephraim belongs to that group which apparently did not
immigrate until a later stage in the process of the Israelites' occupation. Like
Manasseh, and unlike Benjamin, the third partner, Ephraim first developed as
a separate tribe in the cultivated area. The southern third of the land separated
its people sharply from the north by its numerous deeply cut transverse valleys.
Although their territory occasionally extends beyond the hills, “the hill country
of Ephraim” was identical with tribe of Ephraim's territory. In the book of
Joshua, the southern boundary runs approximately along the line Beth-horon-
Bethel, the northern boundary running along the general line of the Wadi Qanah.
In the course of time Ephraim outstripped its larger brother tribe Manas-
seh in importance. Joshua was Ephraimite, the victorious leader of the Ephrai-
mite levy, and the arbiter of the territorial claims of the tribes. He organizes
Israel around a new Yahweh sanctuary in the heart of the land. Ephraim invaded
his later dwelling place from the north. Ephraim pushed forward along the base
of the Benjaminite wedge further toward the southwest.
Ephraim, like other tribes, did not yet get down into the plain for a
long time. On the other side, Ephraim expanded toward the north. The battle
between Gibeon & Aijalon also shows Ephraim in the period of its expansion.
Pirathon was also an Ephraimite town in theoretically Manassite territory. In
confederation,” they served under Gideon, when they were successful in
the levy of the tribalcatching 2 Midianite princes at the fords of the Jordan. In
the tradition wherethey served under Jephthah it is apparent that Ephraimites
also took part in the colonization east of the Jordan.
It appears that at times Ephraim played a special role in the 12-tribe
confederacy. In the Song of Deborah, where Zebulun & Naphtali clearly carried
the main burden of the battle, the place of honor at the head of the list is never-
theless granted to Ephraim. Then too, there is the shift of the confederacy’s
center from Shechem in Manasseh's territory to Shiloh in Ephraim's territory.
Samuel, the great initiator of the Israelite kingdom was an Ephraimite.
Under Solomon the central district around which the remaining 11 districts are
arranged in a circle and which also includes the territory of Manasseh is the hill
country of Ephraim. Jeroboam came from Ephraim. He represented the rights
of the common freeman against Solomon’s authority, & completed the northern
tribes’ separation the Davidic dynasty into the northern kingdom of Israel.
In the later literature the older importance of Ephraim can still be recog-
nized in the fact that Ephraim is almost always given precedence over Manasseh.
The term “Ephraim” was used to designate what was left after the Syro-Ephrai-
mite War of 734-732, in which the kingdom of Israel saw itself robbed of terri-
tories, and Israel was reduced to its central territory, the old settlement area for
the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. That term was still used 10 years later
when this remnant was absorbed by the Assyrian province of Samaria.
The prophet Hosea uses “Ephraim” as an alternate expression for Israel
throughout his book. Isaiah was the other prophet who witnessed the catastro-
phe of the war just mentioned. He identifies Ephraim alone as an ally of Damas-
cus, and sometime later Samaria is for him the capital of Ephraim. Even the
Deuteronomic historian makes a concession once to the linguistic usage of his
time in calling the northern part of the land west of the Jordan the “house of
Ephraim.”
2. A town in the vincinity of Bethel which is mentioned in II Samuel 13,
and is probably the city referred to in II Chronicles 13 as “Ephron.” In the New
Testament the same city is probably mentioned in John 11, where Jesus went to
the country near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim. The Jewish-Roman
historian Josephus mentions Vespasian's capture of “Bethel and Ephraim, two
small cities.” Et-Taiyibeh, about 6 km northeast of Bethel and Samieh nearby
have been proposed as possible locations for Ephraim.
EPHRAIM, FOREST OF (יער אפרים, yah 'ar ef rah eem) A wooded stretch east of
the Jordan into which David’s forces under Joab chased and slaughtered the army
of the rebellious Absalom, who was caught by his hair in a tree and later slain by
Joab. This land was lost by the tribe after its defeat by Jephthah near Zaphon.
E-50
EPHRAIM GATE (אפרים שער shah 'ar ef rah eem) A gate of the first (oldest)
rampart of Jerusalem, 400 cubits, or 180 meters east of the Corner Gate. The
name was also used in naming the gate put in a similar place in the second wall,
restored by Nehemiah.
EPHRAIMITE A member of the tribe of Ephraim.
EPHRATHAH (אפרתה, fertility) 1. The second wife of Caleb and the mother of
Hur and Ashur.
2. A city in Judah; identified with Bethlehem (pronounced beth lekh hem
in Hebrew). Ephrathah was an older settlement which became absorbed into
Bethlehem; it was still separate in the time of the patriarchs.
3. A district in Palestine; apparently the same as Ephraim.
EPHRATHITE (פרתיא) 1. Inhabitant of Ephrathah. 2. King James Version form
of Ephraimite.
EPHRON (עפרון, gazelle) 1. Son of Zohar; the Hittite from whom Abraham
purchased the field containing the cave of Machpelah Mount Ephron
district whose cities were on Judah
certainty. 3. A city in the vicinity of Bethel which Abijah took from Jero-
boam I, probably to be identified with Ophrah, about 6.4 km northeast of Bethel.
(See also the entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha / Influences Outside
the Bible section of the Appendix.).
EPILEPSY A distressing disorder of the central nervous system, marked by the
occurrence of unconsciousness, convulsive fits, or both. The attacks are associ-
ated with abnormal rhythms in the cerebral cortex. Typical epilepsy is often
preceded by a peculiar sensation which may involve hearing, sense of smell,
sense of taste, or sight. Minor seizures may involve loss of consciousness or
disorientation, without any convulsions. Major attacks invariably produce
unconsciousness, muscular flexion, and arching of the back. Mark’s Gospel
furnishes an accurate picture of this; Luke employs medical terms occurring in
Hippocrates and elsewhere.
ER (ער, watchful) 1. The first-born son of Judah and the Canaanite daughter of
Shua. Although Er was married to Tamar, he died childless. 2. Grandson of
Judah, and the father of Lecah. 3. The father of Elmadam in the Lukan
genealogy of Jesus.
ERAN Son of Shuthelah, and grandson of Ephraim; ancestor of the Eranites.
ERASTUS (ErastoV, beloved) 1. City treasurer of Corinth
to his fellow Christians. Such officials were usually slaves or of servile origin,
though often wealthy. 2. A companion of Paul. It seems unlikely that he
was identical with the one just mentioned above.
ERECH (ארך, patience) One of the largest & most important cities of Sumer
at modern Warka, around 256 km south of Baghdad
settled in the cities of Samaria.
The original village, Kullab, was founded by the “Ubaid” people around
4000 B.C. The city called Erech, was built by Meskiaggasher, who lived around
3000 B.C. His successors were Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh. Among
the more important later rulers of Erech were Lugalzaggesi, Utuhegal, & Sinkashid
around 1800 B.C. From the time of Hammurabi, Erech became part of Babylonia
and shared its fortunes and misfortunes. After the fall of the Parthian Empire it
was abandoned altogether.
Erech's chief deity was An, the king of the Sumerian pantheon. Erech's
most beloved and celebrated deity was the ambitious and aggressive goddess of
love, Inanna. She married the god Dumuzi to ensure the fertility and prosperity
of Sumer, according to theologians. Excavations in Erech were conducted by
German expeditions in 1912-1913, 1928-1939, and 1954-1959. The city walls,
which were 9.6 km in circumference were laid bare, as were two ziggurats and
several temples from the centuries right before & after 3000 B.C. From the same
general period came hundreds of pictographic tablets, many seals & seal impres-
sions, an extraordinary alabaster vase, and a remarkably expressive life-size head
of a woman.
E-51
ERI (ערי, watchful) Son of Gad and the ancestral head of the “family of the Erites.”
ERUPTION (ספחת (sap pakh ath), scab) Any cutaneous redness, rash, or sore. It is
a symptom of leprosy.
ESARHADDON (אסר־חדן, in Akkadian it means “Ashur has given a brother")
King of Assyria and Babylonia (681-669 B.C.); son of Sennacherib, and father
of Ashurbanipal.
Esarhaddon had to fight for his throne when his father Sennacherib was
murdered. Esarhaddon had been previously designated crown prince, and said
he was in hiding when Sennacherib met his fate. He was able to gain enough
support to defeat his brothers in a battle at Hanigalbat. Since Esarhaddon was
clearly pro-Babylonian, he had no difficulty with Babylon. He made a son of
Merodach-Baladan governor of Bit-Yakin, and this governor remained loyal to
his lord.
Esarhaddon's military planning was mainly directed toward subduing
Egypt. He attacked Egypt in 675 B.C. Although his army met an initial defeat,
it continued to fight, and his general Sa-Nabu-su eventually defeated Pharaoh
Taharqa, forcing him to retreat toward Upper Egypt. Memphis was conquered
in a quick advance. The Assyrian domination was soon threatened by rebellion,
& Esarhaddon found it necessary to embark in 669 on a new campaign. On the
way to Egypt, however, he fell sick and died. Esarhaddon was luckier in the
area north and west of Assyria. In 679 the Cimmerians suffered a defeat, and
in 673 sharp attacks had been mounted against the Medes. A alliance with
Scythians against the Medes was made and cemented by the marriage of a
daughter of Esarhaddon to a barbarian ruler.
He was likewise rather fortunate in his arrangements for the succession
to the throne. His younger son, Ashurbanipal was made crown prince and
assumed an important share of administrative duties, while his elder brother,
Samassum-ukin, was made king of Babylon. In 672 the high officials of the
country had take an oath to assure the succession of Ashurbanipal. In 670, this
arrangement proved a success, inasmuch as Ashurbanipal became king without
any difficulty. Esarhaddon dedicated much effort to the rebuilding of Babylon,
& was much less interested than any other Assyrian king in the embellishment
of his capital, Nineveh.
ESAU (עשו, hairy) Son of Isaac and Rebekah; elder twin brother of Jacob; tradi-
tional ancestor of the Edomites. (See also Edom).
When barren Rebekah conceived, two children “struggled together
within her,” and she gave birth to twin boys. The first, being red and hairy,
was named Esau; the second, having grabbed his brother's heel was called
Jacob. This story describes the relation of the Israelites to the Edomites.
Although Esau was the first-born, Jacob would be master over him.
Jacob became a shepherd while Esau became “a skillful hunter, a man
of the field”; Isaac love to eat his game. When he returned famished from an
unsuccessful hunt, Esau impetuously bargained away his birthright for bread
and pottage. For a third time the older brother was supplanted by the younger.
When Esau brought in the savory food to obtain his father's deathbed blessing,
he received instead a curse. As a result of this deceit Esau hated Jacob; & his
plans to kill him were thwarted only by Rebekah's prompt intervention. When
Jacob returned to Palestine twenty years later, he made careful preparation both
to appease Esau & to protect himself. Esau met his guilty brother & received
him back without malice or recrimination.
Edom's relations with Israel in the 900s & the 800s B.C. offer a parallel.
The Edomites were conquered by David in the 900s and remained subject to
Judah until the reign of Joram. In the final characterization the shortsighted
selfishness and impetuosity Esau shows as a young man must be balanced by
the generosity and forgiveness that is seen in his reconciliation.
ESCAPE, ROCK OF (המחלקות סלע (sel ah ham mah leh koth), rock of smooth-
ness) A place, perhaps a cliff, in the wilderness of Maon to which David fled
from Saul. It could be a cliff separated from another cliff by a narrow ravine.
If a detour was necessary, it was nearly completed, since Saul appears to have
been rather close on David's heels.
E-52
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (See Biblical Entry on Judg-
ment Days, Old Testament)
ESCHATOLOGY OF APOCRYPHA (See the Judgment Days entry in the Old
Testament Apocrypha / Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix. )
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (See Biblical Entry on Judg-
ment Days, New Testament)
ESEK (עשק, strife, contention) A well dug by the servants of Issac, which received
this name because the herdsmen of Gerar contended for it and forced the patri-
arch to abandon it.
ESHAN (אשען, support) A village of Judah
The location is uncertain; it is possibly about 16 km southwest of Hebron.
ESHBAN (אשבן) The 2nd son of clan chief Dishon; ancestor of a native Horite sub-
clan in Edom
ESHCOL (אשכל, grape cluster) 1. Brother of Aner and Mamre the Amorite, who
were allies of Abram in the defeat of Chedorlamer. 2. A valley near Hebron
(probably to the North) from which Israelite spies brought back a cluster of
grapes so large it had to be carried on a pole between two of them.
ESHEK (עשק, oppression) A Benjaminite person or family descended from Saul.
ESHTAOL (אשתאול, petition) A town first assigned to Dan and then incorporated
in the Judahite district of Zoray-Azekah. Samson first responded to the Spirit
of God between Zorah and Eshtaol and after his death was buried there.
ESHTEMOA (אשתמוע, obedience, listening post) 1. Son of Ishbah; a descendant
of Caleb. (I Chronicles 4). 2. A Maachathite, son of Hodiah (I Chronicles 4).
3. A city of Judah assigned to the Levites and named as a city of refuge,
about 14.4 km south of Hebron. It was one of the cities to which David sent
some of the booty from his recapture of Ziklag.
ESHTON (אשתון , effeminate) A family or clan of the tribe of Judah
Calebite (I Chronicles 4).
ESPOUSAL (חתנה (kha toon naw), marriage; כלולה (keh lo law), wedlock) King
James Version translation of Hebrew words.
ESSENES (Esshnoi) An important Jewish community which was flourishing in
Palestine during the lifetime of Jesus (See also Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran,
Khirbet entries in the Main Section and in the Old Testament Apocrypha /
Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix). Their teachings and
practice were well known for centuries through the writings of Philo & Josephus.
The name Essene has been derived from numerous Greek and Hebrew words,
whose meanings range from “holy” to “physician” to “observers of the law.”
There is no scholarly consensus on the etymology of the name Essene.
Sources of Information—Part of the information we have on Essenes
comes from Philo of Alexandria's description of an Essene-like community in
Egypt. The Palestinian Essenes may have been more rigorously activistic than
their contemplative brethren in Egypt because of the necessities of economic
survival. It is equally possible that they are quite independent in origin. However,
the hymns & worship material in the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to fit very well with
the worship practices of the Egyptian community.
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Josephus, a Jewish historian, has a detailed and lengthy account of the
Essenes in The Jewish Wars (75-79 A.D. At the age of 16, Josephus resolved to
acquaint himself with the various parties of his nation: the Pharisees, the Sad-
ducees, and the Essenes. He did a thorough investigation, and even went into
the wilderness for three years under the tutelage of a man named Bannus; mostly
likely, he never became even a probationary member of the Essene community.
He finally joined the Pharisees. There are indications that certain parts of his
description of the Essenes ultimately rest upon eyewitness accounts from some
who did join.
Pliny the Elder was a soldier along with Vespasian, & possibly in company
with the Tenth Legion as it marched down the Jordan Valley in May, 68 A.D.
When Pliny mentions the Essenes amidst their palm trees he is most likely refer-
ring to a religious community which must have lived in or near the 'Ain Feshkha
oasis overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea south of Jericho.
At the north end of the 'Ain Feshkha oasis on a plateau overlooking the
Wadi Qumran were some ruins of ancient buildings. By the study of coins, it was
conclusively established that this community was indeed occupying the oasis in
the first Christian century. There is no doubt that its agricultural potential was
sufficient to respond to determined efforts at cultivation. We may assume that the
Essenes of Pliny are the Essenes of Philo and Josephus, & that while their larger
membership was scattered throughout the villages and towns of Judea, the head-
quarters of their community was in the wilderness near the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were an essential part of this community's library.
They provide an interior point of view of the community. Above all the scrolls
make possible an understanding of the expectations this Jewish sect had concer-
ning judgment and salvation. Another source comes from Bishop Hippolytus of
the 200s A.D. Hippolytus considered the Zealots and the sicarii (assassins) to
be subordinate groups of Essenes and omitted all references to sun worship as a
practice of the Essenes. Hippolytus may have used a source in common with
Josephus and may at times be nearer to that source.
History of the Essenes—The Essenes seem to have had their origins
among the Hasideans. In the Jewish nation following the Maccabees, the revolu-
tionary families vied with one another in a power struggle. The house of Simon
the Hasmonean finally emerged as the dominant party, with a firm grasp on the
high priesthood & eventually the kingship. 3 parties concerned with God's rule
over their nation were the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. They all
followed strict observance of Mosaic law entailing a national existence separate
from the Gentiles. Jewish tradition pictures the Essenes active in Jerusalem up
to the reign of Aristobulus I (105-104 B.C.). By the end of Alexander Janneus’
reign around 76 B.C., the Essenes had made a complete break with the Hasmo-
neans and were sharply critical of the two other parties mentioned earlier. At
some time during, if not prior to the reign of Janneus, the Essenes moved their
headquarters to Qumran.
The major political problem with which Herod the Great had to contend
was the opposition of the great mass of people who refused to acknowledge the
legitimacy of his claims to the throne. Herod's solution was to rely heavily on
Roman military power and to grant concessions to anti-Hasmoneans parties.
Some agreement was reached between Herod and the Essenes, under which the
Essenes could have returned to Jerusalem.
The friendly relations which Herod had with the Essenes had become legen-
dary in Jewish tradition. If the Essenes did return to Jerusalem, it is likely that
they had effective assurances that the new high priest would pay due regard to
their legal interpretations. It was probably in this period of unrestricted religious
freedom that the Essenes carried out their missionary campaigns which led to
Essene communities in all the villages & towns of Judea. And they would have
had strong sympathies with those who tore down the golden eagle above the
gate of the temple. Protests over the execution of those men led to the slaying
of 3,000 worshipers during the Passover festival after Herod's death in 4 B.C.
This event and the later crucifixion of 2,000 Jews by Gentile troops sent down
to restore order in Jerusalem caused the Essene headquarters to shift back to
Qumran. When they moved their headquarters back to Qumran after Herod's
death, they left behind them in Jerusalem only their name on a gate on the south
wall of the city as a legacy.
Two generations later, at the outbreak of war with Rome in 66 A.D., one
of the Jewish generals was an Essene named John. What part the larger commu-
nity as a whole played in this war is not known. Their headquarters at Qumran
was burned during this war, & the fate of their postwar membership is unknown.
Ultimately the Essenes were probably assimilated by the Jewish Christian and
the Jewish groups which survived the prolonged struggle with Rome.
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Description of the Essenes: General, Communal, Marriage, and
Admission Requirements—The period between 4 B.C. and 66 A.D. was an
important period for the Essenes. In this period two new Jewish communities were
born, Baptist and Christian. An understanding of Essene teachings, practices, and
organization increases understanding of the contemporary Baptist and Christian
movements, as well as of the Pharisees and the Zealots.
The Essenes believed themselves to be New Covenant people, which was
both the “renewed old covenant” and the “eternal covenant.” Their membership
of 4,000 could have gathered at Qumran on special occasions. But probably not
more than a few hundred Essenes lived at the Qumran retreat. The great majority
was scattered throughout Judea. The Essenes were scrupulous in adherence to
Levitical purity laws, and as a result avoided all ceremonial uncleanness, which
included contamination by the Gentiles in larger cities.
The Essenes practiced a communal ownership of property. Josephus elabo-
rates on the remarkable hospitality Essenes showed other members of their bro-
therhood. “. . .The resources of the community are put at their disposal as if they
were their own. Visitors enter the houses of men whom they have never seen
before as though they were their most innocent friends.” Josephus writes that the
Essenes “entirely addict themselves to husbandry. . . the wages of these different
occupations. . . [are given to the] treasurer . . . [who] takes it and buys what is
necessary . . .There is ' no buying or selling among themselves, but each gives
what he has to any in need & receives from him in exchange something useful.”
Philo adds: “Thus having each day a common life and a common table,
they are content with . . . frugality [and] shun expensive luxury as a disease of
both body and soul . . . he who wishes may easily take any garment he likes, since
what one has . . . belongs to all and conversely what all have one has . . . if any
one is sick he is nursed at the common expense & tended with care and thought-
fulness by all. The old men . . . are treated as parents [of all]."
There can be no doubt that Essene practice should be interpreted against
the background of the holy-war legislation in the Torah. Every Essene was
subject to the authority of his superiors. Each Essene was a volunteer for the
Lord and subject to the disciplinary demands of the holy-war legislation of the
Torah. Only two things were left to individual discretion, assistance to one in
need and compassion. And because the Essenes believed they were the true
Israel, the Children of Light preparing for the final war against the Children of
Darkness, they avoided marriage is keeping with the holy-war legislation.
Philo writes that the Essenes eschew marriage “because they clearly
discern it to be the sole or the principal danger to the maintenance of the com-
munal life.” But Essenes did not condemn marriage on principle. There was
another order of Essenes who thought that those who decline to marry cut off
the chief function of life, the propagation of the race. They believed that some
more realistic adjustment to the circumstances consequent to the delay of the
holy war was necessary.
It was not easy to become an Essene. Josephus writes: “A candidate
anxious to join their sect is not immediately admitted. For one year . . . they
prescribe for him their own rule of life, presenting him with a small mattock, a
loincloth . . ., and white raiment . . . he is allowed to share the purer kind of
holy water, but is not yet received into meetings . . . his character is tested for
two years more, and only then, if found worthy, is he enrolled in the society . . .
he is made to swear oaths: first . . . he will practice piety toward God, next that
he will observe justice toward men; that he will wrong none whether of his own
will or under another's orders; that he will forever keep faith with all men; . . .
that should he himself ever bear rule, he will never abuse his authority; . . . to
be forever a lover of truth and to expose liars; to keep his hands from stealing
. . . unholy gain; to conceal nothing from the members . . .”
Description of the Essenes: Discipline, Temple
Scriptural Study—The discipline of the Essene community was very strict.
Josephus informs us: “Those who are convicted of serious crimes they expel
from the order . . . [The starvation that results from the expelled remaining
bound by oaths regarding food] has led them in compassion to receive many
back in the last stage of exhaustion . . . They are just and scrupulously careful
in the trial of cases, never passing sentence in a court of less of than a hundred
. . . After God they hold most in awe the name of their lawgiver [either Moses,
or their founder, the Teacher of Righteousness], any blasphemer of whom is
punished with death. It is a point of honor with them to obey their elders, and
a majority . . . They . . . are stricter than Jews in abstaining from work on the
seventh day. They are divided . . . into four grades . . . a senior if but touched
by a junior, must take a bath . . ."
The Essenes participated in the Jerusalem temple cult worship by sending
what they had dedicated to God “into the temple.” Their purity laws were so
strict that they could not enter the “temple’s common court.” Thus it was neces-
sary for them to offer sacrifices within the purity of their own community.
Archaeological evidence and literary evidence suggests that the Essenes did
continue to observe sacrificial rites.
E-55
Josephus seemed to think that the Essenes were sun worshippers; neither
Philo nor Bishop Hippolytus make reference to this practice. The Dead Sea
Scrolls do suggest that the time of sunrise was the occasion for special prayers
for the community. They are then dismissed by their superiors to the various
crafts in which they are severally proficient and strenuously employed until the
fifth hour. They assemble again, and bathe their bodies in cold water. When
they have taken their seats in silence, the baker serves out the loaves to them in
order, and the cook sets out a plate for each with a single course. Before the
meal begins, the priest says a grace, and none may partake until after the prayer.
Then laying aside their raiment, as holy vestments, they again betake themselves
to their labors until evening.
In the Essene community headquarters near the Dead Sea, archaeolo-
gists uncovered cisterns, some of which were appropriately designed to be used
by the Essenes when they took their baths. Also uncovered was a large room
capable of seating 200 persons & a smaller room containing over 1,000 pieces
of pottery. This building complex was presumably the refectory and its pantry
which served the community as the sacred place where the Essenes at Qumran
gathered to eat in silence and with thankful hearts.
The Essenes gave great importance to the study of their sacred scriptures.
Though they studied their scriptures every day, they particularly devoted the
sabbath to this activity, which was done in synagogues. There, arranged in rows
according to their ages, the younger before the elder, they listened as one of the
sacred rolls was read aloud by one person, and then interpreted by another.
There still exists written commentaries or peshers of these interpretations. The
Essenes believed that God's promises foretold by the prophets were actually
being fulfilled in the history of their own community. Therefore, they studied
their scriptures to understand better what was happening to them and what
would happen in the future.
ESTHER, BOOK OF (אסתר, star) The Old Testament (OT) story which tells of
the Jews’ deliverance won by Esther under the Persians and gives the reason
for the institution of Purim; a symbol of heroic resistance against persecution.
“Esther” was her Persian name; “Hadassah” was her Jewish name.
The great Persian king Ahasuerus, angered by the disobedience of his
queen Vashti, banished her from his presence. Among the beautiful maidens
selected to fill her place was Esther, a beautiful Jewish maiden living in the
Persian capital of Susa. She so pleased Ahasuerus that she was made queen.
Then Esther's cousin and guardian, Mordecai, aroused the enmity of Haman,
the newly appointed prime minister, who influenced the king to issue an edict
authorizing the annihilation of all Jews.
When Mordecai heard of this, he informed Esther & urged her to appeal
to the king. Esther told the king that the edict would mean the destruction of
her and her people, and persuaded him to issue a new edict. This edict led to
Haman being executed on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. The Jews
annihilated their enemies, & Mordecai became the new prime minister. Then
Mordecai & Esther instituted the annual celebration of Purim to commemorate
those days when the Jews won deliverance from their enemies.
The book of Esther is unique among the books of the Bible in the way it
deals with religious issues. The underlying question of destruction or survival
for Jews under persecution is certainly a matter of religious concern. The book
of Esther itself, however, seems deliberately to avoid specific references to God
or to religious practice. Indeed, God isn't mentioned in the book. Prayer does
not accompany Esther's fasting, and victory seems to depend, not so much on
loyalty to Judaism as on the use of political maneuver & appeal to self-interest.
The spirit of vengeance is considerably more prominent than that of devotion.
One consistent purpose of the book, however, is to explain the celebra-
tion of a traditional observance of Judaism, the festival of Purim. From the
first mention of Haman's patiently casting “pur” or lot until he could find a day
propitious for attempting the destruction of the Jews to the time he was hanged,
the story seems to move inevitably toward the institution of the festival of
deliverance. Purim is a festival, beloved in the Jewish tradition, which is not
mentioned in the Law.
It is the explanation of this festival's history which gives unity to
the book as a whole. One purpose of the book may well be to reconcile
actual diversity in the celebration of Purim in different localities. The
author employs the customary formula for the beginning of an historical
account. It is now generally accepted that Ahasuerus is the Hebrew
endering of the Persian Khshavarsha (Xerxes in its more familiar Greek
form). Other details in the book of Esther aren't supported by historical
evidence. Xerxes' queen was neither Vashti nor Esther. If Mordecai
went into exile in 597 B.C., he must have been at least 122 years when
he became prime minister, and Esther his cousin would have been 100
years younger than he was. The edict of Xerxes permitting the Jews to
kill 75,000 of his subjects is highly unlikely.
E-56
Other elements seem to have literary rather than historical justification. It
is difficult to tell whether the author invented a wholly fictional account, put in
Jewish form a Babylonian festival based on the adventures of Marduk and Ishtar,
or based his romance on some incident involving the historical Xerxes. It seems
probable that the book of Esther is primarily romance and not history.
The book of Esther may be dated in the late Persian or the Greek period,
in a time of concerns with political survival and of great bitterness towards Gen-
tiles. The earliest witness to the existence of the book is probably the primary
Greek OT. The reign of John Hyrcanus around 125 B.C., which was during the
height of Hasmoneans, makes a probable setting for the book.
Esther is the last of the 5 Scrolls or Writings of the Hebrew canon. Both
Jews and Christians were slow to admit Esther to the canon. For later Judaism,
Esther has become the symbol of deliverance, while Haman represents the force
of cruelty and prejudice from which Jews have suffered throughout their history.
The downfall of Haman is a triumphant reminder of the continuing life of Israel
in the face of persecution. The book's vindictiveness is certainly one element in
it, but the book's power as a symbol of hope in a history of suffering is equally
clear. (See also the Esther entry in the OT Apocrypha / Influences Outside the
Bible section of the Appendix.).
ETAM (עיטמ, place of birds (beasts) of prey) 1. A village in Simeon. The site
is unknown.
2. A city of Judah in the hill-country district of Bethlehem, probably
3.2 km southwest of Bethlehem. It overlooks the chief source for what are
now called the pools of Solomon. After Solomon's kingdom split into North
(Israel) and South (Judah), Rehohoam fortified Etam, probably to secure
his position in Judah. Josephus describes Etan (Etam), which was 12.8 km
from Jerusalem, as a favorite rural retreat of Solomon. Several passages
in the Talmud note that the temple received water from an aqueduct from
the spring of Etam.
ETAM, ROCK OF (סלע עיטם (sal ah ee tam)) A cave which Samson used
after burning the Philistines', and from which the citizens of Judah
him to be handed over to the enraged Philistines. It was probably 4 km
east southeast of Zorah.
ETHAM (אתם) The first stopping place of the Israelites after they left Suc-
coth. Presumably the site was an Egyptian fortress on Egypt's eastern
border. Finding their way blocked by forts, the Israelites were forced
to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea.
ETHAN (איתן, firm, constant, mighty) The biblical material is so confusing as to
raise doubts whether the Bible refers to one, two, three, or four people.
1. Zerah’s son, Judah's son by Tamar; father of Azariah (I Chronicles
2); he could be the same as Ethan 2. 2. Noted wise man called “the
Ezrahite,” earlier than or possibly contemporary with Solomon (I Kings 4).
3. A Gershomite ancestor Asaph (I Chronicles 6); he may be the same
as Joah 2 of I Chronicles 6. 4. Merarite, son of Kish (I Chronicles 6); he
may be the same as Jeduthun 1 of I Chronicles 16.
ETHANIM (אתנים, ever-flowing streams) The pre-exilic name for the seventh
Hebrew month (September-October), of Canaanite origin. It was so called
because during this month only permanent streams still contained water,
this being the end of the dry season.
ETHBAAL (אתבעל, with Baal) King of the Sidonians & a priest of Astarte
whose daughter Jezebel married Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel
Ethbaal gained the throne by murdering the last of the descendants of
Hiram I. Ethbaal had made an alliance with Damascus as well as Israel.
The purpose of these alliances was doubtless to protect Phoenician trade
with the hinterland and to ensure against landward attacks.
ETHER (עתר, abundance, fragrance) 1. A village of Judah in the Shephelah
in the Libnah-Mareshah district, probably 1.6 km northwest of Eleuthe-
ropolis. 2. A village in Simeon, probably 24 km northeast of Beer-
ropolis. 2. A village in Simeon, probably 24 km northeast of Beer-
sheba.
ETHICS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT (OT). The ethics of the OT is based, not
on a philosophical or theoretical system, but on the traditions of both Israel
and Canaan, on the needs of the people for an orderly society, and on the
personal religious experiences of the leaders of the congregation. Israel's
orderly society was made up of: cattle-breeders; peasants; city-dwellers; &
the king with those who served him.
List of Topics—Roots of OT Ethics: Social Classes; Tribal
Confederation and Collective Justice; Ethics Education:
Family, Prophets, and Sage Poets; Effect of Yahweh and
Covenant on Ethics
Roots of OT Ethics: Social Classes—Israel’s traditions were not
those of the camel-riding nomads. The camel was never the main basis of
their wealth. The main trend of Israelite tradition derives rather from the
cattle-breeding semi-nomads who lived on the borders of the cultivated
land. The cattle breeder was for them the man whom Yahweh liked. As
semi-nomads, they did not need holy places for their cult but could sacri-
fice anywhere they liked or where God ordered it. They might sacrifice
the first-born animal of their flocks, and the question arose early if there
was a possibility of saving the life of the first-born son and the first-born
ass. Some groups among them tried to retain these inherited forms of life
even in Palestine until the 500s B.C.
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It may be that the strong sense of liberty and democracy which cha-
racterizes the political attitude of Israel was influenced by the memories
of the cattle-breeders’ free life in the desert. And since they were obliged
to stay together, their ethics had to be an ethics of brotherhood and of de-
pendence upon a God who protected faithfully and asked for faithful obe-
dience in return. After the invasion of Canaan they preserved the feeling
that they had not gotten Canaan by their own strength.
The sacredness of covenants was essential for the cattle-breeders’
life, including the covenant with their God, who might increase or stop
the fertility of their animals, and protect the people from demons or human
enemies. They were also obliged to conclude treaties between their own
groups and with the owners of the cultivated grounds concerning the
springs and wells or gleanings after the harvest.
The peasant’s attitude was quite different. He stayed on the ground
he had inherited from his fathers. As their heir he had the right & duty to
defend his substance against all who wanted to detract from it, even the
king. The connection with the fathers had to be preserved, even when it
was sold for economic reasons. From time immemorial his field was under
the protection of its Baal, who secured its fertility, and the peasant did well
to give him his tribute from the crops and to honor him and his Astarte.
The peasant was a traditionalist who wanted to deliver his ancestors' heri-
tage to his son by teaching him to do as his fathers had done.
The 3rd group is the city-dweller in the former Canaanite cities
occupied by the Israelites mostly under David. The Canaanite population
became merged with the Israelite overlords. As centers of handicraft, of
primitive industries, and of international commerce, the towns were cen-
ters of higher artistic culture in the temples. City folk were also the inter-
mediaries with the literature and thinking of foreign countries.
They would loan money to the poor and asked for a pledge consis-
ting in the case of the poorest, of their garment, their children, or their
personal freedom. The use of such financial superiority without pity was
in perpetual conflict with the Israelite ethics of covenant. Thus, the OT's
ethical traditions derive from the many different social groups that made
up the Israelite people.
Tribal Confederation and Collective Justice—At the beginning,
there was the confederation of tribes united by the veneration of Yahweh
as their common God. The Ten Commandments or Decalogue were
meant to preserve peace by securing the life, wife, possession, and honor
of every member. After Canaan's occupation, these leading principles of
the “moral” decalogue and the Book of the Covenant were adapted to the
new necessities. They tried to protect the house and the field's frontier,
and to lower the hardships for a male or female “Hebrew” slave.
This social system proved unsatisfactory in the Philistine crisis
which obliged Israel to install a King in the interest of national self-pre-
servation. The influence of the kings on the ethics remained so restrained
that only one rule is said to have been instituted by David. Israelite ethic
did not become a political one, and the division into two states with two
kings after only two generations lowered the influence of the kings. The
Persian authorities, when reconstituting the congregation, did so on the
basis of the older law. Israel was a congregation again, but now its mem-
bers were no longer tribes but single men.
While there was some sense of individual responsibility, the main
ethical subject in the older times was, without question, the collective unit:
family; tribe; congregation; and nation. The unit had to put out of its midst
all transgressors of the fundamental statutes. The unit had to search for
any guilt among its members, and watch over equal rights for rich & poor.
The responsibility for the unit lay with the father, the elders, the kings, and
the priests, & any wrongdoing brought guilt and perhaps catastrophe upon
the whole unit.
This collective guilt soon was felt to be an injustice. The decline of
this collective form of justice became stronger as the amount of foreign in-
fluences increased. In the Wisdom literature, the wise men taught a perso-
nal ethical attitude. “Justice” meant now: to give to the individual life or
death according to his personal attitude. But in spite of all declarations of
Ezekiel, every person’s fate was so interwoven with the life and death of
his unit that a separation according to one’s righteousness or wickedness
remained a dogmatic dream.
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The decline of collective guilt and justice went hand in hand with
the decline of the idea that “sin” might exist without knowledge & inten-
tion of the acting person, and that “guilt” did not depend on the guilty's
will to violate a commandment. This attitude and idea declined, & guilt
became connected only with will and knowledge. To be a sinner was no
more a question of fate but of a person's decision.
Ethics Education: Family, Prophets, and Sage Poets—In the
different groups among the people the right attitude was taught by diffe-
rent men: in the family by the father and mother, in the cultic organiza-
tion by the priest or prophetic cult. In the tribe the elders had the same
duty. The sages taught sons of the wealthier families. Their authority
was based on the conformity of their sayings with the experiences had
by the king and the poor, the good & the bad in practical life. They be-
lieved that the rules according to which Yahweh rewarded deeds were to
be seen in life’s realities. In their optimism they thought that everybody
who learned the right way would be able to do what he was taught.
The prophets depended to a much higher degree on their own ex-
periences. They shared the tradition that Yahweh was the only God of
the covenant, demanding brotherhood and punishing his people for all
transgressions. They heard Yahweh's words proclaiming his own faith-
fulness and the nation's faithlessness with such tremendous power that
they were convinced of the need for God's judgment. As God’s mes-
senger the prophet had to announce in his own words the terrible things
he had heard, and this obedience against his own desires was the pro-
phet's ethics.
His demands were not original. The demands for protection of
widows and orphans, and righteousness before sacrifice appeared in
other places and before his time. What was original was the strength
with which social justice and brotherhood was confessed to be the cen-
tral, and sometimes even the only, demand of Yahweh. Such earnest-
ness made it impossible for Jeremiah or Ezekiel to be optimistic. For
them the right ethical attitude was made possible only by a miracle of
their God in changing the heart of stone into a heart of flesh & giving
his spirit of obedience and good will.
In spite of the fact that sages were generally more bound to tra-
dition, there were among them men whose belief in what they had
learned was justified or destroyed by personal experience. The book
of Job illustrates both justification & destruction of personal beliefs.
Elihu finds that the common belief that the just are rewarded for their
deeds is reinforced by experience, but Job has learned by his suffering
that this belief is wrong.
Only a personal vision of God's majesty is able to teach the suf-
ferer that he has no right at all to question God's action. Similar things
are to be said of Ecclesiastes. Here too we are in the presence of per-
sonal experience which destroyed the traditional outlook. This skepti-
cism has its parallels in Greek literature but its roots are in a sage
poet’s personal thinking; he felt with sorrow the differences between
beliefs and real life.
Such personal experiences of life's injustice are reflected in the
work of the writer who used “Yahweh” or “the Lord” as God’s name
in his part of the 1st 5 books of the OT. He didn't criticize the idea of
collective guilt. But when cities were destroyed with all the cruelties
of that time, doubts arose about the injustice in the way war was
waged then. “History” became for this writer a problem which wasn't
to be solved by human thinking. Confidence in Yahweh's words, be-
ginning with the promise to Abraham, and obedience toward God’s
demands even when they aren't understandable, is the only right ethi-
cal attitude for the Israelite pious.
Effect of Yahweh and Covenant on Ethics—OT ethics under-
went very deep changes, not only by the development of the nation's
life and culture, but by the deciding force of the faith in Yahweh the
God of the Covenant. This alliance seems to use as a model the trea-
ties made between kings and their vassals. The mightier party was
free to make or not to make the covenant, he was absolutely bound to
fulfill what he promised. The sanctity of the covenant was the same
for both parties under the guarantee of the gods.
By establishing the covenant Yahweh limited his own freedom,
and he did so in complete liberty. God's love for Israel and the fathers
was as inexplicable as every true love in the world. This covenant was
for the Israelite faith a historical fact connected with Moses & the libe-
ration from Egyptian bondage, and its stipulations contained from the
beginning religious and ethical norms.
E-59
The sages might give reasons why one should avoid certain wrong-
doings. The Law gives its orders in Yahweh's name without any reasoning
why he demands such an attitude. The Ten Commandments forbids the
making of images and labor on the sabbath with the same earnestness as
murder, adultery, & theft. Where reasons are given for such statutes, they
are not rational but historical.
Behind all the sayings of Yahweh there is the same authority of his
tremendous power. From this authority the two main motives of Israel's
ethics gained their historical and not at all dogmatic reason: to fear & to
love God. The tradition believed that God had the right to bless or curse
God's people, because it knew that Israel had accepted the stipulations of
the covenant voluntarily and had been instructed about its risk.
Of course, human nature was such that the covenant was misunder-
stood at times to be an unconditional guarantee of Yahweh's obligation to
help God's people regardless of the circumstances or their deeds. The ten-
sion between fear & love in the Israelite ethics, the irrationalism of the law,
& the great earnestness with which obedience and faith were asked for
have the same root: the historical character of the covenant.
This influence of the covenant theology decided, to a certain degree,
the contents of the Israelite ethics. The congregation of Israel that had en-
tered into the covenant had to worship no other god and to trust in no help
of any other "divine” being. This uniqueness was reinforced by Yahweh's
jealousy, which prohibited the worship of other gods, or the practicing of
their rituals. This was especially true in the area of sexuality and more spe-
cifically in the area of holy prostitution.
Secular harlots were also prohibited, and every father had the duty
of preventing his daughter from going that way. For OT ethics, the regula-
tions of betrothal & marriage in the old oriental civil laws, including those
of the Israelites, had been primarily dominated by economic and financial
reasons, and not by ethical ones. These economic regulations were com-
bined with another system, where sexuality was primarily under a taboo
which nobody could break without the most serious consequences. It was
Yahweh's command that sexual sinners were to be purged from the midst
of Israel.
But the regulation of the sexual life within the covenant with Yah-
weh didn't mean asceticism. In the beginning God ordered the man & his
wife to be fruitful and multiply. Children were Yahweh's gift, and a son
born in his father's old age was a real source of pride for him. The OT
ethics in the sexual field was dominated by a feeling of shame which had
very strong anti-Canaanite roots. The covenant ideology was the reason
for limitations within OT ethics. A deep gorge existed between the duties
toward a member of the covenant's congregation, including foreign sojour-
ners, & the duties owed to members of a foreign nation. In special cases,
lies and even the killing of foreign kings was considered permissible.
Sojourner and Humanitarian Rule—How a foreigner could be-
come a sojourner isn’t mentioned in the OT. Once recognized as a sojour-
ner, he was to be protected by all tribes forming the covenant. The so-
journer had to observe ethical, as well as cultic laws, such as no work on
the sabbath, no cursing Yahweh, and no worship of Molech. Generally he
was among the poor, & for this he was admitted to the poor's privileges.
Yahweh liked these sojourners and did not want Israel to forget that
they themselves had been sojourners in Egypt. The sojourners' treatment
was primarily based, not on a humanitarian feeling, but on their legal sta-
tus as partial partakers in the covenant. The cruelties of old oriental war-
fare were excused in later times by the covenant ideology. Foreign nations
dwelling in Israel’s midst could become a danger for the exclusiveness of
Yahweh's worship.
In the same way the “humanitarian” rule against being a hard credi-
tor or of taking interest applied only to “any of my people”; it was okay to
loan upon interest to a foreigner. The lawgiver knew that even with the co-
venant there was much hardness of the human heart, so that humanitarian
regulations had an effect opposite of what was intended. The poor whom
one couldn’t charge interest might be unable to get money in a famine.
Yahweh selected Israel to be his people, and this selection included
duties not only for Israel but also for Yahweh himself. He had to protect it
from enemies, from famine, lack of rain, locusts, earthquake, and all other
dangers. Yahweh was among the terrifying when he appeared accompa-
nied by pestilence and plague. In the old oriental picture of the ideal god
and king, their goodness included their care for widows, orphans, and the
poor, whose protector the king had to be. Yahweh treated Yahweh's peo-
ple as the “poor.”
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The slave too, if the slave was an Israelite or belonged to the pri-
vileged class of the Habiru, was free from working on the sabbath and
was to be released at the end of the seventh year. To rule over one's bre-
thren with harshness was forbidden for every Israelite. The old feeling
for liberty & democracy was integrated into the faith in Yahweh's mercy
for Yahweh's people. To be holy meant for God not to be overwhelmed
by his anger like a man's losing self-control. God's anger against God's
enemies remained as terrible as ever until the latest testimony in the OT.
The Loving God was combined with the commandment to love one's
neighbor, but the neighbor was limited to the “sons of your own people.”
Yahweh's Role in Covenant & Ethics—Within the covenant the
ethics of the OT was governed by faith in the power of Yahweh in the
creation of the world and the same power in the history of Israel. To re-
cognize the difference between God and humans, never to forget the dis-
tance existing between them, is the main point in OT ethics. Humans
shall be like God in the conduct of their lives. But they are not allowed
to become like God in the sphere of power and knowledge. And to try to
live against God's commandment and the limitations set by him is the
first and greatest sin destroying the possibilities of “life.”
God made humankind a little less than God's self; but humankind
must acknowledge this “little less.” This is the background of the prohi-
bition to produce images. Whoever creates an image is its lord. The artist
would have a magic power over the god whose figure the artist made.
The feeling of distance between Yahweh and all humans forbade this kind
of power and thus hindered any religious art development. It was an ethi-
cal duty not to be an artist. God's ethics was the self-control of God's
truth; humankind's ethic was to not abuse this self-control, to refrain from
any presumption of one's position in being God's image and partner.
The king as Yahweh's representative, was limited in relations with
his people by the covenant. The king was Yahweh's servant who was ob-
liged to obey. Saul was rejected for the sparing of Agag, & Nathan an-
nounced to David the punishment for Uriah's murder. The king to come
was to be humble and ride on an ass, not on a horse. Aaron and even
Moses had to die and they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land,
because they did not obey the word of their God.
In contrast to the poet, the prophet wasn't allowed to produce or to
change or suppress any word said to him. The prophet's ethics was none
other than his people's religious ethics: to obey his God, believing that the
God of the election and the covenant was the only God superior to all, lo-
ving truly God's people as God had loved the fathers, giving them laws by
which they might live, & leading him the right way to peace.
ETHICS IN NONCANONICAL JEWISH WRITING (See the entry in the
Old Testament Apocrypha / Influences Outside the Bible section of the
Appendix.).
ETHICS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT (NT). Fundamental to our understan-
ding is the recognition that in the NT morality finds its setting in religion.
Nowhere is the gospel set forth without a moral demand, and nowhere is
morality understood apart from the gospel.
List of Topics—1. Teachings of Jesus: Ethics and the
Kingdom of God; 2. Ethics and God's Grace (Love);
3. Ethics and the Nearness of God's Kingdom; 4. Ethics,
Divorce, and Taxes; 5.Teachings and Ethics of Jesus
(Conclusion): 6. Early Church Ethics; 7.Applying
Ethical Absolutes to Life; 8. NT Ethics and the World.
1. Teachings of Jesus: Ethics and the Kingdom of God—Mark
1:15 gives a summary of Jesus' proclamation: “The time is fulfilled, and
God's kingdom
highly pertinent to the understanding of Jesus’ ethics. There is the refe-
rence to a time fulfilled. This is to be understood in the light of Old Tes-
tament (OT) expectations, namely that God would someday act for the
salvation of God’s people.
The ministry of Jesus is the fulfillment of these expectations. The
coming of the kingdom of God doesn't ignore the moral content of these
expectations. The Law & the Prophets aren't annulled; they are fulfilled.
This means that Jesus consciously accepted the ethical tradition of his
people. He assumed and constantly appealed to the scriptures of his peo-
ple, but he also passed beyond his nurture.
Jesus’ ethical teaching existed together with his conviction that
the kingdom of God was “at hand.” Jesus preached that the active rule of
God was not only approaching, but already present or in process of reali-
zation in his ministry. The ethics of Jesus is an ethic of the kingdom of
ethics of a new creation, of a new heart and spirit, of a new covenant, of
a new people—a new Israel that had responded to Jesus' call to repen-
tance and received the rule of God.
2. Ethics and God's Grace (Love)—But the coming near of the
kingdom of God in the ministry of Jesus is an act of sheer grace. This is
so even though the word “grace” does not occur in the Synoptic gospels.
Because God’s reign is an expression of grace, Jesus’ moral demands are
the counterpart of God's grace. Grace, God's love, demands love in re-
turn. It is no accident that the Beatitudes precede the statement of Jesus'
demands. This appears elsewhere, especially in Mark 12: 28, where the 2
commandments of love to God and to the neighbor are declared respec-
tively to be the first and second commandments. In this & the following
6 verses, Jesus has combined two verses from the OT. A similar demand
to love God is expressed in the Shema (Deut. 6: 5).
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The explicit combination of the love of God and the love of neigh-
bor is only made by Jesus. This must not be taken to mean that the two
are identical, for to love the neighbor is to be neighbor to him. And this
love includes not only the national kinsman or neighbor but even the
enemy. Despite the use of passages from Jewish sources, there is no real
parallel to the elevation of love to pre-eminence by Jesus. When Rabbi
Hillel quoted the Golden Rule, he had no intention of invalidating the rest
of the law. Jesus, on the other hand, gave absolute priority to love.
The term for unconditional love (agape) is used of love to God.
The essence of this love is no emotional or mystical relationship, but obe-
dience to the service of the neighbor. This does not mean that the agape
of which Jesus speaks is to be differentiated from all human affection.
The love of God is expressed in human terms in the OT and by Jesus.
Jesus uses the same word to express human affection, and also the love
which transcends the natural affections. The conclusion is inevitable that
both have their source in God.
This radical interpretation of the ethical demand in the teaching of
Jesus is not confined to his understanding of love. Not only murder, but
anger, is condemned; not only adultery, but the lustful glance. There is
demanded, not an eye for an eye, but boundless, unconditional love or
agape. Jesus places men immediately under the gracious and demanding
will of God which is relentless, and uncompromising, untouched by the
relativities and contingencies of “the world.”
3. Ethics and the Nearness of God's Kingdom—At this point
we need to ask: Did the nearness in time to the coming rule of God influ-
ence the ethical teaching of Jesus? Some scholars have termed the abso-
lute ethics of Jesus an ethic of the interim designed merely for that very
period of history which was left before the final end of history. In their
minds, this would explain why Jesus made demands of God sound so ab-
solute that it would be impossible to follow them in the long run. The
early church clearly didn't understand Jesus' teachings this way. It is best
to see in Jesus' absolute demands the absolute succor made available in
the coming of the kingdom of God. The demands of grace are expressed
in terms that are essentially independent of “the end.”
The coming of God's kingdom was closely associated with the per-
son of Jesus himself. Judging from Mark’s gospel, the conception of the
Christian life as a call to follow Jesus, or to discipleship to Jesus emerged
very early in his ministry. But to be associated with Jesus was to be open
to the extraordinary tensions of the crisis in which he was involved.
Much of the absolute commitment demanded in Matthew 10, Mark 9, and
Luke 11 is directed to the historical crisis of Jesus’ ministry; it called for
special sacrifices. The point is that ethics in the context of the “warfare”
of his ministry couldn't help but be “totalitarian” at times.
Early Roman Catholics, such as Tertullian, distinguished between
the “requirements” & “advice” of the gospel. The first was binding on all
Christians; the second is for those who would live a holier life. It is best
to see in such absolute conditions as poverty and celibacy the different
aptitudes and the demands of different settings in a Christians ministry.
On the other hand, the Protestant view that Jesus' absolute demands
are intended to produce penitence and despair, finds little, if any support
in the gospel. The absolutes are set in a context of grace, & are meant to
lead into an endless cycle of repentance and meeting God's demands.
However, Jesus didn't deal solely in absolutes. The tradition of his
teaching in the Synoptics, in addition to containing ethical principles,
contains practical injunctions. Jesus was not only prophet & Messiah, but
also a teacher of wisdom and in terms of ethics, a teacher of God's ethical
demands. What Jesus found significant about those demands was that
their source was in God's will.
Jesus' role as a teacher was to define the ethical demands of any
given situation in terms of the essential will of God. The possibility is not
to be ruled out that Jesus himself, despite his vivid apprehension of the
absolutes, was also aware of the necessity of compromise. He may have
been absolute in his ethical principles, and yet prepared to issue injunc-
tions of compromise. This possibility is suggested cautiously, because no
doubt the hand of the early church was involved in ethical teaching, and
they may have made what was once an absolute somewhat less than
absolute.
4. Ethics, Divorce, and Taxes—In his dealing with divorce, Jesus
sees the Mosaic permission of divorce as a concession to the hardness of
men's hearts. Any exception to Jesus' prohibition of divorce was most
likely added later by the church. Jesus appeals to God's will immediately
after creating man and woman, and in light of that will refuses to contem-
plate divorce at all.
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In dealing with the payment of taxes, Jesus recognizes the claims
of the state. At the same time he requires that all that is God's due should
be given to God. Jesus isn't essentially concerned with the state, but with
the claims of the in-breaking rule of God, namely that a person essentially
belongs to God and so should offer themselves to God.
In the same way, the attitude of Jesus toward wealth is determined
by his concern for obedience to the rule of God. His woes against the
wealthy was not aimed at economic reform, but was due to his awareness
of the “demonic” character of wealth. Poverty, as such, is neither con-
demned nor praised by Jesus. He faced economic inequality realistically,
while he uncovered the dangers of riches. Throughout, his concern was
that men should seek first the rule of God.
In his discussion of divorce and taxes, Jesus makes an explicit &
implicit appeal to the order of creation. The OT, as we saw, drew no sharp
distinction between nature and grace. When Jesus finds & uses “nature”
as pointing to his absolute demands, the “nature” which he sees is that in-
tended by God, not “nature” as it actually is since its corruption in the Fall.
Jesus saw “nature” as it came from God, before it was involved in the fall
from “grace.” He saw it renewed by grace.
Jesus’ speech was poetic, his message was delivered through par-
able and exaggeration; it was not scientific. He urges repentance in a con-
text of rewards and punishments related to that kingdom, with the punish-
ments seeming to far outweigh the promises of grace. On the other hand,
entry into the kingdom of God is the supreme good. The kingdom’s re-
wards seem to include, not only blessings of the age to come, but tangi-
ble things in this age. God’s kingdom has itself become a reward, so that
the concept of reward is in a dominating position in the ethical teaching of
Jesus. And yet, the blessing in the Beatitudes are not conditioned to obedi-
ence, but are given by grace. Here, it would seem that the concept of re-
ward can't have been a fundamental one for Jesus.
5. Teachings and Ethics of Jesus (Conclusion)—The basis of &
the authority for his ethic is found in the kingdom of God. It is the imita-
tion of God, the God who took the initiative in giving the kingdom, that
constitutes the motive for the good life. As Jesus saw it, those who made
rewards the fundamental motive for submission to God misunderstood the
nature of the God’s rule. Since its demand is that of love, submission to it
cannot be motivated by any selfish concern, such as rewards. Those are
rewarded who seek no reward. In the rule of God, announced by Jesus,
man encounters a love measureless in grace, the acceptance or rejection
of which brings measureless reward or loss.
It is the preaching of the kingdom of God that is the essential refer-
ence of all the ethic of Jesus. The ethics of Jesus is best thought of as the
demands which are placed upon those who have accepted God's rule, as
Jesus proclaimed & lived it. His ethic is an ethic of grace & forgiveness,
gratitude & obedience; it is the ethics of a new community of God.
6. Early Church Ethics—We draw Jesus' ethical teachings from
the gospels, which were the products of the early church. The grounds for
the early church's emergence & the inspiration for its ethic wasn't only the
ministry of Jesus, but also the Resurrection. It was a triumph of life over
death, forgiveness over sin, and an expression of God's grace in Christ,
because the risen Christ came back to those who had all forsaken him and
fled. The grace of Christ in appearing to Paul as a persecutor of the
church was marvelous to Paul.
The Resurrection was of a piece with the whole ministry of Jesus,
and the ethic of the community, like the ethic of Jesus, was to be an ethic
of grace. The Christian ethic of community was expressed in the Greek
word koinonia. The emphasis was on fellowship and sharing in the grace
of the risen Lord. This fellowship, in grace, could not but create a warm
human relationship.
The community's ethic is linked to the understanding of an event—
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The sign for the setting apart of
this event as special was baptism. Christians made use of this event to
make their own connection with God. Since Jesus had figuratively con-
nected his own baptism with his coming passion, it is also possible that
this had come to be combined with the rite of baptism in the minds of the
Twelve & in Paul's mind. By baptism, Christians, through faith, had died,
risen, been justified: they were a new creation. All that was necessary for
them now was to become what they were.
The historical Jesus played a real part in the moral development of
the early church. There can be little doubt that part of the reason for the
preservation of stories about Jesus' life, such as we have in the gospels,
was the desire to imitate Jesus in his acts. While persecution, and violent
death was a possibility, more often Christians were called upon to imitate
their Lord in daily virtues: love, forbearance, patience, mercy, etc. In the
case of Paul, there can be little question that for him every Christian is
pledged to an attempted ethical conformity to Christ.
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While apostles like Paul had a special calling and intensity to their
ministry the whole community also was “called,” i.e. caught up into the
large counsel of God. They share in the work of salvation (including their
own) inaugurated by Jesus; ethical decisions are to be made in this light.
Another way of saying it is to claim that the Christian life is life in the
Spirit.
The character that the Spirit took on in the OT was that of inspirer
of the Scriptures and therefore the source by which Israel knew the moral
demands made upon it. Thus for Acts, Paul, and the rest of the NT, the
Spirit was essentially creative and life-giving in both the ecstatic and the
moral aspects of life. For Paul, the Spirit becomes the source of Christian
morality. Love, joy, peace, and righteousness and every victory in the
moral sphere are the fruit of the Spirit.
The church didn't sit back and enjoy the “grace,” but took practical
steps to give expression to grace. This led to the experiment usually re-
ferred to as the communism of Acts. The experiment was the natural,
spontaneous expression of life in the Spirit, with which the neglect of the
poor was incompatible. The experiment failed, but it witnesses to the fel-
lowship” ethic of the primitive community.
This emphasis on the communal nature of the Christian way per-
sisted throughout the NT. Jesus gathered the Twelve, and then attached
them in a kind of organic union with himself. Those who accept the dis-
ciples whom he sent accept him; those who refuse them refuse him. From
this background, Paul's Christ mysticism developed; his understanding of
the church, as the new Israel, the body of Christ, is rooted in Jesus' minis-
try. No individual lives to oneself, nor is one at the mercy of the commu-
nity, because the body itself is subordinate to the Head, Christ. This
guards against the extremes of individualism and collectivism.
7. Applying Ethical Absolutes to Life—For certain elements
Jesus’ commandments in their absolute form were for long guides to con-
duct. But under the inevitable compromises, it became necessary for the
church to apply these absolutes to life. The church began to transform the
absolutes into practical rules of conduct. Jesus’ words were considered
authoritative and played a significant part in both the Jewish Christian
church, and the Gentile part of the church that Paul concerned himself
with; they were an important source for Paul's ethical teaching.
There is clear evidence that there was a collection of sayings of the
Lord to which Paul appealed. In two places he uses the words “the law of
Christ” where the reference is in part at least, to Jesus’ teaching. And, al-
though in John’s Gospel the ethical teaching of Jesus plays little part, the
function of the Spirit is to recall the words of Jesus.
The necessity which led to the application of the absolutes of Jesus
to life led the church to take over for its own use the law codes from the
Greeks or the Jews. Most of the NT letters reveal a part dealing with doc-
trine followed by a second dealing with ethics. Whatever the exact source
of the material, the church found it necessary to borrow from non-Chris-
tian sources.
8. NT Ethics and the World—What, finally, is the relation of
ethics in the NT to “the world?” The created order, and man as part of this
order, bears the “image of God.” Thus it is natural that the ethical tradition
of humankind should be of use to the church, whose ethic not only can
transcend the natural but also can confirm it. Still more important is that
the Christ, who is the redeemer in the NT and the revealer of God's moral
purpose, is also the agent of creation, so that the ethics of the NT, isn't
only of relevance to the church, but also the world, because this ethics af-
firms & confirms what is truly natural for all men in virtue of their creation.
Although there was evident in the church of a Christianization of
personal relations, the church was apparently not concerned to change the
evil in the social structures of the time. When Paul discovered that the
term “kingdom of God” was being misunderstood politically, he dropped
it almost entirely. Some draw the conclusion from this that NT ethics are
primarily designed to cultivate the “garden” of the church, and to influence
but abstain from directly attacking the surrounding “wilderness.”
Actually, the struggle of Christ against these powers goes on until
the Parousia: in this, Christians share and thus engage in social action.
The kingdom of God is never merely a gift, but also a demand to confront
the universe’s brutal realities. The real justification for a struggle against
social evils lies in the very nature of the grace which created the church.
NT ethics is dominated by the fact of Christ and what he did in his
life, death, and resurrection. It is also dominated by an imperative derived
mainly from his words. The life, work and words of Jesus constitute the
ethics of the NT, of the new Israel. In Judaism it is the covenant law rather
than Moses, the covenant agent, that is emphasized. In Christianity, the
new exodus, the person of Jesus, the agent of the new covenant, is what
achieves pre-eminence, rather than his word of demand. Christ has taken
the place of the law and has become the “new Torah.”
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arisen between the terms “Ethiopia” and “Cush,” which for the biblical
period may be taken as more or less synonymous. “Ethiopia” is the Greek
name for this same area during classical antiquity. The name Cush ap-
pears in Egyptian sources for the first time during the Middle Kingdom in
the reign of Sesotris I (1971-1930 B.C.), and applied to a relatively small
area between the 2nd and 3rd Cataracts. During the New Kingdom the
name Cush took on a much wider meaning but was for some time used in
both the narrow and wider senses.
Nubia (Ethiopia) broke away from Egyptian domination soon after
the year 1000 B.C. and became an independent kingdom. We now know
all the rulers of this kingdom from its beginning down to the 200s B.C. at
its capital in Napata. After the 200s B.C., a new capital was founded far-
ther to the south at Meroe. This branch of the Nubian Kingdom continued
until the 300s A.D.
Kashta, the first Napatan king we know of, conquered Upper Egypt,
including Thebes, around 750 B.C. His son Piankhi led a campaign north-
ward to the Mediterranean around 725 & succeeded in uniting all of Egypt
under Nubian rule. Tefnakht was still ruling in the Delta around 720 B.C.
The period during which the rulers of Napata exercised sovereignty over
Egyptian territory coincides roughly with the 25th Dynasty from 715-663
B.C., with Shabaka as its first ruler. While the Ethiopian kings in Napata &
Meroe used the Egyptian language in hieroglyphic writing for formal in-
scriptions, a native language & script called Meroitic was used from the 1st
century B.C. to the end of the 200s A.D.
Shabaka was succeeded by Shabataka, Taharka, Tanutamun. Tahar-
ka is mentioned in Isaiah 37, as an ally of Hezekiah in his rebellion against
the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib. Sennacherib's successor, Esarhaddon
(681-669 B.C.) invaded Egypt in 670 and reduced it to a province of the
Assyrian Empire. Tanutamun attempted to regain Egypt
ended in defeat with the destruction of Thebes
tiring to Napata, Tanutamun continued to rule the Nubian Kingdom.
ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH A minister of Candace, queen of Ethiopia
verted by Phillip the evangelist. As a geographical or ethnic term, Ethiopia
has had various meanings. Likewise, the term has covered a wide variety
of racial groups. By late biblical times, however, the geographical meaning
of the term was limited to land south of Egypt. The fact that a queen’s high
official could read Isaiah in the Greek is not a problem.
The narrative in Acts seems to emphasize two things: that the man
was an Ethiopian, & he was a eunuch. Was the “Ethiopian eunuch” a Jew,
whether by birth or as a proselyte? He couldn't have been an actual eu-
nuch if this was the case. If he was a eunuch, the most that can be said is
that he was a “God-fearer.” In this narrative, Luke demonstrates that: the
gospel addresses itself to the peoples who dwell on the outermost fringes
of the inhabited world; that the eunuch is an outlander who comes to the
light; and as a eunuch he serves as an example of one by nature “not-my-
people becoming my people.”
ETH-KAZIN (עתה קצין, end of time (?)) A town on the border of Zebulun.
Its location is unknown.
ETHNAN (אתנן, gift) Listed as a family of the tribe of Judah
ETHNARCH (eqnarchV) A title with an original meaning of “people’s ruler”;
often translated as "governor."
“Ethnarch” was apparently a royal title granted to a dependent mon-
arch, higher than “tetrarch” but lower than “king.” The only use of the
term in the New Testament is in II Corinthian 11: “At Damascus, the eth-
narch under King Aretas guarded Damascus in order to seize me [Paul].”
It is unclear whether Damascus was under Roman or Nabatean control at
that time. (See also the entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha / Influences
Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.).
ETHNI (אתני, generous giving) An ancestor of Asaph in a genealogy of Leviti-
cal singers. The list was written after the exile, is mostly artificial, and re-
presents an attempt to trace Levitical pedigrees back to David’s time.
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EUBULUS (EubouloV, well advised) A Christian man whose greetings are
conveyed in II Timothy 4.
EUCHARIST (eucaristia, thanksgiving) The name commonly used by
Christians of the post-apostolic & later periods for the Lord's Supper rite
(See Lord's Supper entry). There is no indisputable use of the word in this
technical sense in the New Testament (NT). It is used in I Corinthian 14 to
describe the “thanks-giving,” or blessing over the Supper’s elements. The
verb form is found in the accounts of Jesus’ feeding of the multitude and of
the Last Supper. Elsewhere in the NT, the verb is used of giving thanks
over ordinary food.
EUERGETES (euergethV, benefactor) A title bestowed by ancient states upon
those famed for notable deeds of benevolence who in modern days would
receive a distinguished service award.
EUNICE (Eunikh , good victory) Daughter of Lois, wife of a Gentile, and the
mother of Timothy. She came from Derbe or Lystra in Galatia & was a
Jew who had been converted to Christianity.
EUNUCH (סריס (saw reese); eunoucoV) A chamberlain for the women's
quarters in the royal household; usually a castrated male person.
These men could be high officials. In Israel they were excluded
from the covenant congregation, as were all impaired and defective per-
sons. David used last such officers; the Tyrian Jezebel, King Ahab’s wife,
used eunuchs also. Judah’s kings knew of them, & Herod the Great used a
eunuch for cupbearer. In the New Testament, the expression to be a eu-
nuch for Christ's sake probably refers to those who voluntarily give up the
use of their reproductive powers to serve better in the kingdom, and may
not have involved surgery.
EUODIA (Euodia , good journey, success) A Christian woman in the church at
ning (Acts 16). In Philippians 4, Paul calls upon an unnamed “loyal com-
panion (NRSV)” to help these women.
biblical tradition the Euphrates was 1 of 4 branches into which the river
issuing from the Garden of Eden divided. It formed the northern boun-
dary of the territories promised by Yahweh to Israel. It was reached by the
Hebrew monarchy at its peak. The Euphrates originates in Armenia
formed by the Kara Su branch and the Murat Suyu branch, both of which
flow westward and join north of Malatiya to form the Euphrates . Flowing
first southeast, then southwest, from Malatia, the Euphrates enters the
Syrian Plain at Samsat.
Farther south the river passes Jerablus, ancient Carchemish's site,
which was an important provincial capital of the Mitanni, Hittite & Assyr-
ian kingdoms in succession. Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon won his deci-
sive victory over Nero of Egypt here. Further south the Euphrates receives
the Sajur River, which flows into it from the west. As the river flows south-
east, it is joined first by the Belikh and later the Khabur River, both coming
in from the north.
At Museyyib, it divides into 2 branches. The main or Hindiya branch
flows past Hindiya, Bahr Shinafiye, and on to Samawa. The lesser or Hilla
branch flows past Hilla and ancient Babylon to reach Diwaniya, and then
south to join the Hindiye branch south of Samawa. It flows southeast past
Nasiriye, through Lake Hamar, & on to join with the Tigris shortly before
Basra. Together these two rivers flow as Shatt-el-Arab past Basra and into
the Persian Gulf.
In ancient times the Euphrates' course seems in its lower parts, to
have been rather different from what it is today. In the region around Fel-
luja the ancient course veered rather more to the east than does the pre-
sent day course and passed by the sun-god, Sippar's city, the seat of Chal-
dean learning. The Euphrates also sent off a western branch which took
off in the neighborhood of Sippar & flowed through Babylon. It is probably
this part of the Euphrates that Jeremiah refers to when he tells Seraiah to
read his book, tie a stone to it & cast it into the Euphrates as a sign of the
coming destruction of Babylon.
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EUTYCHUS (EutucoV , fortunate, lucky) A youth of Troas who sat one evening
in a window of an upper chamber while Paul talked. Overcome by sleep
Eutychus fell out & was taken up dead; but Paul declared him alive. The
eyewitness account implies that Paul could restore the dead. It could be
that the 3rd floor was actually what Americans think of as the 2nd floor, so
the distance doesn't necessarily imply a fatal fall. Probably Eutychus was
unconscious and thought dead.
EVANGELIST (euaggelisthV , announcer of good news) A title, not of an
office, but of an activity of early Christian missionaries & preachers of the
gospel. In the New Testament the term is employed times: Acts 21, refer-
ring to Phillip, 1 of the 7; Ephesians 4, in a list along with prophets and
apostles; & II Timothy 4, referring to Timothy's ministry.
In the earliest times the apostles' activity wasn't rigidly distinguished
from that of evangelists. A more restrictive use of “evangelist” to denote
the authors of the canonical gospels first appears in the religious writers of
the 200s. In Egypt around 300 A.D., the reader of the lections at the liturgy
was reminded that he “carries out the office of an evangelist.”
EVE (חוה (khav vah) life-giver; alternate root of word is “serpent”) 1st woman;
wife of Adam; designated as the mother of the human race.
According to the Priestly Writer (See P Biblical entry) in Genesis
1:27, humankind was created in 2 sexes, male & female. According to the
Jahwistic Writer (See J Biblical entry), the male was created first. When
Yahweh recognized man's loneliness in the company of mere animals, he
formed woman from one of his ribs. The woman was tempted by the ser-
pent into eating the forbidden fruit & causing her husband also to eat. Her
punishment took the form of pain at childbirth & subordination to the man.
In Genesis 3:20, “Eve” is a parallel to the form which designates women in
general.
This material's ancient age is shown by the many motifs which ex-
plain the origins of certain aspects of life, and which are woven into the nar-
rative. Eve is again mentioned twice in the New Testament. In I Timothy 2,
the New Testament writers argues that the woman's place in the church
should be one of silence & submissiveness. Paul uses Eve in II Corinthian
11 as an illustration of how easily one can be led astray.
EVENING SACRIFICE (See Sacrifice and Offerings)
EVERLASTING. (See Time)
EVI (אוי, desire) One of the 5 Midianite kings killed in battle by the Israelites
under Moses. In Numbers 31 the battle is set against the background of
religious apostasy into which Israel had fallen under Midian enticements.
In Joshua 13, the five Midianite leaders are said to have fallen in the same
battle in which Moses defeated Sihon the Amorite king.
EVIDENCE (עד (aid), witness; marturion (mar too ree on), testimony, wit-
ness) The term is used chiefly in a legal sense; it consists in statement or
proofs admissible as testimony in a legal inquiry or a court of law.
Paul's counsel that any charge must be sustained by the evidence
of 2 or 3 witnesses was based on a venerable legal tradition in Israel. The
giving of evidence was regarded as a religious duty. Witnesses were ex-
pected to cast the first stones at a defendant who had been found guilty
of apostasy. The importance of giving honest evidence is frequently em-
phasized in the Old Testament. In the case of false witnesses, the accu-
sing witness is to receive the punishment which he had intended for the
falsely accused.
EVIL (רעה (ro ah), evil, bad, worthless, broken; kakoV (kak os); ponhroV
(pon eh ros)) Both in Hebrew and in Greek usage “evil” has primarily a
pragmatic and qualitative sense. Something is evil when it is worthless
and corrupt, or painful and injurious.
“Evil” means the “trouble,” “distress,” & “calamity,” which human-
kind, and particularly Israel, must endure. Evil is often spoken of as a
punishment of chastisement sent from God; God uses it for God's wise
though severe purposes. Israel's struggle with theological meaning of suf-
fering constitutes one of the leading problems of the Old Testament (OT)
(See suffering and evil.).
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Often in the OT, and predominantly in the New Testament “evil” has
a moral & spiritual connotation; it indicates the wrong that men do to one
another. The expression “good and evil” covers the whole range of moral
or spiritual possibilities, with their necessary consequences.
EVIL ONE, THE ( o ponhroV (oh pon eh ros)) A way of referring to Satan; it
occurs several times in the New Testament. There is no Old Testament
equivalent. In the last petition of the Lord's Prayer, the Greek word may
be translated as “the evil” or simply “evil” in a neuter sense, or it may be
translated as “the evil one” in a masculine sense. In the early church,
Eastern writers followed a masculine interpretation; the Western fathers
followed a neuter understanding. Present-day exegesis in general follows
the neuter interpretation.
EVIL-MERODACH (אויל מרדך) King of Babylon (562-560 B.C.); son of Ne-
buchadrezzar. Of the two years during which this king ruled we know no-
thing. King Nabonidus mentions as his predecessors and models Nebu-
chaddrezzar & Neriglissar (his brother-in-law and successor) without men-
tioning Evil-Merodach.
EXACTOR OF TRIBUTE (נוגש (no nashe), oppressor) Usually a government
officer who levied or collected tribute taxes, or customs; a taskmaster. The
Hebrew term was used derisively of one who made illegal exactions or laid
claim to something as a matter of right. Daniel 11 is often taken as a refe-
rence to a Greek finance minister named Heliodorus, who was sent by Se-
leucus IV Philopater (187-175) B.C. to Jerusalem to see whether great
wealth was being stored in the Jerusalem temple. Seleucus' preoccupa-
tion with finances arose from the obligation which he had to pay off an
indemnity the Romans had levied against his father. An exactor such as
Heliodorus might have visited Jerusalem at specified intervals.
EXCELLENT (גדל (gaw dal), greatness; יתר (yaw thar), abundance; kaloV
(ka los), beautiful, good) In Acts, Felix and Festus are addressed by the
term “most excellent.” This expression or “most noble” was commonly
used to address one who held a higher official or social position than the
speaker. In Romans 2 and Phillipians, the word “excellent” appears in
the phrase “what is excellent,” meaning the things that really matter.
EXCOMMUNICATION Punishment of a church member, for error in doctrine or
morals, by temporary or permanent exclusion from the sacraments or from
membership. Temporary exclusion from the services of the sanctuary for
violation of ritual taboo was an integral part of Israelite-Jewish ceremonial
law. The first instance of the use of the threat of excommunication against
recalcitrant members of was that of Ezra in his campaign against mixed
marriages. This was a lesser form of the ancient cherem, which involved
death for the person & destruction for his property.
In the New Testament (NT) times the regular penalty for serious re-
ligious or moral offenses was exclusion from the synagogue for a period of
thirty days. The more severe formal ban, cherem, which deprived the vic-
tim of all religious privileges for an indefinite period, imposed by not fewer
than 10 persons. In the Qumran community of the time members were pun-
ished for varying periods for different offenses. One form of punishment
was exclusion from the “purity” or sacred food. 2 years’ probation was re-
quired of a backsliding member before he could be restored to his former
position in the community. The NT references to the contemporary Jewish
procedure of excluding those who confessed Jesus to be the Christ use
the term meaning “to be put out of the synagogue.”
The early Christian communities used the 3-fold admonition of the
offending brother, first privately, then in the presence of 2 or 3 witnesses,
& finally before the church. It is similar to the Jewish practice. Paul, in
dealing with disciplinary problems in the churches, had to resort to exclu-
sion, or the threat of it, in order to maintain or restore order. In less seri-
ous cases he employed milder forms of moral suasion & social pressures.
For the Thessalonians who refused to work, he prescribed cutting off their
food. For the disobedient, Paul recommended that others “have nothing to
do with him, that he might be ashamed.”
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For serious moral offenses his blunt directive was: “Drive out the
wicked person from among you.” This drastic treatment was intended for
the good of the offender and for the salvation of his spirit. In a particular
case from Corinth
chastened & had undergone a radical repentance. Paul felt that the punish-
ment should be ended and that the members should forgive and comfort
him, so as not to defeat the purpose of the punishment.
The Corinthian and Thessalonian letters reflect a rather loose disci-
plinary organization, without rigid rules. Excommunication wasn’t simply
a matter of discipline, or of consigning the offender to Satan; its main pur-
pose was to keep the church from corruption by amputating the diseased
member. Paul himself expressed willingness to become anathema and cut
off from Christ, if it could mean winning his fellow Jews to Christ. The
young church was still flexible; development into a complex structure was
a gradual transformation.
EXECRATION. (אלה (‘aw law), cursing) An occasional translation which is
more commonly rendered “oath” and “curse.” Execration is, in a sense the
antithesis of blessing & consecration. Execration, cursing, especially when
pronounced by a person with spiritual authority, renders a person or thing
unholy and useless.
Jeremiah warned his exilic compatriots that God would pour wrath
out on those who fled from Judah to Egypt, so that they would become an
“execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt.” A comprehensive summary of
the curse which would befall an Israelite if he and his nation were disloyal
to God is presented in Deuteronomy 28.
Curses, threat and magical cursing were used extensively in the
ancient Middle East and especially in Egypt. Such texts were designed to
serve to protect the honor of a king or to ward off tomb-robbers by remin-
ding them of what would befall them in this and the afterlife should they
disturb the peace of the dead. In instances where supposed violators of a
law couldn't be indicted, the king would invoke divine vengeance against
the supposed offenders. The names &designations of such enemies were
inscribed on pottery bowls or papyrus & placed in glass bottles; the bowls
and bottles were then smashed. Magical cursing of a conditional kind for
the protection of children and other persons was also used extensively in
ancient Egypt.
EXECUTIONER (פקדה (pek ood ha), visitation; spekoulatwr (spe koo
la tor), sentinel, life-guardsman) One who puts another to death, usually
in carrying out a legal sentence of capital punishment. A captain of the
guard might act as executioner. But the Old Testament has no special
word for those who carried out the sentence of capital punishment.
The Roman administration in New Testament Palestine reserved ex-
clusive jurisdiction over capital crimes. Soldiers carried out the execution
of Jesus.
EXHORTATION (paraklhsiV, (par ah kleh sis), incitement, persuasion,
consolation) It is often difficult to determine just which meaning an au-
thor intended, whether it means “exhortation,” “encouragement,” or “com-
fort.” Many different words are therefore used to translate paraclesis.
EXILE (גולה (go law), captivity; גלות (gaw looth); captivity; metoikizein
(meh toy key zay ine) change homes; aicmalwtizein (ah eekh mah lo
tee zay ine), to lead in captivity) The period in biblical history when the
Babylonians forced most of the inhabitants of Judah Jerusalem
migrate from their native homes to Babylonia . It began for some in 598
B.C., with the first deportation, for others in 587 B.C. It ended either in 538,
with Cyrus' edict, or in 515 B.C. with the completion of the new temple.
The word may also refer to a general sense of an individual banished from
his home. In Old Testament literature right before and after the Exile, the
reference is almost invariably to the Assyrian and Babylonians exiles. Be-
fore that, the word was used for other forced migrations.
Throughout their history the people of Israel and Judah were forced
to play the role of political buffer between Egypt to the southwest and the
governments in Mesopotamia to the northeast. It was the rise of the power-
ful Assyrian government in the 700s B.C., and the Neo-Babylonians in the
600s, which brought about the total eclipse of the northern tribes and the
utter prostration of Benjamin & Judah. After the United Monarchy's split
into the northern kingdom of Israel & the southern kingdom of Judah, each
government independently reached the zenith of its power and prestige in
the 700s B. C. Israel attained its summit during the reign of Jeroboam II
(786-746), and Judah under the rule Uzziah or Azariah (783-742).
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Shortly after this period, the Assyrian Tiglath-pileser III (745-727)
captured the cities of Naphtali and carried the inhabitants of the tribes of
Naphtali, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh captive to Assyria.
Tiglath-pileser appointed for Israel her last king Hoshea. Hoshea rebelled
around 734, but depended on an ineffective Egypt
prisoner by the Assyrians.
Samaria held out through the reigns of 2 Assyrian kings until early
in 721. This marked the end of the ten tribes, who were exiled to Halah;
Sargon II reports the number exiled as 27,290. People from Mesopotamia
were brought to the cities of Samaria. This displacement of populations
was, it seems complete so far as the identity of the northern ten tribes is
concerned; they eventually assimilated beyond the point of return.
Just as Amos and Hosea had announced divine judgment of destruc-
tion & exile on Israel, so Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk,
& Ezekiel were in agreement on the fate of Judah under that same judg-
ment. The passing of Ashurbanipal marked the end of effective Assyrian
dominance of Judah and a brief respite for Judah & Egypt. Judah's hopes
of a restored kingdom died at the Battle of Megiddo, where King Josiah
of Judah (640-609) was killed.
One of Josiah's sons, Jehoahaz, ruled for 3 months before he was
deported to Egypt, where he died. Eliakim, whose name the Pharaoh
changed to Jehoiakim, reigned 11 years (609-598) before the Babylonians
under Nebuchadnezzar (605-562) laid siege to Jerusalem
during the siege, and his son, Jehoiachin, after reigning three months was
exiled to Babylon. A third son, Mattaniah, whose name was changed to
Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar, then ruled the vassal state of Judah for 11
years until the fall of Jerusalem in 587, when he was blinded and taken
into Babylonian exile.
There were 3 deportations of Jews to Babylonia. The first (598)
was vividly given in II Kings 24, where, along with King Jehoichin, his
mother, his palace household, and the temple and palace treasures, it is
said that 10,000 captives were taken. Jeremiah 52 gives the total number
as 4,600 persons, with 3,023 having been taken in 598 and the remainder
in 587 and 582.
The second deportation is described in II Kings 25. The temple,
the palace, & private homes were burned, the walls of the city destroyed,
the temple treasures further confiscated, and more people deported. Geda-
liah, the former mayor of the palace, was appointed governor of Judah.
He held office in Mizpah until he was assassinated around 582; this resul-
ted in a third deportation of men of rank and skill. After Nebuchadnezzar's
death and on Evil-Merodach's accession, Jehoichin was freed from prison
to sit among the kings who were also in exile in Babylon.
The Edict of Cyrus, to release the Jews in exile to return home to
rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, is supported by archaeology & in keeping
with the known policies of the new Persian Empire. Egyptian papyri and
Babylonian contract tablets dating from the early post-exilic period give
evidence of a comfortable existence in the Dispersion. It seemed the best
idea to many of the well-off Jews to defect from their own faith and an-
cient customs, and take up worship of Babylonian deities.
On the other hand, there is ample evidence that many Jews did not
fare so well. Nonetheless, following 538, a number of Jews did return,
among them a descendant of David named Zerubbabel and the high priest
Joshua; the temple was rebuilt between 538 & 515. It was completed in
March 515, which usually marks the end of the period commonly called
the Babylonian exile.
The Exile was a period remarkable for its prophetic and literary ac-
tivity. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the author of the second part of the book of
Isaiah were in remarkable theological agreement as to the presence of
divinity activity in the calamity of defeat and exile. Not only was this
event to be understood as divine retribution, but more significantly as
God's judgment, which, if accepted by faith, would be a revelation of
God's love and commitment forever.
Priestly literary activity in Babylonia produced an reappraisal of
the Yahwistic cult to rid it of anything which might have evoked the
Exile's divine judgment; out of the Exile, Judaism was born. The Exile is
at the heart of the biblical understanding of divine judgment & revelation.
It was the crucible of Israel's faith. Its message of necessary suffering is
the foundation stone of any biblical understanding of the Cross.
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EXODUS (ואלא שמות (vay leh she moeth), “and these are the names”;
exodoV, a going out) The second book of the Torah or Law, which receives
its Hebrew name from the first two words of the book, valeh shemoth. It is
also the 2nd book of the Old Testament (OT). The name which Christians
use today is from the Greek OT, which uses the chief event recorded in it
as the name of the book.
Christian interpreters have made more use of the events of delive-
rance from slavery & the Sinai covenant than the laws found in the book.
For Israel the events recorded in the book were a testimony to the work of
God in fulfillment of promise whereby she became “Yahweh’s people.”
She was bound by covenant to God, and was provided with a tabernacle &
the ark of the covenant as a sign of God's presence in her midst.
List of Topics—1. Contents: Moses' Birth to Israel Leaving
Egypt; 2. Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai; 3. Tabernacle
and Furnishings: Description; 4. Historical Background;
5. Israel's 12 Tribes, Traditions, and Covenant with Yahweh;
6. Composition: Source Criticism, Cultic Setting; 7. Table:
Sources of Material in the Book of Exodus; 8. Significance:
Confession of Faith, Cultic Worship, God's Righteousness;
9. Mosaic Covenant; 10. Israel's Cult and Central Sanctuary
1. Contents: Moses' Birth to Israel Leaving Egypt—The diverse
contents of the book may be quickly summarized as follows: 1-19:2,
Israel's deliverance from Egyptian slavery and journey to Mount Sinai;
19:3-24:18, the covenant & 32-34, breach of covenant & its renewal;
chapters 25-31, the tabernacle and its furnishings, and in 35-40, Moses
directs construction of tabernacle and furnishings.
The introduction to the deliverance section describes the situation: a
new government in Egypt which “didn't know Joseph” & which made the
Hebrews state slaves, while cruel methods were used to cut down their
numbers. We are told how God raised Moses to deliver his people & sent
him with his brother Aaron to the Egyptian pharaoh. Though reared in the
Egyptian court, Moses received his call at “Horeb, the mountain of God.”
His objections and feeling of inadequacy were overcome when God com-
missioned him.
God's contest with Pharaoh (chapters 7-10) is described through a
series of nine plagues, through which “the Egyptians shall know that I am
Yahweh.” Balanced with this is the statement concerning the hardness of
Pharaoh's heart. The double climax of the story is when, after the killing
of the Egyptian first-born, Pharaoh allows Israel to depart, only to face a
crisis before the Red Sea, through which God leads the people safely
while destroying the Egyptian pursuers.
This story of Passover is interrupted by the detailed regulations for
the observances of the Passover & then a great hymn of praise, triumph, &
thanksgiving, placed at the conclusion of the section. In 15:1, Moses and
Israel sang it, while another tradition in verse 21 relates it to Miriam,
Moses' sister. The final portion of this section of the book depicts Israel's
journey to Sinai. The main theme here is the people's murmuring & rebel-
lion against God and against Moses. Yet the faithfulness of God is empha-
sized in his gracious provision of sustenance, notably Manna.
2. Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai—At the sacred mountain be-
fore which Moses received his call and commission, Moses now becomes
the mediator of the covenant relation between God and the people. They
then prepare for the great theophany, which is described in terms taken
from a mountain storm. Then out of the thundering and the cloud God
identifies himself and gives the covenant. Thus a distinction is drawn be-
tween the Ten Commandments, as God's covenant revelation, and the spe-
cific laws of the code. The Commandments are the “words,” while the lat-
ter are the “ordinances” or specific legal procedures of the community.
The ceremony whereby the covenant was sealed is described in
chapter 24. The reading of the covenant's stipulations and a sacrificial
ceremony in which the blood of slain animals was partly thrown upon the
altar and partly sprinkled upon the participants made up the events of this
occasion. Precisely what Moses read and what the people promised to
obey is not entirely clear in the text. If Moses read what 24: 4 says that he
wrote, then we must presume that the title “book of the covenant” refers to
the Ten Commandment in Chapter 20 & not to the code of “ordinances.”
In chapters 32-34 the story continues with Aaron's making of a golden bull,
which is a major offense against the covenant, with Moses' anxious inter-
cession to allay the Lord's anger, and with his breaking of the two tablets.
Following repentance on the part of the people, God reveals his
name as signifying a gracious, patient, loving, and forgiving personality.
Moses is then told to make two stone tablets like the first, which had been
broken, signifying the reconstitution of the covenant. There follows God's
formal declaration of the covenant, & then Moses is told to write the ten
words. In between verses 10 & 27 of Chapter 34 we thus would expect to
find the stipulations of the covenant repeated. Instead, we have only the
first 2 commandments, followed by cultic instructions and a festival calen-
dar, specifying the chief religious festivals of Israel. This was done perhaps
to avoid repetition.
While Moses “was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights,” he re-
ceived from God the instructions concerning the religious cult, which were
subsequently carried out. In Chapter 40 Yahweh gives Moses fresh orders
regarding the final stage of the work, the actual erection of the tabernacle,
and the consecration of its objects and its priesthood; these are faithfully
followed.
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3. Tabernacle and Furnishings: Description—In the 5 chapters be-
ginning the 1st part of the tabernacle and furnishings section, God's instruc-
tions begin with asking for a freewill offering to provide for the tabernacle.
Directions for the items in the sanctuary then follow: the ark with its lid or
“mercy seat,” within which the “testimony” was to be placed; the offering
table; and the lamp stand for 7 lamps.
There follows the description of the 2-roomed tent shrine with its
wooden frame and fine leather covering, the court and its altar, the dress &
consecration of the priests and altar, and the daily burnt offering. These 5
chapters conclude with Yahweh's promises to meet the people at the sanc-
tuary, to consecrate the tent, altar and priesthood, and “to tabernacle” with
God's people and be their God.
In the 2 chapters ending the 1st part of this section, the altar of in-
cense is described, a sanctuary tax is imposed, the cultic incense & oil is
described, & the sabbath is designated as the sign of the Mosaic cove-
nant. In the 2nd part of the tabernacle &furnishings section Moses begins
by announcing the freewill offering. Then God's appointment of Bezalel
and Oholiab is announced, and with the assistance of able men they make
the tabernacle and its furnishings. In Chapter 40 everything is put in its
proper place and consecrated.
4. Historical Background—In itself the book of Exodus contains
few references by which the events it describes can be fitted into their pre-
cise historical background in ancient history. The Egyptian pharaoh Mer-
ne-ptah is the first to make mention of Israel outside the Bible around
1220 B.C. He lists among others the “people of Israel,” so Israel must
have by this time been in possession of at least the central and southern
portions of the Palestinian hill country.
The 19th Dynasty (around 1310-1200) pharaohs, in contrast to ear-
lier pharaohs shifted their base of operation to the Delta and erected many
new structures there, particularly at the site of Ramses, their capital in the
Delta, which Exodus 1:11 mentions as one of the store cities Israel built.
These were built in order to reconquer and control their Syro-Palestinian
empire. This leads to the supposition that Exodus took place before Mer-
ne-ptah, around 1290-1224 B.C. during Ramses II’s reign. This time table
appears to accord better with archaeological information than the older
views which dated the Exodus in Mer-ne-ptah's time or in the 1400s B.C.,
by using I Kings 6:1. The biblical writers may have been using round
numbers in this instance.
Since from Egyptian sources we know that it was customary for
Bedouins and Asiatics to be admitted into Egypt in time of famine, we
may infer that the Israelites were a part of the shifting population of semi-
nomadic shepherds and cattle-breeders who resided in the Nile Delta.
They were thus a convenient source of labor. The pharaohs might very
well have grouped Israel with the 'Apiru.
In the period from 2000-1000 B.C. this term was most likely used
for landless aliens who were not citizens of the particular community in
which they resided. The biblical tradition speaks of a “mixed multitude”
or “rabble,” composed of such Hebrews, of whom Israel was the dominant
part, which Moses was able to release from their bondage at a time when
Egypt was severely shaken by a series of plagues.
5. Israel's 12 Tribes, Traditions, & Covenant with Yahweh—
Whether all 12 of the Israelite tribes were actually involved in the exodus
under Moses, is a debated problem which at this time cannot be satisfacto-
rily solved. All scholars are agreed that the one tribe most closely connec-
ted with Egypt is the tribe of Levi, because of the Egyptian names such as
Moses Phinehas, Hophni, etc., that are preserved within it.
The traditions of Israel all point to the exodus & wilderness periods
of the nation's life for the foundations of the faith. It is now widely agreed
that Israel
devaluation of the world's spiritual powers and in which the exclusive
worship of Yahweh was demanded because of the holiness and “jealousy”
of Yahweh. One of the most common views regarding Yahwism's origin is
the assumption that Yahweh was the God of one of the tribal groups which
later composed the confederacy. Yet even this generalization is conjecture,
because we as yet don't have sufficient evidence on which to base a firmly
grounded hypothesis.
On the other hand, formal elements in the legal and cultic institu-
tions of Israel have been considerably illuminated in archaeological re-
search. Two results will be mentioned here for illustration purposes. 1st,
there is the proof that the “Covenant Code” contains a legal tradition de-
rived from ancient Near Eastern common law, as illustrated by the Mesopo-
tamian codes of Eshnunna, Hammurabi, Assyria & the Hittites. This type
of law begins with the conditional “if” (Hebrew ke) and arises from legal
precedents. The apodictic (“thou shalt,” “thou shalt not”) type of law, on
the other hand, seems a characteristically Israelite formulation, in which
God addresses his people, & in which no distinction is made between the
sacred and the secular.
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The 2nd illustration of what archaeology has provided proof for is
the historical background of the covenant between God and Israel. This
covenant is a legal form comprising a compact between 2 parties sealed
by an oath. In a nomadic life, in the absence of a strong central govern-
ment, covenants, sealed by the gods of the respective parties were a fun-
damental source source of social cohesion and peace.
There is also the suzerainty treaty between ruler and vassal, in
which the ruler identified himself and in the first person related the bene-
volent acts which his dynasty had performed in the vassal's behalf, that the
latter might keep the treaty on a personal, rather than on a legal or en-
forced basis. The stipulations in it defined the ruler's interests while lea-
ving the vassal free to order his own internal relations within the frame
work they provided. These legal procedures and tactics were adapted for
the judges’ and the people’s guidance.
6. Composition: Source Criticism, Cultic Setting—Literary criti-
cism has found within Exodus the same documents or sources as were
discovered in the book of Genesis, though admittedly the analysis has
been considered more difficult. While there is considerable difference of
opinion concerning individual passages, the basic division of the material
is as shown on the next four pages.
There are few literary critics today who support this complex analy-
sis in every detail, particularly in the separation of the J (Yahwistic) and
the E (Elohistic) sources; there is, however, wide agreement regarding its
main contentions. There are so many unknown factors in the transition of
material, however, that it is now considered difficult to be precise about
such divisions. Among the attempts to break up the J source of material in
Exodus is Otto Eissfeldt's Lay Source (L), which is also included in the
table on the next 4 pages. By using some J material and adding other ele-
ments, he creates a new document, which concerns itself with nomadic
ideals and is a layman's work with interests very different from those in the
priestly community (P) source.
There is a growing awareness that a book like Exodus reached final
written form only after a long transmission in both oral and written form.
One can no longer assume that purely literary analysis can solve the com-
plex problems it presents. We can no longer be sure that unevenness and
even discrepancy with a particular “document” shows the work of an editor
or redactor; the problem may have been in the original material.
Furthermore, the liturgical movement within biblical studies has
called attention to the cultic setting of much of the material transmitted.
The cult transmits, refracts, and combines historical tradition for liturgical
purposes in community life. A large part of the OT material was used in
worship and was transmitted and altered by this usage. So, unevenness
in the “historical” report must be explained by accretions accumulated in
cultic usage, rather than by purely literary criteria.
The narrative is not a simple history, compiled for history's sake,
but a “cultic glorification,” a celebration of God's great victory by the wor-
shiping people in the Passover festival. Still, it is questionable whether the
documentary hypothesis in some form can be completely dismissed by the
liturgical & oral-tradition movements. While the cult used & preserved
the tradition, we can't assume that the tradition was created in and by the
cultic ceremonies and their officiants.
The biblical scholar Martin Noth agrees that J (Yahwistic writer(s))
provides the basic literary material, while P (Priestly writer(s)) gives the
frame work. E (Elohistic writer(s)) was once an independent source, but in
the Bible was used to supplement J. E can't be reconstructed as a conti-
nuous document. Both J and E are derived from a common source.
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7. Sources of Material in the Book of Exodus
Legend The following breakdown of Exodus
L=Lay Source (900s B.C.) is meant to give a general idea
J=J(Y)ahwistic writer(s) (800s or 900s B.C.) which of the 4 writers was the
E=Elowhistic writers(s) (700s B.C.) source of each verse. There is
P=Priestly writer(s) (500s B.C.) disagreement among those
who study biblical sources
about individual passages,
especially in the divisions of J
from E, which were probably
combined at some point and
are difficult to separate.
about individual passages,
especially in the divisions of J
from E, which were probably
combined at some point and
are difficult to separate.
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
1 1-4 X 3 4b X
1 5 X 3 5 X
1 6 X 3 6 X
1 7 X 3 7-9a X
1 8-12 X 3 9b-13 X
1 13 X 3 14 X
1 14a X 3 15 X
1 14b X 3 16-18 X
1 15-20a X 3 19-20 X
1 20b X 3 21-22 X
1 21 X
1 22 X 4 1-15 X
4 16-18 X
2 1 X 4 19 X
2 2a X 4 20a X
2 2b X 4 20b X
2 3a X 4 21-23 X
2 3b X 4 24-26 X
2 4 X 4 27 X
2 5a X 4 28 X
2 5b X 4 29-31 X
2 6-9a X
2 9b X 5 1-2 X
2 10 X 5 3 X
2 11a X 5 4 X
2 11b-12 X 5 5 X
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
2 13-14a X 5 6-9 X
2 13-14a X 5 6-9 X
2 14b-15a X 5 10-13 X
2 15c X 5 14-18 X
2 16ac X 5 19-23 X
2 16b X
2 17ab X 6 1ab X
2 17c X 6 1ac X
2 18 X X 6 2-11 X
2 19a X 6 12-13 X
2 19b X 6 14-26 X
2 20a X 6 27 X
2 20b X 6 28-30 X
2 21a X
2 21b-22 X 7 1-13 X
2 23a X 7 14 X
2 23b-25 X 7 15a X
7 15b X
7 16-17a X
3 1 X 7 17b X
3 2-4a X 7 18 X
E-74
Sources of Material in the Book of Exodus (Cont.)
Legend
L=Lay Source
J=J(Y)ahwistic writer(s)
E=Elowhistic writers(s)
P=Priestly writer(s)
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
7 19 X 12 23a X
7 20a X 12 23b X
7 20b X 12 24 X
7 21a X 12 25-27a X
7 21b-22 X 12 27b X
7 23 X 12 28 X
7 24-25 X 12 29-32 X
12 33-34 X
8 1-4 X 12 35 X
8 5-7 X 12 36 X
8 8-15a X 12 37-39a X
8 15b-19 X 12 39b X
8 20-32 X 12 40 X
12 41-51 X
9 1-7 X
9 8-12 X 13 1-2 X
9 13-18 X 13 3a X
9 19-23a X 13 3b X
9 23b X 13 4 X
9 24a X 13 5-6 X
9 24b X 13 7 X
9 25a X 13 8 X
9 25b-30 X 13 9 X
9 31-32 X 13 10-13 X
9 33-34(?) X 13 14-19 X
9 35 X 13 20 X
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
13 21 X
10 1-11 X 13 22 X
10 12-13a X
10 13b X 14 1-4 X
10 4a X 14 5-6 X
10 14b-15a X 14 7 X
10 15b X 14 8 X
10 15c-19 X 14 9a X
10 20-23 X 14 9b X
10 24-26 X 14 10a X
10 27 X 14 10b X
10 28 X 14 11 X
14 12-14 X
11 1-3 X 14 15a X
11 4-8 X 14 15b X
11 9 X 14 16a X
14 16b-18 X
12 1-20 X 14 19a X
12 21 X 14 19b X
12 22 X 14 20a X
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Sources of Material in the Book of Exodus (Cont.)
Legend
L=Lay Source
J=J(Y)ahwistic writer(s)
E=Elowhistic writers(s)
P=Priestly writer(s)
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
14 20b X 17 1a X
14 21a X X 17 1b-2a X X
14 21b X 17 2b-3 X
14 21c X X 17 4-6 X
14 22 X 17 7 X
14 23 X 17 8 X
14 24a X 17 9-10 X
14 24b X 17 11-12 X
14 25 X 17 13-16 X
14 26-27a X
14 27b X 18 1 X
14 28a X 18 2-4 X
14 28b X 18 5 X
14 29 X 18 6-7 X
14 30 X 18 8-11 X
14 31 X 18 12-26 X
18 27 X
15 1 X X
15 2-18 X 19 1 X
15 19a X 19 2a X
15 19b X 19 2b-3a X
15 20-22a X 19 3b-6 X
15 22b X X 19 7-9a X
15 23-25a X 19 9b-11a X
15 25b-26 X 19 11b-13 X
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
15 27 X 19 14-15 X
19 16 X
16 1a X 19 17 X
16 1b X 19 18 X
16 2 X 19 19-20 X
16 3a X 19 21-22 X
16 3b X 19 23-24 X
16 4 X 19 25 X
16 5-12 X
16 13-15a X 20 1 X
16 15b-20 X 20 2 X
16 21 X 20 3 X
16 22-30 X 20 4-6 X
16 31 X 20 7a X
16 32 X 20 7b X
16 33-34 X 20 8 X
16 35 X 20 9 X
20 10-11 X
20 12a X
20 12b X
E-76
Sources of Material in the Book of Exodus (Cont.)
Legend
L=Lay Source
J=J(Y)ahwistic writer(s)
E=Elowhistic writers(s)
P=Priestly writer(s)
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
20 13-17a X 28 X
20 17b X 29 X
20 18-26 X 30 X
31 X
21 X
31 X
21 X
32 1-6 X
22 1-21a X 32 7-14 X
22 21b-22 X 32 15a X
22 23 X 32 15b X
22 24 X 32 16 X
22 25-31 X 32 17-18 X
32 19a X X
23 1-12 X 32 19b X
23 13 X 32 19c X
23 14-15a X 32 20-24 X
23 15b X 32 25-26 X
23 16 X 32 27 X X
23 17 X 32 28-29 X
23 18 X 32 30a X
23 19 X 32 30b-34 X
23 20-22 X 32 35 X
23 23-25a X
23 25b-26 X 33 1 X
23 27 X 33 2 X
23 28-31a X 33 3 X
23 31b-33 X 33 4 X
Chapter Verses Chapter Verses
No. From: L J E P No. From: L J E P
33 5-11 X
33 5-11 X
24 1-2 X 33 12-23 X
24 3-4a X
24 4b-8 X 34 1-23 X
24 9-11 X 34 24 X
24 12 X 34 25-28 X
24 15-17 X 34 29-34 X
24 18a X 35 X
24 18b X 36 X
25 X 37 X
26 X 38 X
27 X 39 X 40 X
E-77
Noth sees 5 major themes: the Exodus, the entrance into the Pro-
mised Land, the promise to the patriarchs, the wilderness wandering, and
the Mount Sinai revelation. The 1st, part of the 4th, & all of the 5th are
contained in Exodus. The remaining material which joins them together is
later created & put together to give the whole a unity which the original
didn’t possess. Historical inferences can still be drawn from literary, form-
critical, & tradition-history research. Yet, the historical tradition lying be-
hind the traditions’ present form can't be reconstructed without use of all
factual data and perspectives which archaeology supplies.
8. Significance: Confession of Faith, Cultic Worship, God's
Righteousness—The events recorded in Exodus lie at the very center of
Israelite faith and life. The theological significance of these events may
be succinctly summarized under the 3 main headings which constitute the
book's content. We cannot be certain as to which tribal groups were in-
volved in God's deliverance from Egyptian slavery, but we can be sure that
the tradition was accepted by all members of the 12-tribe league, and that
very early in the nation's life the spring nature festival was given its histori-
cal origins as the Passover.
The first thing to observe is that the Exodus formed the center of
the Israelite confessions of faith and cultic worship. In that worship, histo-
rical happenings were related as the great deeds of God, who had brought
a people into existence; history was the arena of God's primary self-disclo-
sure. The Exodus event ultimately meant for Israel a radical demythologi-
zing of nature as it was interpreted in contemporary polytheism.
Furthermore, the Exodus gave rise to a language in the Bible which
included “deliver,” “redeem,” “salvation,” etc. The event thus became in
OT theology a nucleus around which a variety of terms and meanings col-
lected, & from which different meanings could be deduced and used else-
where in the Bible. The first Exodus is used as the basis of hope for the
proclamation of a second exodus, this time from Babylonian captivity.
A second thing to observe is the manner in which the Exodus deter-
mined the people's understanding of the righteousness of God. This righ-
teousness was ultimate power acting to save or deliver the weak, the op-
pressed, the poor, and he enslaved. It was not just justice according to so-
cial status, but redemptive action according to need. Finally, it may be re-
called that the Israelite conception of Election, of God's choice of Israel,
arose as a primary inference from God's act of deliverance. The primary
act which called the people into being was by God's gracious initiative,
one which Israel couldn't explain on grounds of merit or requirement, and
the people were called upon to respond with love & fidelity.
9. Mosaic Covenant—Israel's election was given form in the con-
ception of covenant. “Covenant” was a pact or treaty between two parties
sealed by an oath. The simplest were those between two different semi-
nomadic groups, the purpose of which was to prevent inter-tribal strife.
The basic pattern revolves around the picture of a divine ruler who reveals
his will to a people who as his “servants” are expected to “obey.”
The one type of ancient covenant that fits Israel's understanding of
the relation of God and people is the suzerainty treaty. The covenant docu-
ment presents the ruler's stipulations, defines his interests, and thus be-
comes the community's legal policy. Legal tactics, on the other hand, by
which the community attempts to carry out the policy, are to be found in
the positive law. Earlier legal codes in Israel were not constitutional law;
they were compiled for the instruction of the people, & perhaps to unify
legal practice. This differs from later Judaism, wherein the detailed posi-
tive laws were considered as a constitutional law.
In this background, the Mosaic covenant, as the legal form in which
self-understanding was provided for Israel, takes on fresh meaning. It also
provides the setting for historians and prophets to interpret the history of
Israel in the Promised Land in terms of God's controversy with his people.
This type of treaty began with a personal narration of the monarch's
benevolent acts toward the vassal, had as its purpose the binding of the
ruler and a vassal together in a relationship which led the latter to respond
from a sense of gratitude, rather than from purely legal necessity. Hence,
the prologue to the Ten Commandments binds Exodus and covenant toge-
ther, so that legal obligation in Israel was set within the context of God's
grace, who had redeemed a people from slavery & had become their Lord,
Protector, and Guide.
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10. Israel's Cult & Central Sanctuary—The editor (the Priestly wri-
ter(s)) of the older material, which is the combination of material from the
Jahwistic and Elohistic writer(s), has added on to the Exodus & Sinai cove-
nant narratives a detailed description of the Israelite cult, including place of
worship, service of worship, & the priesthood. To the Jerusalem priest-
hood, the holy Presence in the people's midst was what made Israel a peo-
ple. The key words for the Priestly writer(s) theology in Exodus 29:43-45
are “meet,” “glory,” and “dwell.”
The tabernacle is the place where God will meet his people and
hallow them. God's presence is marked by an envelope of brilliance
(glory) or by a cloud. These 2 ways of appearing allows for the presence
of the Lord with the people, without risking too intimate a personal en-
counter. Finally, Yahweh does not “dwell” on earth as human beings do;
but Yahweh has graciously consented to “tent,” abide, rest, or tarry a
while in the midst of Yahweh's people.
This richly sacramental conception of Israel's central sanctuary re-
presents an adaptation of the polytheistic conception of the temple as the
divine palace on earth, without polytheism's tendency to tie divine pre-
sence too closely to the physical world or to a physical place. Even this
adaptation brought too much of God's presence in contact with this world
for the Deuteronomic school of thought. For them, the sanctuary was to
be understood as the place for God's name to abide, rather than God's
actual presence. For Jerusalem’s priests, however, the tabernacle tradition
represented Yahweh's revelation of Yahweh's self as the “tabernacling”
God, who, in the sanctuary could be met and who would sanctify his
people as they worshiped God.
EXODUS, ROUTE OF. A discussion of the route followed by the people of
Israel on their departure from Egypt involves an attempt to comprehend
the geographical indications in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deu-
teronomy. However, the biblical record and our knowledge of ancient
geography are at many points not precise enough to permit any more than
the construction of reasonable theories.
God led the people, not by the Philistine route along the Mediterra-
nean, which is the main military route into Palestine, but by the Reed or
Red Sea wilderness route. This route can't be determined, unless we can
fix the location of the “Reed Sea.” In the eastern delta by Ramses there
were two bodies of water, one of which is the “Papyrus Marsh.”
According to the Priestly Writer, Israel started out from Ramses,
journeyed south to Succoth. Once there, the people were commanded to
turn back (go north) and “encamp in front of Pi-ha-hiroth, between Migdol
and the sea. . .” Apparently, Israel went south from Ramses to the Wadi
Tumilat, intending to cross the border into the Sinai wilderness by the in-
land route to Beer-sheba. Presumably encountering difficulty at the fron-
tier fortresses, they turned back northward the way they had come. Pi-ha-
hiroth cannot be identified, but it can be roughly located as east or north-
east of Daphne. If that is so, then the Reed Sea crossing would have been
in the area of the modern Lake Manzala. Migdol of Sinai is usually identi-
fied with Tell-el-Heir.
These data suggests Israel was unable to cross into Sinai by com-
mon routes. To presume that they continued southward to cross near
Suez on the Red Sea ignores the biblical account that they turned back
the way they had come. We are thus led to the assumption that the only
available way into Sinai was across the shallow waters in the southern
extension of Lake Manzala.
The route through the Sinai wilderness depends upon the location
of the sacred mountain to which Israel journeyed. If it is located at the
south end of the Sinai Peninsula, then Israel would have traveled along
the western shore of the Red Sea. Marah’s bitter waters are usually identi-
fied with the 'Ain Hawarah, some 72 to 80 km. south of the tip of the Gulf
of Suez. Someplace closer to the Reed Sea would be better, such as 'Ain
Musa or some unknown spring near the Bitter Lakes.
Elim is probably to be identified with the Wadi Gharan-del; the en-
campment by the Red Sea is perhaps near Merkhah, a port in the 1400s
A.D. The Wilderness of Sin is probably a plain along the edge of the Sinai
Plateau, and the encampment before the sacred mountain is most likely
the small plain of er-Raha at the foot of that series of peaks of which Jebel
Musa is the highest.
The route from Mount Sinai or Horeb to Kadesh-barnea was “that
great and terrible wilderness,” and would have followed a series of valleys,
between the main Sinai plateau and the coastal chain of mountains of
Ezion-geber on the eastern shore of the Sinai and the northern tip of the
Gulf of Aqabah. None of the stations listed can be identified with any
certainty.
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If the sacred mountain isn't to be located in the traditional southern
area, the route of the wilderness wanderings would depend upon its loca-
tion. If Mount Sinai is in Arabia, east of Aqabah, then the route would
have taken Israel to Aqabah. If Sinai is near Kadesh, because of the asso-
ciation of these two in the tradition, then the route would have followed
the inland road to Beer-sheba.
EXORCISM (exorkosiV (ex or koe sis), to bind with an oath) The practice of
expelling evil spirits from persons or places by means of incantations and
the performance of certain occult acts.
In early Sumero-Akkadian religion evil spirits were separated and
unrelated to the gods; later they were assumed to be the direct offspring of
the cosmic deities. Once such a spirit took possession of a man, it was the
task of a special priest to cast it out of the afflicted body. The methods em-
ployed in exorcising evil spirits were primarily based on sympathetic or
imitative magic. Another technique was to form a likeness of the patient
and then induce the evil spirit to leave the sufferer's body and enter into its counterpart.
Considering the widely held belief in the existence of evil spirits and
also in the efficacy of the magicians to dispose of them, it is surprising
that the Old Testament maintains complete silence about this branch of
magical practice. The only allusion to an “evil spirit” is found in the story
of Saul. However, the melancholy king was relieved from mental depres-
sion by the skillful playing of the lyre by young David.
In the New Testament evil and unclean spirits are reported to have
been exorcised by Jesus and the disciples without recourse to incantations
or occult performances. Jesus used the “Spirit of God” and his own word.
This power to drive out spirits was bestowed by Jesus upon his disciples,
who invoked his name in their exorcism. According to Acts 19 there were
professional Jewish exorcists at Ephesus who tried to expel evil spirits in
the Lord Jesus' name.
Babylonian magicians of the first centuries of the Christian era in-
voked the names of pagan gods in their attempts to drive out evil spirits;
those magicians of Jewish origin invoked the name of Yahweh.
EXPIATION (כפר (kip por), atonement (See biblical entry); ilasmoV (il as
mos)) An atoning action which removes sin from God's sight & so restores
one to holiness and the divine favor. It is interesting that the Hebrew word
never has “God” as its object. Only with reference to a human object does
it have the meaning of “propitiation.” It signifies an action which is direc-
ted toward sin or ceremonial uncleanness in God's presence; it is never
directed toward God.
When expiation is not linked with the cult, it is usually God’s direct
act, with which God “covers” or “erases” the sin or offense. This expresses
clearly the realization that only God can remove human sin, although there
are a few instances where expiation comes through a human agent who is
particularly zealous toward God.
After the golden calf’s worship, and the subsequent slaughter and
plague, Moses expresses the people's penitence, so that God can now put
away their sin (Exodus 32). In Numbers 25, Phinehas makes expiation for
litish man and a Midianitish woman engaged in ritual prostitution. These
instances set forth the principle that God doesn't, in forgiving sin, condone
it. Repentance and trust in the divine mercy are required of those whose
sin is expiated.
In the later literature of the Old Testament expiation is closely asso-
ciated with cultic rites. The sin or offense is no longer the direct object of
the verb, but expiation is made for or on behalf of the individual or com-
munity. The common ritual means by which expiation is made is sacrifice,
which is to be understood, not as propitiation, but as sacrament. The lid of
the ark or Mercy Seat was the place of expiation on which the blood was
sprinkled by the high priest on the Day of Atonement.
In the New Testament, Christ's work of is referred to in terms of ex-
piation four times in the New Testament (Romans 3; Hebrews 2; I John 2
and 4. The writer of Hebrews portrays Christ as the great High Priest
whose work is “to make expiation for the sins of the people.” Christ is re-
presented as performing an atoning act by which human sin is “covered”
or “blotted out.”
In I John Christ is portrayed as a “sin offering,” which is the
divinely ordained sacrifice most closely related to the expiation of sin.
The work of Christ is represented, not as the propitiation by the Son of the
Father's wrath, but as the divine act of “covering” or “blotting out” sin. In
this way Christ “fulfills” the Old Testament conception of expiation. He is
both Priest and sacrificial Victim, and at his cross atonement is made for
the sin of the world.
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EXTORTION (עשק (‘o shek), defraud; arpagh (ar pa geh)) The psalmist of
Psalm 62 warns against confidence in the methods of extortion & robbery.
Extortion is one of the crimes listed by Ezekiel in conjunction with his ex-
position of the doctrine that God deals justly and exacts punishment on
every individual. Charges of extortion, rapacity, and wickedness were
leveled against the Pharisees by Jesus (Matthew 23 and Luke 11).
EYE (עין (‘ah yin); ofqalmoV (of thal mos)) The eye has far less theological
significance in the Bible than the ear. It is frequently used in the sense of
“judgment” or “opinion.” More frequently the eye is merely the ordinary,
physical eye, represented either as seeing or as expressing mental atti-
tudes or emotions, especially sorrow. The phrase “evil eye” doesn't refer
to magical practices, but to the eye which expresses the stingy or envious
disposition of its owner.
EYE PAINT (כחל (ka khal); פוך (pook)) Painting around the eye was com-
mon in ancient Egypt Babylonia , but among the Hebrews it is men-
tioned chiefly in connection with women of ill repute. In Egypt today eye
paint is made not only from lead ore but also from burned frankincense,
almond shells, or safflower.
In ancient Egypt the commonest materials were malachite, which
was a green copper ore. The dry powder was kept in reeds, reed-like
tubes of stone or metal, & especially in alabaster jars. It was sometimes
made into a paste & kept in a shell. A little wooden, ivory, or metal rod was
first moistened in water and then dipped in the powder. The resulting paste
adhering to the rod was drawn around the eye, prolonging the outer cor-
ner, and over the eyebrow. Metal and ivory applicators were found by
archaeologists in Palestine. Eye paint’s cosmetic purpose was to empha-
size the eye & to make it appear larger & more almond-shaped.
EYELIDS OF THE MORNINGעפ־שחר) עפ (af af shakh ar)) A term usually
taken poetically as a figure referring to the first streaks of light which
herald the rising sun. In the Old Testament it is used only in conjunction
with references to Leviathan, a marine monster. Men were powerless be-
fore this monster, whose gleaming eyes terrorized them.
Leviathan was one of the several symbols of the forces of the pri-
meval chaos. In Egyptian hieroglyphics the eye of the crocodile repre-
sents the dawn, and Egyptian records mention that the eyes of the croco-
dile are seen before the animal comes to the surface. Old Testament wri-
ters, perhaps without believing in the existence of these living monsters,
used them as poetic images with which to express more forcefully the
idea of God's control over the forces of nature.
EZBAI (אזבי, perhaps dwarf) The father of Naarai, one of the Mighty Men of
David known as the “30.” There may have been an error in copying the
list; the original name may have been “Naarai the Arbite.”
EZBON (אצבן) 1. The name of a family of Gad tribe, traditionally assumed to
be the name of an individual. 2. In I Chronicles 7, it is a Benjaminite
family, but it is most likely a genealogy of Zebulun assigned to Benjamin
by error.
EZEKIEL (יחזקאל (yekh ez kale), God shall strengthen) A prophet of the
Babylonian exile; son of the priest Buzi. The book appears after Jeremiah
in the Hebrew canon and after Lamentations in the Christian versions.
List of Topics—1. Author; 2. Historical Background;
3. Locale; 4. Date; 5. Composition; 6. General Content;
7. Outline; 8. Ezekiel's Theology; 9. Ezekiel and the New
Testament
1. Author—Traditionally Ezekiel was thought to be this book's
author. He was one of the Jews who was carried captive in 598 B.C. by
Nebuchadrezzar. He grew up in the Jerusalem temple, and in all probabi-
lity was being trained for the priesthood. He lived at a place called Tel-
Abib, “hill of the storm god,” where the Jewish community eked out a
bare existence. What the future prophet did during the early years of cap-
tivity is not known.
In 593 somewhere in Mesopotamia , during a thunderstorm. Ezekiel
saw his wondrous vision of God and received the call to be a prophet to
Israel. Ezekiel's vision of wheels within wheels symbolized the profound
insight that God was not imprisoned immobilized, or limited to Palestine,
but could move where he wished; God recognized no terrestrial boundary
or barrier. The vision rightly understood represents a high point in divine
revelation and human insight.
E-81
Ezekiel was reluctant to be a prophet when he received his call of
service to the people. Some scholars maintain that the prophet actually
lived in Jerusalem during the time of his prophesying. The traditional
view, however, has always held that Ezekiel was in Babylonia for his en-
tire prophetic ministry. The symbolic scroll which he had to eat was at
first bitter but in time became sweet. His call to prophecy meant that
whether the people would hear or not was of no major consequence; they
would know that a prophet had been among them. This would guarantee
their chance to repent and justify God's judgment upon the unrepentant.
Apparently the prophet was subject to visionary trances during
which he would remain still and uncommunicative. During the years of
prophetic activity, Ezekiel used the tragedy of his wife's death to drive
home a spiritual message. In the period that followed the destruction of
Jerusalem, his message changed from judgment to restoration. This
exiled congregation's pastor was greatly appreciated as a most excellent
preacher whose message was a “love song” & whose voice was beautiful.
In Ezekiel the man there is a strange hybridization of priest and
prophet. The priestly element can be clearly detected where liturgical
exactitude is reflected, but the prophetic fire always remains in this man
as one who had seen a vision of God's chariot. He was a man of transi-
tion between pre-exilic faith and post-exilic religion. His faith was rooted
in Palestine; at the same time he was compelled to worship God without
temple or priesthood. This conflict is the key to the personality of the
man and the measure of his greatness. His figures of speech & his use of
stories are unequaled elsewhere in the Old Testament (OT). Symbolism &
reality meet in his creative mind; they made him a literary giant and his
work an artistic masterpiece.
2. Historical Background—One major aim of the Josianic reform
(621 B.C.) was to centralize worship in the temple at Jerusalem
like Jeremiah, who issued from Abiathar, lost their status. The Zadokite
family, to which Ezekiel's family belonged, now constituted the recog-
nized priesthood, in charge of true worship at Jerusalem. But, Josiah's
reform didn't last. In 609 the king died at Megiddo, and the reform move-
ment died with him. Jehoiachin, his successor had to surrender Jerusalem
to Nebuchadrezzar in 598. It was in the exile that Ezekiel went to Baby-
lonia; Zedekiah became king in the land, but after around 8 years he also
revolted. His rebellion was summarily crushed, and Jerusalem was utterly
destroyed in 587.
Ezekiel's early youth witnessed a quick revival of “pure religion”
following the discovery of some portions of Deuteronomy. Throughout
its history, Palestine was a pawn between large empires. Palestine was a
bridge linking the 2 great population centers of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The people always seemed to feel that one great power would counter-
balance the other, or that when one power dominated the region, the other
would deliver them. This false security prevented moral and religious re-
sponse to the prophetic voice.
3. Locale—The problem of setting for the Ezekiel prophetic mini-
stry is not an easy one to solve. Traditionally the prophet has been under-
stood as a member of the exile community at Tel-Abib. Yet the major part
of his message is to the people in Jerusalem, which he calls a “bloody
city.” Having Ezekiel speak his word in Babylonia to a distant audience
which neither sees nor hears him is not a prophet's normal behavior of
standing before his audience. In the book, the prophet seems to walk in
Jerusalem, & his words have immediate effect. Furthermore, his symbolic
actions would have had little meaning in any place but Palestine.
There are several alternative views. 1st, many distinguished scho-
lars declare that Ezekiel was called to prophesy in Palestine and that his
entire prophetic ministry was fulfilled in the Holy Land. The Babylonian
locale was only imagined, and some consider Ezekiel to be a fictitious pro-
phet. 2nd, a group solves the problem by putting Ezekiel first in Mesopota-
mia, then back in Palestine, and finally again in exile until Jerusalem's de-
struction in 587. 3rd, some scholars, perhaps a majority, still hold that
Babylonia is the correct locale for the prophetic ministry, though they deny
him any such power as clairvoyance.
The 3rd alternative is supported by the fact that there are many
Babylonian elements in the text that can not be explained away. Much of
the material in the book is clearly visionary, and as such would be just as
relevant at Tel-Abib as at Jerusalem. And there is nothing unusual about
an exile's walking in the spirit through the familiar streets of his home city,
which he remembers well and with which he stays in touch.
Ezekiel did receive a call in Babylonia and did fulfill his mission
among the exiles. Many of the images and words used by Ezekiel were to
be found in Babylonia and not Palestine. It was a matter of no importance
that some of the chosen people were living in Palestine & some in Baby-
lonia. Though his prophecies of doom had reference to the city of Jerusa-
lem and its inhabitants, they still had relevance to the exile community.
And since there were lines of communication open between Palestine and
Tel-Abib, both the words and the actions of Ezekiel could reach the ears of
the Jerusalem community. Finally, there is little reason to doubt the long-
standing traditional view of a Babylonian location, since the Jews would
have been very reluctant to have a genuine prophet speak outside the
land, as Ezekiel apparently did.
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The problem of Pelatiah's death looms large, for here was an actual
death brought on by his own “wicked counsel,” or the denunciation of
Ezekiel in the vision where he is spiritually transported to Jerusalem (Eze-
kiel 11). Who can really say whether Pelatiah was in Jerusalem or Tel-
Abib? It's possible that Pelatiah, though seen in vision by Jerusalem’s east
gate, actually lived at Tel-Abib.
As it took place shortly after exile, this story is a response to easy
optimism which predicted a quick return home, and which discouraged
house building. Ezekiel, however, prophesied that Jerusalem would not
stand, but would be utterly decimated; hearing this, Pelatiah falls dead in
Tel-Abib. The conclusion that must be reached is that Ezekiel, as ancient
tradition maintains, was a prophet in Babylonia, and that there he was
called to be the spokesman of God.
4. Date—A number of dates have been proposed for this prophe-
tic work. One scholar, who sees this as a composite from several sources,
sees it as something written in 230 B.C. &based on II Kings 21. Another
scholar holds that the prophet actually spoke to the northern kingdom of
Israel in the time of King Manasseh before the Exile. The modified tradi-
tional view is that Ezekiel the book is the product directly or indirectly of
Ezekiel the man.
Most writers accept that the book is saturated with Aramaic influ-
ence. Some scholars use this to argue for a date in the 300s B.C. But in-
vestigation shows that Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Assyrian
Empire from 750 B.C. onward. Actually, the extent of Aramaic influence
amounts to what one would expect among the exiles from 600-550 B.C.
This book, unlike any other, specifically dates several of its sec-
tions. The 30th year mentioned at the beginning refers to Jehoiachin’s
reign; he was still considered exiled nation's rightful ruler. The 12th year
at the beginning of Ezekiel 32 should be read the “11th year.” The other
dates are substantially correct; however, all the material appearing be-
tween the 2 dates isn't in proper chronological sequence. The general
date for Ezekiel must remain between 600 and 550 B.C. until such time
as new evidence is discovered.
The book of Ezekiel is not a composite work like Isaiah, nor is it a
conglomerate piece like that of Jeremiah; several biblical scholars disa-
gree with this conclusion. Admittedly editors who were disciples left their
mark on the text. But if we are willing to credit the author with that part of
the book which preserves in essence, if not word for word, what he said or
wrote, then the major part of the prophecy must be understood as having
originated with him. Ezekiel's spirit & mind are clearly felt throughout the
whole work.
5. Composition—The full answer to the composition of Ezekiel
hasn't been reached. In all probability, the editing was finished within the
500s and the book drawn from the writings and sayings of Ezekiel was
completed soon after the return from exile. Ezekiel himself may have
begun the compilation process in the 30th year of the Captivity and his dis-
ciples finished it subsequent to his death.
In the present arrangement, the work changes its tone at chapter
24's end, which marks Jerusalem's end; the emphasis is changed from
doom to resurrection. Chapter 33 serves the special function of binding
several independent pieces together. The first 9 verses of this chapter are
equivalent to 3 verses in the last half of chapter 3; the next ten verses are
equivalent to chapter 18; & the 7 verses after that are equivalent to eight
verses in the last part of chapter 11. Apparently the compiler, whoever he
was, took the judgment oracles of in chapters 1-24, & added them to chap-
ters 34-39, which were independent, detached prophecies. It is probable
that these 39 chapters became a unit during Ezekiel's lifetime.
In the past century of biblical scholarship, many scholars express
doubts as to Ezekiel being the author of the book's last 9 chapters. The
survey of the temple's general arrangements (40-42; 2 verses in 46) &
the instructions concerning the altar (43) are certainly from Ezekiel direct-
ly or indirectly. The vision in Ezekiel 40 is actually a subconscious reflec-
tion of a real temple drawn from memory. The temple's East gate in the
vision as described is of the same Solomonic type as has been unearthed
by archaeologists at Megiddo, a type which wasn't found after the early
9th century B.C. Therefore this memory must have arisen from one who
knew Solomon's temple in detail. Such a person must have lived in Jeru-
salem before that temple was destroyed in 587 B.C., and was probably
Ezekiel himself.
Also, the description of the priesthood and the vision of a life-
giving stream issuing from beneath the temple is what one might expect
from a Zadokite priest. A final conclusion on the authorship of chapters
40-48 is not possible at this point. Much of the material did not originate
with the prophet. In all probability an editor has been at work this part
of the book; the editor of this part of Ezekiel must have lived before the
Zerubbabel-Joshua restoration of the temple.
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6. General Content—The prophecy of Ezekiel is concerned from
the outset with a prophet whose first commission was to express God's
judgment upon Judah
ous house he was called as a watchman to warn against impending doom.
Several themes have been developed in the book beyond their develop-
ment in previous prophets. The popular theological notion of the day was
that Jerusalem, being God's dwelling place, was inviolate against attack.
When, therefore, the temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was reduced to
rubble, the popular faith was dealt a blow from which the people wouldn't
have recovered had it not been for the prophetic voice and word.
The absence of God from life signals the beginning of destruction.
People had rebelled and wantonly forsaken God. The requirement for
God's presence in life is obedience to his will and the keeping of his law,
which must be expressed in quality of life, not in ritual alone. The God
who wasn't a welcome part of living became immediately the judge of
life & executor of judgment. God who was not allowed to give life to his
people gave them in full measure death, destruction, and exile. That God
did not desire this destruction is made plain by the prophet. An outline is
given below:
7. Outline
I. Prophecies of doom (Before the fall of II. Foreign-nations prophecies Jerusalem
A. Vision and call (1-3) 1. Destruction foretold
1. Introduction 2. Effect on other nations 2. Vision 3. No memory of city
3. Call of God remains
4. Detailed instructions 4. Lament
B. Prophecies & visions of judgment (3-7) 5. Overthrow of proud king
1. Consequences to the prophet 6. Lament over Tyre
2. Symbolic siege of the city 7. Against Sidon
3. Extent of desolation C. Interlude: Israel's restoration
4. Idolatry denounced D. Egypt (29-32)
5. Punishment for sin 1. Prophecy against Egypt
C. Visions (8-11) 2. A base kingdom
1. Abominations in Jerusalem re-established
2. Visions of complete destruction 3. Nebuchadrezzar will
3. Vision of God reappears take Egypt
4. Denunciation and hope 4. Babylon will conquer
D. Oracles concerning Jerusalem (12-19) 5. Pharaoh warned about
1. Captivity predicted
2. False prophets 6. Final lament about
3. Elders denounced Egypt
4. No hope in present situati on III. Prophecies of restoration and
5. Future remnant (hope after the fall of
6. Useless vine Jerusalem; 33-37)
7. Story of unfaithful lover A. Review of early oracles (33)
8. Parable of the two eagles B. Future promise (34-37)
9. Individual responsibility 1. Discussion of shepherds
10. Parable of the lioness and cubs 2. Oracle against Edom
E. Oracles of God's judgment 3. Explaining destruction[
against Israel (20-24) promise of restoration
1. Review of checkered history 4. The Valley of Dry Bones
2. Judgment C. Gog and Magog (38-39)
3. Catalogue of Jerusalem's sins IV. Temple & God's city (40-48)
4. Story of two sisters A. Measure for house (40-42)
5. Last days B. The glory of Yahweh (43)
II. Foreign-nations prophecies (25-32) C. Regulations: temple &
service (43-46)
A. Immediate neighbors of Israel (25) 1. Altar
1. Ammon 2. Personnel
2. Moab 3. Sacrifice Instructions
3. Edom D. Healing waters
4. Philistia E. Division of restored land
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8. Ezekiel's Theology—Easily the most searching doctrine of the
OT is developed by the exilic prophet. The difference between life and
death, according to the prophet, was to be found in the presence of God's
spirit in individual or corporate life. In the Valley of Dry Bones vision,
the concept that God makes the difference between life and death is gra-
phically described.
First, the prophet saw a vision of a valley filled with dry bleached
bones. God asks: “Can these bones live?” God then answered that God
would breathe or blow upon the death-filled valley and raise the fallen
army once more to be a mighty host. The same creative force which
had brought life to humans, making them living souls, could revive a
dead people and make them live again. Ezekiel reported the word of
God as: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.”
Perhaps the most arresting picture in the entire prophecy is the life-
giving stream which issued from beneath the temple & purified the waters \
of the Dead Sea. The name of the New Jerusalem from which this stream
flowed was Yahweh Shamah (יהוה שמה), “Yahweh is there.” It is the
most important message Ezekiel had for his people—namely, that any soci-
ety must be sure that “the Lord is there,” since the difference between life
and death, hope and despair was the presence of God.
In no sense was the exilic prophet first with the concept that God
was sovereign of history. Along with this persisted the popular notion that
Yahweh was a national god who would protect his own. His dwelling was
at Jerusalem. Ezekiel did much to finally dispel this false notion. The God
whom Ezekiel knew appeared riding in a heavenly chariot. The God whom
Ezekiel beheld was mobile and was in no sense to be understood as dwel-
ling in Jerusalem alone. He moved both God's people & the mighty Chal-
deans alike on the chessboard of history, which was under his final control.
Ezekiel was not the originator of the idea of individual responsibility,
but he gave a greater impetus to the idea. He wrestles with the very diffi-
cult problem of inherited guilt in Chapter 18. While he does not solve this
knotty problem, he does conclude that the individual is responsible before
God, and that the individual can escape punishment by a good life.
More than any other of the OT writers, this prophet explains the
actions of the Almighty as derived from a desire to vindicate God in history
& before the world. This prophet, having accepted the fact that God is a
holy & righteous God, simply takes the next logical step. The Almighty's
actions are a proof that God is holy & righteous. In chapter 20, God frees
Israel from Egyptian bondage, withholding judgment in the wilderness &
keeping God's part of the covenant even though Israel didn't keep theirs.
For God to have failed might have been misunderstood as weakness and
would have done irreparable harm to God's honor. But now God, having
been long-suffering far beyond the deserving of this people, would destroy
them, & the surrounding nations would know why.
Finally, for Ezekiel, true religion isn't a veneer but an inner strength.
External show is no substitute for heartfelt loyalty. God promises that the
new day will come because in God's people he put a new heart and new
spirit. The book stands at the great divide between pre-exilic religion of a
land with a covenant people and postexilic religion of a legal community
without a land. Ezekiel manages to recover from the ashes of destruction
the precious faith of the past and with it to give people the new hope of a
more profound faith.
While it has long been recognized that Ezra was the father of Juda-
ism, Ezekiel laid the groundwork of the exclusiveness that characterized
Judaism and took the first steps toward a legalistic attitude. The fence of
law to protect the people from heathen influences is implied in Ezekiel, &
the seeds of Judaism are here; but in no sense did the prophet foresee
what ends his ideas would reach.
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9. Ezekiel and the New Testament—The Revelation and John’s
Gospel have kinship with Ezekiel, bearing in them the definite imprint of
literary kinship. God's vision in the last seven verses of Ezekiel 1 is felt
quite strongly in all of Revelation’s visions. Revelation’s author apparently
borrowed from the prophetic word, and the borrowed material was shaped
for a new usage.
The biblical idea of a holy city, a new Jerusalem, originated from
Ezekiel & Isaiah’s last 16 chapters. Even though the idea of this procee-
ding from God is native to those chapters in Isaiah, the concept must find
its more original source with Ezekiel. The river of living water proceeding
from beneath God’s throne was also borrowed by Revelation’s writer. Gog
and Magog are original to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel Gog was a person and Ma-
gog was a land, while in Revelation they are represented as two persons.
In John's Gospel Jesus was well acquainted with the book of Eze-
kiel; he used the title “Son of man” very frequently in the sense that it was
used by the prophet. The concept of a good shepherd, also came from this
rich prophetic source. This shepherd theme was beautifully adapted by
Jesus to his own time & revealed to us in John chapter 10. Chapter 15 is
an adaptation of Ezekiel 15, and has to do with the vine that bears no fruit
and thus is useless.
Once the Jewish state was destroyed and Jerusalem no longer exis-
ted as a stronghold of that state, the fulfillment of God's purposes was
raised above history. The people had become no people & that land was
no longer a promised place. Thus the book of Ezekiel became a prologue
to the apocalyptic visions of future apocalyptic writers. Ezekiel's writing
wasn't truly apocalyptic; he was an initiator.
The claim that Ezekiel was an abnormal personality should be rea-
dily admitted, for it is deviation from the norm which frequently is a mea-
sure of greatness. However, attempts to psycho-analyze the prophet seem
bound to failure. Suffice it to say, the prophet was a sensitive soul given
to a semi-mystical type of daydream by which he lived in scenes familiar
to conscious experience. At the same time, few authors in OT literature
have experimented with new forms of literary expression as much as Eze-
kiel did. A troubled spirit himself, he moved from doom to resurrection
and expressed this for his people in a superb book.
The prophecy and visions of Ezekiel was admitted to the group of
holy scripture only after certain safeguards had been established. It was
partly because Ezekiel's vision of God occurred outside the Holy Land
and partly because chapters 1 and 10 were considered dangerous in the
hands of the wrong people. The first objection was overcome by the exis-
tence of God's people in many lands. The first chapter was forbidden to
all who were under thirty years of age. By New Testament times, when
the heritage of apocalyptic writing had come to the fore in books such as
Zechariah and Daniel, Ezekiel became most acceptable.
The text itself is corrupt at many places & has suffered much at the
hands of editors and copyists; the Greek and Syriac versions have been
helpful in finding the original. The Hebrew leaves much to be desired, but
with the help of the versions in other languages it is possible to get a fair
translation.
EZEL (אזל, departure) A stone at which David made an appointment with
Jonathan. The Revised Standard Version changes the phrase to “beside
yonder stone heap.”
EZEM (עצם, strength) A city of Simeon
uncertain; it is possibly about 4 km north of Beer-sheba.
EZER (אצר, treasure (for #1); עזר, help (for #2-#6)) 1. The 6th son of Seir;
a clan chief of the native Horite inhabitants of Edom
Judahite, father of Hushah (I Chronicles 4). 3. An Ephraimite slain by
the men of Gath (I Chronicles 7). 4. A Gadite warrior who went over to
David (I Chronicles 2). 5. A Levite, son of Jeshua, who repaired a sec-
tion of the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3). 6. A priest who participated
in the dedication of the wall (Nehemiah 12).
EZION-GEBER (עציון גבר, (man's) backbone) An important port and
foundry city situated at the head of the Gulf of Aqabah
the journey of the Israelites on their way to the Plains of Moab about 3.2
km west northwest of the modern city of Aqabah
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The archaeologist Nelson Glueck found four towns on top of one
another; all of them had been destroyed by fire. The style of the buildings
and the city wall are very close to those that are identified with the buil-
ding operations of Solomon at Megiddo. What appears to be a foundry
was found there. It was used for the final process of refining ingots of cop-
per and iron that had been worked up in crude form.
The town was at the farthest point west where sweet water could be
obtained and yet where advantage could be taken of the strong winds that
swept down the Arabah. Solomon was the only king with enough freedom
from war, resources, & the assistance of Phoenician planners, who could
have maintained this mine. The successive destructions of the 4 cities by
fire were evidence of the successive captures and recaptures of the place.
At the time when the Israelites under Moses passed through the
area, Ezion-geber was only a miserable collections of mud huts. It wasn't
until David had conquered the whole region & Solomon embarked on his
career of industrial and commercial expansion that Ezion-geber was built.
It was no doubt the same port at which the Queen of Sheba arrived on her
journey to Jerusalem.
After the division of the kingdom, Ezion-geber fell to the kingdom
of Judah. The first city was sacked by Shisak in his invasion of Palestine.
A second city was built on the ruins of the first. Jehoshaphat enjoyed a
prosperous reign, attempted to renew navigation from Ezion-geber, but his
ships were wrecked in the gulf.
EZRA (עזרא, Yahweh helps) 1. One of the priests who came from Babylo-
Nehemiah's time (Nehemiah 12).
3. The supposed author of his own memoirs in the books of Ezra.
He led a caravan of Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem in 458 B.C. Great
authority was given him in an Aramaic royal decree. In Jerusalem, Ezra
was horrified by the toleration of marriages of Jews to heathen women.
The congregation repented, the marriages were ordered dissolved & a cen-
sus of the mixed marriages was taken. The Book of the Law was read; the
Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated; and a day of penance, followed by a
general confession of sins, was observed. The leaders signed a ratification
of the law as it was read, pledging themselves to oppose mixed marriages,
to observe the sabbath, & the sabbatical year, to pay the temple tax, & to
supply the temple with wood, legal sacrifices & offerings.
This is all we know of Ezra from the Bible; he is called a priest and
a scribe who came from Babylonia with God's law in his hand. It is diffi-
cult to explain why he was regarded as a second Moses. Most of his auto-
biography, if not all, was written by the Chronicler long after his death.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH, BOOKS OF. A single volume in the Hebrew Bible and
in the original Greek Old Testament (OT). They are the sequel of I and II
Chronicles, written by the same author as Chronicles; the first 3 verses of
Ezra repeats the last two verses of II Chronicles. The Chronicler quotes
earlier sources, and relates the history of the Jews from 536 to 432 B.C.
These two books, as well as I and II Chronicles, were most likely written
around 250 B.C.
Since Ezra-Nehemiah reported information not available elsewhere
and I-II Chronicles related the history told in Samuel & Kings with a few
additions, Ezra-Nehemiah was canonized & made part of Holy Scriptures
before I-II Chronicles. This seems to explain the fact that I-II Chronicles is
the last book in the Hebrew Bible with Ezra and Nehemiah coming right
before it.
Outline of Ezra
I. Return of the exiles (538 B.C.) II. Ezra,’s work (7-10; concluded in
and the rebuilding of the Neh. 7-10)
and the rebuilding of the Neh. 7-10)
temple (520-516), (1-6) A. Introduction (7)
A. Shesh-bazzar leads the B. Artaxerxes I's Decree
Babylonian exiles to (465-424; vs. 12-26 in
B. Rebuilding of the altar C. Ezra's doxology (7)
and laying foundation of D. Ezra’s list of exiles;
temple; Tabernacles Jerusalem
celebration (3) E. Safe journey, with the
C. Resistance to rebuilding holy vessels (8)
the temple (4) F. Mixed marriages, sin &
D. Letter from governor to dissolution of marriages
King Darius (5)
E. King Darius’ decree &
E. King Darius’ decree &
celebration (6)
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Outline of Nehemiah
I. Nehemiah's administration H. The covenant ratifying
of Judea (1-12) law, (9-10)
of Judea (1-12) law, (9-10)
A. Nehemiah allowed to go to I. Rearrangement of Judea’s
B. Nehemiah's decision to rebuild asked to live
the city walls inJerusalem
C. The building of the walls, (3-4) J. Priests and Levites who
the city walls in
C. The building of the walls, (3-4) J. Priests and Levites who
D. Economic hardships (5) returned with Zerubbabel
E. Plots of the enemies and (538) and other lists (12)
completion (6) K. (13) Levites, musicians
F. List of the returned exiles (7) brought back to temple
G. The reading of the law (8) II. Nehemiah's 2nd visit to Jeru-
1. Feast of Tabernacles (8) salem and conclusion (13)
Historical Problems—All our historical information for the history
of the Jews in the 100 years from 538-432 B.C., except for the rebuilding
of the temple is contained in Ezra-Nehemiah. The famous edict of Cyrus
is present in II Chronicles 36, Ezra 1, and the apocryphal I Esdras 2. It is
written in Hebrew in Ezra, & partially in Aramaic in II Chronicles 36. Ac-
cording to the Hebrew version, Cyrus declares that Jehovah had ordered
him to build the temple & all exiles are allowed to go to Jerusalem. Accor-
ding to the Aramaic, Cyrus gave exact specifications for the new temple, to
be built at the expense of the government, and ordered the return of the
temple vessels.
Haggai & Zechariah report the temple’s rebuilding 18 years after the
events that begin Ezra. At that time nothing was known of such a decree.
Either Cyrus issued a decree to which no one paid any attention, or both
versions of the decree are Jewish forgeries based on Isaiah 40-55 & Eze-
kiel. The report of Sheshbazzar's caravan of exiles bearing to Jerusalem
5,469 temple vessels is manifestly from the Chronicler's vivid imagination.
The list of those exiled in 586 & who returned in 538 is most likely
a list from a census taken long after the return which included all the peo-
ple who lived in Palestine over a 142 year period. It is difficult to believe
that the exiles in 3 deportations, numbering 4,600 men could have become
42,360 descendants returning to Jerusalem 50 years later while many
stayed in Babylonia. Nehemiah knows nothing of returning exiles. It
seems that for the events of 538 the Chronicler had no real information.
Apparently in the 7th month of 538 the sacrificial worship was re-
sumed in Zion. The Chronicler assumes that the regular morning and
evening burnt offering was offered before the temple was rebuilt, and that
the rebuilding of temple was halted by Samaritan opposition long before
there were any Samaritans. The Chronicler reports that the work began in
536 & restarted in 520 after the opposition; the later date is historically cor-
rect for the beginning of the temple's rebuilding. None of the information
for the period from 538 to the beginning of the building of the temple in
520, except perhaps some proper names, is historically credible.
The Chronicler reproduces a letter to Darius I and the king's reply.
The presence of Cyrus' decree, enforced or not, seems to argue against
historical existence of this correspondence, which contains the incredible
permission to the Jews to draw from the royal treasury in Syria unlimited
funds for the building of the temple and the costs of temple rituals. The
events of Ezra 7-10 are dated in the seventh year of Artaxerxes and the
same or very similar events are dated in the 20th year of the same king in
Nehemiah 8-10. Depending on which Artaxerxes is meant, Ezra dates the
events in 458 or 397; Nehemiah dates the events in 444 or 384. Scholars
don't agree as to whether Ezra's activities took place before or after Nehe-
miah's activities.
The genealogy of Ezra going back to Aaron is obviously a concoc-
tion of the Chronicler, from his line of high priests (I Chronicles 6-14),
which is at least in part unhistorical. Artaxerxes gave to him unlimited
authority in spending & prohibited taxation of Jewish clergy. The authen-
city of the decree can never be proved, and since Ezra isn't a Persian offi-
cial as Nehemiah was, his powers are inconceivable. If the decree is ques-
tionable, the genuineness of Ezra's memoirs is accordingly doubtful.
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Ezra, though empowered to enforce the Jewish law by Artaxerxes'
edict, accomplished nothing except lamenting foreign marriages & taking
a census. If no information has been lost over time, Ezra never had any
royal authority whatsoever. Nothing that's reported about Ezra is unques-
tionably historical. The accusations against the Jews which halted the
rebuilding of the temple, reported in verses 7-10 of Ezra 4 and the royal
answer reported in verses 17-22 of the same chapter, are the only 2 parts
of Ezra that may be historical. However, they too may be Jewish forgeries.
In conclusion, the information we have been provided about Ezra is
historically unreliable: he may have been a historical character whose life
was told by the Chronicler as romantically as that of David, or he may
have been a purely legendary person unknown to Sirach, who wrote the
apocryphal Ecclesiasticus. The Chronicler's function could have been that
of an editor, compiling & arranging sources, or predominantly an author
using only a few sources.
The autobiography written by Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1-7 and most
of chapter 13 has always been regarded as substantially genuine & there-
fore the best historical source for Jewish history from 520 to 175 B.C. The
attribution of Nehemiah 8-10 to Ezra's memoirs does not dispel the fog sur-
rounding the work. Just how historical these three chapters are remains
questionable, much as we would like to assume that it is historical & basic
for the Pentateuch's canonization; it remains questionable. Chapter 11
through the beginning of chapter 13 is believed by some to have been writ-
ten by the Chronicler, & it is questionable whether any historical informa-
tion about Nehemiah may be gleaned from these passages; they are more
likely to reflect the practices in the Chronicler's time, some 300 years later.
Literary Problems--It is now certain that the Chronicler, who wrote
I-II Chronicles, is Ezra-Nehemiah’s author or editor. Nehemiah's autobio-
graphy has never been seriously questioned, but the authenticity of the
memoirs of Ezra is by no means above suspicion, and is so similar to the
style of the Chronicler that he is credited with writing them based on imagi-
nation rather than historical fact. If the Chronicler really did use some Ezra
source, it had been so rewritten before him or by him that it is hopeless to
attempt to identify it. The Aramaic official documents attributed to Persian
kings reigning during the return and the rebuilding of the temple are tho-
roughly Jewish in character and were written much later than the time in
question.
This does not mean that Ezra was a purely fictitious character. He
may well have been a Jerusalem Jew in the time of Nehemiah, remem-
bered for his learning and piety, & selected by the Chronicler, who liked to
date Jewish institutions considerably earlier than their true origin. And al-
though Nehemiah’s memoirs are the only genuine source used by the
Chronicler in Ezra-Nehemiah, just how much of chapter 1-7 and 13 is
genuine is disputed by biblical scholars. The unquestionably genuine parts
from the Nehemiah’s pen are: chapters 1-2; 4-6 (with some revisions);
7:1-5; 11:1-2; 12:31, 37-40; and 13:1-3.
In contrast with the pale and ineffective personality of Ezra, Nehe-
miah stands forth as a vigorous and successful man of action. He brought
new life to the helpless and pathetic Jewish community in Jerusalem. He
stood at the end of an era: the Hebrew language was giving way to Ara-
maic as the vernacular; the age of the pious Jewish congregation was
beginning to take shape.
EZRAHITE (אזרחי, Yahweh helps) The family or clan of Ethan & Heman,
legendary wise men and poets. The word is probably the form that “Zerah”
takes when it becomes the name of a people.
EZRI (עזרי, help of the Lord) Chelub’s son; steward in charge of the crown
lands’ agriculture in David’s time.
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