Return and Restoration (539-333 B.C.E.)

B. Return and Restoration (539-333 B.C.E.)

After Nebuchadnezzar died, the Babylonian empire quickly disintegrated. In 539 B.C.E. Cyrus of Media captured Babylon without a fight. He then signed an edict allowing Judeans to go home if they wished and even supported the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem with royal funds. Many chose to return to Jerusalem.
    The first group of refugees returned in 538 B.C.E. led by Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundations for a new temple. But life was hard and they soon abandoned the project. The second group returned in 520 B.C.E., led by Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua. They managed to finish the temple by 515. Called the "Second Temple," this structure once again became the focus of religious devotion. The prophets Haggai (see Chapter 13) and Zechariah (see Chapter 13) motivated the people to complete the temple's construction. But the nature of religion had fundamentally changed from what it was before the exile.

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The Archers of Darius, from Susa, end of the 6th century B.C.E. Persia sponsored the restoration of Judah. The second temple was completed during the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Musée du Louvre, Paris

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    The fifth century was a crucial time in the development of early Judaism. Nehemiah was a Jewish official of the Persian royal court. He asked the Persian king for permission to go to Jerusalem and direct its reconstruction. With two missions, in 445 and 432 B.C.E., he reestablished the viability of Jerusalem, still the holy city of faith. He managed to rebuild its walls and secure it against threats and attacks from its rivals in Samaria to the north--old Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Old feuds die hard. The regional rival of north and south surfaces again.
    Ezra, too, was a Jewish official of the Persian court. He returned to Palestine around the same time as Nehemiah. He was perhaps even more important than Nehemiah because of the way in which he redefined the identity of God's people. Having the authority of the Persian crown, he dissolved any marriages involving Judeans and non-Judeans and sent them packing. He also applied the law of Moses as state law. Ezra was severe, but times were tough and the identity of the community was at stake. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah detail the efforts to restore faith in a renewed Jerusalem. Chronicles is associated with the perspective of these books in its retelling of Israel's history (see Chapter 18).