Commentaria in II Esdrae (Nehemiam)
The Book of Nehemias
Argument
As is clear from 1 Esdras 1 and 2, Nehemias had earlier returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, before Esdras (who returned under Artaxerxes), under Cyrus, with Zorobabel and the people, in order to rebuild the city with the temple. Hence Esdras found him there, as is clear from 1 Esdras chapter 7, verse 9. But when the Samaritans, under Cambyses the son of Cyrus, hindered the building of the city and the temple for nine years, Nehemias went back with Zorobabel to Babylon, and became cupbearer to Artaxerxes. Then in the twentieth year of that king, having obtained from him permission to restore the city, he returned a second time to Jerusalem, and restored it and surrounded it on every side with walls, over a period of twelve years, as is clear from chapter 13, verse 6. When this was done, he returned a third time to Babylon, and from there came back a third time to Jerusalem, and died there shortly afterwards. Hear Josephus, book 11, chapter 5, at the end: “After this,” he says, “and many other honourable and praiseworthy works, Nehemias died, now an old man. He was a man born for virtue and justice, and most beneficent to his countrymen, leaving behind him an everlasting monument of himself in the walls of Jerusalem.”
But Zorobabel remained in Babylon and died there, as the Hebrews relate in the Seder Olam.
You will ask: Who and what sort of man was Nehemias? Severus Sulpicius, St. Isidore and Sixtus of Siena in their treatment of Nehemias hold that he was of the tribe of Juda. But that he was a priest, and therefore descended from the tribe of Levi, is clear from 2 Machabees 1:21. Moreover, he was himself a courtier of Artaxerxes, indeed his cupbearer; whence he obtained from him permission to rebuild the city, and he did it with great labour and great courage, constantly contending with the enemies who hindered the building. This Artaxerxes was Longimanus, the son of Xerxes, under whom the high priest of the Jews was Eliasib, son of Joiakim, grandson of Jesus, a familiar friend and helper of Nehemias. Moreover, besides this book Nehemias wrote another, on the things which befell the Jews after their return to Jerusalem, which is mentioned in 2 Machabees.
In the commentaries of Nehemias are these same things; and, as one building a library, he gathered together from the various regions the books of the Prophets, and of David, and the letters of kings, and about the votive offerings.
You will ask, secondly, whether this Nehemias is the same as the Nehemias whom Esdras mentions, chapter 3 and following.
Some think he is a different man. They prove it first because that Esdras was one of the leaders of those returning from the captivity under Cyrus, so that he was then at least twenty years old. But from the first year of Cyrus to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, to which our Nehemias here came, as will be clear from chapter 13, verse 6, ninety-six years passed. Hence Nehemias would then have been at least one hundred and sixteen years old, and therefore unfit for the office of cupbearer to Artaxerxes, and much more unfit for that laborious embassy to Artaxerxes, of which chapter 13, verse 6, speaks. Second, because this Nehemias here speaks of himself throughout in the first person, whereas Scripture speaks of the Nehemias who was Esdras’s companion in the third person, as is clear from chapter 7, verse 65, and chapter 8, verse 9. Third, because this Nehemias saw Jaddus, who was high priest, and who met Alexander the Great, as is implied in chapter 12, verse 11; Nehemias would therefore have had to be two hundred years old (for that is the interval from Esdras and Cyrus to Alexander) and more.
But more hold that there is one and the same Nehemias, not two, and this seems truer. First, because the Nehemias both in this book and in the book of Esdras is called Athersatha. Hear book 1, chapter 8, verse 9: “And Nehemias (he is Athersatha) and Esdras the priest said.” Second, because what is said in 1 Esdras chapter 2, verse 63, of Athersatha, that is, Nehemias—namely, that he ordered that priests of uncertain and doubtful descent should not eat of the sanctified victims until it should be established by the oracle of the high priest that they were true priests—the very same is said of the same man in Nehemias chapter 7, verse 65. Third, because this Nehemias in chapter 7, verse 7, is said to have come to Jerusalem under Cyrus with Zorobabel and Josue, the son of Josedec. Fourth, because in chapter 8, verse 9, Nehemias together with Esdras interpreted the law to the people. Therefore there was one Nehemias, and the same one was the companion of Esdras, though younger than he.
So Salianus, Sanchez and others.
To the first I reply that Nehemias was very long-lived, and that God preserved him strong and vigorous into extreme old age, for the good of the people, so that he might rebuild Jerusalem and plead the cause of the citizens before Artaxerxes. So also Esdras lived 439 years and more, as I showed in the preface to Esdras.
To the second I reply that Nehemias is the author of this book, and therefore he speaks of himself here now and then in the first person, though not always; for in the third To the third I shall reply at chapter 12, verse 41.
Allegorically, Nehemias was a type of Christ both in name and in fact. For Nehemias in Hebrew means the same as “comforter of God,” because he was sent by God for the consolation of the people, to strengthen them in rebuilding Jerusalem. So Christ was sent by the Father into the flesh to comfort those who mourn in Sion, says Isaias, chapter 61, and to restore the old Church that was falling, and transform it into a new and holy one, and so to make the souls of individual Christians cities, indeed temples of God. So Bede, the Gloss, others, and St. Jerome, in his letter to Paulinus, whose words I recited in the preface to Esdras.
Again, Nehemias was illustrious in his birth and lineage, and likewise in the holiness of his life and the great endowments of his mind, and therefore very dear to Artaxerxes, indeed his cupbearer; so too Christ, descended from David, Solomon and the other kings of Juda, was the holy of holies and the wise of the wise, indeed “full of grace and truth,” John 1, Luke 2.
Third, Nehemias rebuilt Jerusalem with immense labour and zeal, and fortified the commonwealth of the faithful with the best laws, and fought constantly for it against the Samaritans, and shrank from no danger for it and refused no weariness, so that he went three times to Babylon or Persia and three times returned to Jerusalem, though already advanced in years and an old man. So Christ, kindled with divine zeal, built the Church, both militant and triumphant, and adorned and established it with evangelical precepts and counsels; and for it and for the salvation of souls he shrank from no labour or danger, but spent his whole life and all his strength for its salvation, and at last underwent the shameful and cruel death of the cross. Let prelates, princes, pastors, priests, religious and zealous faithful imitate the same.
In like manner Esdras, for the good of Israel, went twice and twice returned to Jerusalem. Charlemagne came to Rome four times, says Eginhard in his Life, to help the Pontiff and the Roman Church against the Lombards and other enemies. Hence the Emperor deserved, in the year of the Lord 800, to be created and crowned by Pope Leo III in the basilica of St. Peter at Rome on the very feast of the Nativity of Christ, says Anastasius the Librarian, and from him Baronius, in the year of Christ 800.
St. Louis twice undertook an expedition to the Holy Land; and although on the first he had been captured and ill-treated, yet on returning a second time, when plague attacked the army, he laid down his life in that same land, and as he died gave his sons and posterity this last counsel, that for the glory of God and the safety and protection of the Church they should fear no danger and shrink from no labour, but, if need be, pour out their blood and life in so glorious a work; and that he had gone before them by example, and died joyful and eager in so pious a cause. Read his Life.