The Egyptians. The Persians. The Greeks. The Romans. And The Jews Too.

History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel

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The term "Jews" originates from the Biblical Hebrew word Yehudi , and in its original meaning refers to the people of the Tribe of Judah or the people of the Kingdom of Judah.

(J-1) New Masters for the House of Israel

The name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah , the fourth son of Jacob. Later, after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel Samaria , the term "Yehudi" was applied to anyone from the Kingdom of Judah, including the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, as well as scattered settlements from other tribes. The land of Israel , which is considered by Jews to be the promised land , was the place where Jewish identity was formed, [10] [ need quotation to verify ] although this identity was formed gradually reaching much of its current form in the Exilic and post-Exilic period.

The name Israel first appears in the stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah c. Villages had populations of up to or , [15] [16] which lived by farming and herding, and were largely self-sufficient; [17] economic interchange was prevalent. The Bible states that David founded a dynasty of kings and that his son Solomon built a Temple. From the middle of the 8th century BCE Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding neo-Assyrian empire.

Both the biblical and Assyrian sources speak of a massive deportation of the people of Israel and their replacement with an equally large number of forced settlers from other parts of the empire — such population exchanges were an established part of Assyrian imperial policy, a means of breaking the old power structure - and the former Israel never again became an independent political entity. The Samaritan people claim to be descended from survivors of the Assyrian conquest. The recovered seal of the Ahaz , king of Judah, c.

Assyrian records say he leveled 46 walled cities and besieged Jerusalem, leaving after receiving tribute. Judah prospered in the 7th century BCE, probably in a cooperative arrangement with the Assyrians to establish Judah as an Assyrian vassal despite a disastrous rebellion against the Assyrian king Sennacherib. However, in the last half of the 7th century Assyria suddenly collapsed, and the ensuing competition between the Egyptian and Neo-Babylonian empires for control of Palestine led to the destruction of Judah in a series of campaigns between and The defeat was also recorded by the Babylonians in the Babylonian Chronicles.

Babylonian Judah suffered a steep decline in both economy and population [36] and lost the Negev, the Shephelah, and part of the Judean hill country, including Hebron, to encroachments from Edom and other neighbours. The Babylonian conquest entailed not just the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple , but the ruination of the entire infrastructure which had sustained Judah for centuries. Isaiah 40—55, Ezekiel , the final version of Jeremiah , the work of the Priestly source in the Pentateuch, and the final form of the history of Israel from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings [45] Theologically, they were responsible for the doctrines of individual responsibility and universalism the concept that one god controls the entire world , and for the increased emphasis on purity and holiness.

Judah remained a province of the Persian empire until BCE.

According to the biblical history, Cyrus issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations their freedom. Jewish exiles in Babylon, including 50, Judeans, led by Zerubabel returned to Judah to rebuild the temple , a task which they are said to have completed c. Yet it was probably only in the middle of the next century, at the earliest, that Jerusalem again became the capital of Judah. After his death in BCE, his generals divided the empire between them and Judea became the frontier between the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt , but in Judea was incorporated into the Seleucid Kingdom.

At first, relations between the Seleucids and the Jews were cordial, but later on as the relations between the hellenized Jews and the religious Jews deteriorated, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes — attempted to impose decrees banning certain Jewish religious rites and traditions. A Jewish group called the Hasideans opposed both Seleucid Hellenism and the revolt, but eventually gave their support to the Maccabees. The Jews prevailed with the expulsion of the Syrians and the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty.

The Maccabean Revolt led to a twenty-five-year period of Jewish independence due to the steady collapse of the Seleucid Empire under attacks from the rising powers of the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire. The Hasmonean dynasty of priest-kings ruled Judea with the Pharisees , Saducees and Essenes as the principal social movements. As part of their struggle against Hellenistic civilization , the Pharisees established what may have been the world's first national male religious education and literacy program, based around synagogues.

The Nasi's religious authority gradually superseded that of the Temple's high priest under the Hasmoneans this was the king. The same power vacuum that enabled the Jewish state to be recognized by the Roman Senate c. They invaded the Roman eastern provinces and managed to expel the Romans. Antigonus was made King of Judea. Herod fled to Rome, where he was elected " King of the Jews " by the Roman Senate and was given the task of retaking Judea.

Judea under Roman rule was at first a client kingdom, but gradually the rule over Judea became less and less Jewish, until it became under the direct rule of Roman administration from Caesarea Maritima , which was often callous and brutal in its treatment of its Judean, Galilean , and Samaritan subjects. In this period Rabbinical Judaism , led by Hillel the Elder , began to assume popular prominence over the Temple priesthood.

The events were described by the Jewish historian Josephus , including the desperate defence of Jotapata , the siege of Jerusalem 69—70 CE and the heroic last stand at Gamla where 9, died and Massada 72—73 CE where they killed themselves rather than fall into the hand of their enemies. The revolt was crushed by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. The Romans destroyed much of the Temple in Jerusalem and took as punitive tribute the Menorah and other Temple artefacts back to Rome.

Josephus writes that 1,, Jews perished during the revolt, while a further 97, were taken captive. The Fiscus Judaicus was instituted by the Empire as part of reparations. It was during this period that the split of early Christianity and Judaism occurred. The Pharisee movement, led by Yochanan ben Zakai , made peace with Rome and survived.

Judeans continued to live in their land in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion. The 2nd century saw two further Jewish revolts against the Roman rule. Judea was ravaged while Julius Severus and Emperor Hadrian crushed the rebellion. According to Cassius Dio , , Jews were killed, and 50 fortified towns and villages razed.

After suppressing the Bar Kochba revolt, the Romans permitted a hereditary rabbinical patriarch from the House of Hillel to represent the Jews in dealings with the Romans. The most famous of these was Judah the Prince. Jewish seminaries continued to produce scholars, of whom the most astute became members of the Sanhedrin. In this era, according to a popular theory, the Council of Jamnia developed the Jewish Bible canon which decided which books of the Hebrew Bible were to be included, the Jewish apocrypha being left out.

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Their discussions and religious instructions were compiled in the form of the Mishnah by Judah the Prince around CE. Various other compilations, including the Beraita and Tosefta , also come from this period. These texts were the foundation of the Jerusalem Talmud , which was redacted in around CE, [ citation needed ] probably in Tiberias. Continued persecution and the economic crisis that affected the Roman empire in the 3rd-century led to further Jewish migration from Palestine to the more tolerant Persian Sassanid Empire , where a prosperous Jewish community existed in the area of Babylon.

Under the Byzantines, Christianity , dominated by the Greek Orthodox Church , was adopted as the official religion.

Jerusalem became a Christian city and Jews were still banned from living there. In —2, there was another Jewish revolt against a corrupt Roman governor. The revolt was eventually subdued by Ursicinus. Until then, The entire Jewish community outside the land of Israel depended on the calendar sanctioned by the Sanhedrin ; this was necessary for the proper observance of the Jewish holy days. However, danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant congregations.

As the religious persecutions continued, Hillel determined to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come. During his short reign, Emperor Julian — abolished the special taxes paid by the Jews to the Roman government and also sought to ease the burden of mandatory Jewish financial support of the Jewish patriarchate. A contingent of thousands of Jews from Persian districts hoping to assist in the construction effort were killed en route by Persian soldiers.

Jews probably constituted the majority of the population of Palestine until the 4th-century, when Constantine converted to Christianity. Jews lived in at least forty-three Jewish communities in Palestine: The persecuted Jews of Palestine revolted twice against their Christian rulers. In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire collapsed leading to Christian migration into Palestine and development of a Christian majority. Judaism was the only non-Christian religion tolerated, but there were bans on Jews building new places of worship, holding public office or owning slaves.

There were also two Samaritan revolts during this period. In , The Empress Eudocia removed the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site and the heads of the Community in Galilee issued a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews": In about , the Jerusalem Talmud was completed. According to Procopius , in Byzantine general Belisarius took the treasures of the Jewish temple from Vandals who had taken them from Rome.

In , Sassanid Persia invaded the Byzantine Empire. In , a Jewish revolt against the Byzantine Empire joined forces with these Persian invaders to capture Jerusalem in The great majority of Christians in Jerusalem were subsequently deported to Persia. With return of the Byzantines in , the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius promised to restore Jewish rights and received Jewish help in ousting the Persians with the aid of Jewish leader Benjamin of Tiberias.

Heraclius later reneged on the agreement after reconquering Palestine by issuing an edict banning Judaism from the Byzantine Empire and thousands of Jewish refugees fled to Egypt , following Byzantine and Ghassanid perpetrated massacres across the Galilee and Jerusalem. Egyptian Coptic Christians took responsibility for this broken pledge and still fast in penance. According to Moshe Gil , at the time of the Arab conquest in the 7th century, the majority of the population was Jewish or Samaritan. In succeeding centuries a common view is that Christians and Muslims were equally divided.

The conversion of the Christians to Islam -Gil maintaining they were a majority- is generally thought to have occurred on a large scale only after the Crusades, in the wake of Saladin's conquest , and as a result of disaffection for the Latins. Historical sources mentions the settlement of Arab tribes and the establishment of new settlements in the 7th century, although little archaeological records have been preserved. The establishment of new Arab settlements during 7th and 8th century was relatively rare. The religious transformation of the land is evident with large congregation style mosques built in cities like Tiberias , Jarash , Beth Shean , Jerusalem and possibly Cesarea.

However the establishment of these mosques point to the influx of Muslim newcomers, rather than to conversion of Jews and Christians to Islam. The sixth century map revealed an urban and rural society at its height, while the 11th century map shows a society that was economically and phiscally stagnant veering toward total collapse. After the conquest, Jewish communities began to grow and flourish. Umar allowed and encouraged Jews to settle in Jerusalem.

It was first time, after almost years of oppressive Christian rule, that Jews were allowed to enter and worship freely in their holy city. The dome enshrined the Foundation Stone , the holiest site for Jews. Before Omar Abd al-Aziz died in , he banned the Jews from worshipping on the Temple Mount, [84] a policy which remained in place for over the next 1, years of Islamic rule. In the mid-8th-century, taking advantage of the warring Islamic factions in Palestine, a false messiah named Abu Isa Obadiah of Isfahan inspired and organised a group of 10, armed Jews who hoped to restore the Holy Land to the Jewish nation.

Soon after, when Al-Mansur came to power, Abu Isa joined forces with a Persian chieftain who was also conducting a rebellion against the caliph. The rebellion was subdued by the caliph and Abu Isa fell in battle in In , part of the synagogue in Ramla was still in ruins, probably resulting from the earthquake of A large Jewish community existed in Ramle and smaller communities inhabited Hebron and the coastal cities of Acre , Caesarea , Jaffa , Ashkelon and Gaza.

Between the 7th and 11th centuries, Masoretes Jewish scribes in the Galilee and Jerusalem were active in compiling a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides of the Hebrew language. They authorised the division of the Jewish Tanakh , known as the Masoretic Text , which is regarded as authoritative till today. According to Gilbert, from to the Christian Crusaders "mercilessly persecuted and slaughtered the Jews of Palestine. In , the Jews were among the rest of the population who tried in vain to defend Jerusalem against the Crusaders.

When the city fell, a massacre of 6, Jews occurred when the synagogue they were seeking refuge in was set alight. Under Crusader rule, Jews were not allowed to hold land and involved themselves in commerce in the coastal towns during times of quiescence. Most of them were artisans: In line with trail of bloodshed the Crusaders left in Europe on their way to liberate the Holyland, in Palestine, both Muslims and Jews were indiscriminately massacred or sold into slavery.

A large volume of piyutim and midrashim originated in Palestine at this time. In the crusading era, there were significant Jewish communities in several cities and Jews are known to have fought alongside Arabs against the Christian invaders. The Crusader rule over Palestine had taken its toll on the Jews. A Crusader state centred round Acre survived in weakened form for another century.

In time, Saladin issued a proclamation inviting all Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem, [99] and according to Judah al-Harizi , they did: In , the Jewish community in the country was strengthened by the arrival of a group headed by over rabbis from France and England, [] among them Rabbi Samson ben Abraham of Sens. He wrote "If the gentiles wish to make peace, we shall make peace and leave them on clear terms; but as for the land, we shall not leave it in their hands, nor in the hands of any nation, not in any generation.

Wishing to re-establish a strong Jewish presence in the holy city, he brought a Torah scroll from Nablus and founded a synagogue. Nahmanides later settled at Acre , where he headed a yeshiva together with Yechiel of Paris who had emigrated to Acre in , along with his son and a large group of followers. In , control passed to the Egyptian Mamluks and until Palestine became the frontier between Mongol invaders occasional Crusader allies. The conflict impoverished the country and severely reduced the population.

In the Mamluk Sultan Baybars converted the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron into an exclusive Islamic sanctuary and banned Christians and Jews from entering, which previously would be able to enter it for a fee. The ban remained in place until Israel took control of the building in Over the next seven years he compiled an informative geographical account of the land in which he attempts to identify biblical and talmudic era locations.

Others were artisans, merchants, calligraphers or physicians. The attempt by German Jews to acquire rooms and buildings on Mount Zion over the Tomb of David had dire consequences. The Franciscans , who had occupied the site since , petitioned Pope Martin V who issued a papal order prohibiting sea captains from carrying Jews to Palestine. After nine months of imprisonment, a heavy ransom freed 24 Jews who were then granted permission to travel to Palestine so long as they abandoned all their property.

In , Isaac b.

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Meir Latif arrived from Ancona and counted Jewish families in Jerusalem. A year later, after an appealing to Sultan Qaitbay , the Jews were given permission to repair it. The Muslims of the adjoining mosque however contested the verdict and for two days, proceeded to demolish the synagogue completely. The vandals were punished, but the synagogue was only rebuilt 50 years later in He found the city forsaken holding about seventy poor Jewish families.

Obadiah, a dynamic and erudite leader, had begun the rejuvenation of Jerusalem's Jewish community. This, despite the fact many refugess from the Spanish and Portuguese expulsion of stayed away worried about the lawlessness of Mamulk rule. Thanks to Joseph Saragossi who had arrived in the closing years of the 15th century, Safed and its environs had developed into the largest concentration of Jews in Palestine. With the help of the Sephardic immigration from Spain, the Jewish population had increased to 10, by the early 16th century.

Records cite at least 30 Jewish urban and rural communities in the country at the opening of the 16th century. Palestine was conquered by Turkish Sultan Selim II in —17, and became part of the province of Syria for the next four centuries. In , Spanish refugee Jacob Berab settled in Safed. He believed the time was ripe to reintroduce the old " semikah " ordination which would create for Jews worldwide a recognised central authority. But the plan faltered upon a strong and concerted protest by the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Levi ben Jacob ibn Habib.

Palestinian rabbis were instrumental producing a universally accepted manual of Jewish law and some of the most beautiful liturgical poems. Much of this activity occurred at Safed which had become a spiritual centre, a haven for mystics. Joseph Karo 's comprehensive guide to Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch , was considered so authoritative that the variant customs of German-Polish Jewry were merely added as supplement glosses.

In Safed, the Jews developed a number of branches of trade, especially in grain, spices, textiles and dyeing. In , a Hebrew printing press was established in Safed. The 8, or 10, Jews in Safed in grew to 20, or 30, by the end of the century. Nevertheless, a number of factors during the following years contributed to the plan's ultimate failure.

His vivid descriptions of the town Safed and of Rabbi Joseph Karo 's yeshiva are of primary importance to historians, seeing that they are a first-hand account of these places, and the only extant account which describes the yeshiva of the great Sephardic Rabbi, Joseph Karo. In , the Jewish community of Safed faced an expulsion order: In , the Radbaz moved to Jerusalem, but soon moved to Safed to escape the high taxes imposed on Jews by the authorities. In , the Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue in Jerusalem was completed.

The adjacent study hall which had been added by later became the Synagogue of Elijah the Prophet. In the — Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine over , Jews were massacred, leading to some migration to Israel. In or , the majority Jewish towns of Safed and Tiberias are destroyed by the Druze , following a power struggle in Galilee.

The Near East earthquake of destroys much of Safed killing people with Jews among the dead, and also destroys Tiberias. The disciples of the Vilna Gaon settled in the land of Israel almost a decade after the arrival of two of his pupils, R. Hayim of Vilna and R. Israel ben Samuel of Shklov. In all there were three groups of the Gaon's students which emigrated to the land of Israel. They formed the basis of the Ashkenazi communities of Jerusalem and Safed, setting up what was known as the Kollel Perushim.

Their arrival encouraged an Ashkenazi revival in Jerusalem, whose Jewish community until this time was mostly Sephardi. Many of the descendants of the disciples became leading figures in modern Israeli society.

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The Gaon himself also set forth with his pupils to the Land, but for an unknown reason he turned back and returned to Vilna, where he died soon after. During the siege of Acre in , Napoleon issued a proclamation to the Jews of Asia and Africa to help him conquer Jerusalem. The siege was lost to the British, however, and the plan was never carried out. In the brothers of murdered Jewish adviser and finance minister to the rulers of the Galilee, Haim Farkhi formed an army with Ottoman permission, marched south and conquered the Galilee.

They were held up at Akko which they besieged for 14 months after which they gave up and retreated to Damascus. Between and , a series of Jewish migrations to what is the modern nation of Israel, known as Aliyah , commenced. These migrations preceded the Zionist period. The United Kingdom was granted control of the area west of the River Jordan now comprising the State of Israel , the West Bank and the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine , and on the east bank of what later became Jordan as a separate mandate by the Versailles Peace Conference which established the League of Nations in Herbert Samuel , a former Postmaster General in the British cabinet , who was instrumental in drafting the Balfour Declaration was appointed the first High Commissioner of Mandatory Palestine, generally simply known as Palestine.

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Britain had promised the local Arabs, through Lawrence of Arabia , independence for a united Arab country covering most of the Arab Middle East, in exchange for their supporting the British; and Britain had promised to create and foster a Jewish national home as laid out in the Balfour Declaration, In , following increasing levels of violence, the British government expressed a wish to withdraw from Palestine.

The proposed plan of partition would have split Palestine into two states, an Arab state and a Jewish state, and the City of Jerusalem, giving slightly more than half the land area to the proposed Jewish state. Under Belshazzar, even the people of Babylon became disgusted with their corrupt nation. As long as the mighty stag in the forest is erect and strong, its enemies are held at bay.

But at the slightest sign of weakness, the wolves move in for the kill. So it is with empires, and Babylon was reeling. The predators were waiting. East and north of the Persian Gulf, two nations were coming to power: Uniting under the direction of Cyrus, the Median-Persian alliance turned toward Babylon.

Cyrus was to have a profound effect on the history of the house of Israel and the world. One historian noted the significance of this man:. Anshan was then under the overlordship of Media. When Cyrus revolted against his overlord Astyages, the Median army went over to him in a body, surrendering Astyages as prisoner. Cyrus apparently was the voluntary choice of the Medes as their king. Thus within ten years Cyrus made himself master of the Median empire comprising modern Persia, northern Assyria, Armenia, and Asia Minor as far west as the river Halys.

After conquering northern Mesopotamia he attacked and defeated the fabulously rich Croesus, king of Lydia, whose kingdom extended from the river Halys [in Turkey] to the Aegean Sea [in Greece]. Thus Cyrus became master of all western Asia. With the triumph of Cyrus, a new race, the Indo-European, came into world dominion and the political destiny of the world was thenceforth in the hands of that race. This, therefore, marks a new and very important watershed in Biblical history. He inaugurated a new policy in the treatment of conquered peoples.

Instead of tyrannizing over them and holding them in subjection by brute force, he treated his subjects with consideration and won them as his friends. He was particularly considerate of the religions of conquered peoples. The effect of this policy was to weld his subjects to him in a loyalty which made his reign an era of peace. Mould, Essentials of Bible History, pp. This revolution in policy was to have a profound effect on the history of the world and particularly on Jewish history, for when Cyrus marched into Babylon, the Jews were still in exile there.

What motivated Cyrus to make such a liberal proclamation? While Cyrus may have been influenced by the religion of his gods see Ezra 1: And these things God did afford them; for he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all Asia: Since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.

Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the Divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfil what was so written; so he called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said to them, that he gave them leave to go back to their own country, and to rebuild their city Jerusalem, and the temple of God, for that he would be their assistant, and that he would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighbourhood of their country of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver for the building of the temple, and besides that, beasts for their sacrifices.

The prophecy of Isaiah alluded to by Josephus and implied in Ezra 1: I will take as an ensample Cyrus. He began with that temperance and virtue which would sustain any Christian country or any Christian king. It has been true in the past, it is true today, it will be true in the future.

A half century in Babylonia had led the majority to sink their roots deeply in the land of their enforced adoption. Most of them had become bound to the new land by ties of marriage and friendship and by strong business connections. Moreover there had grown up in Babylonia a generation which knew not Palestine and for such Jews Judea, no longer an attractive place to live in, had no appeal. The pull of a powerful sentimental attachment was needed to induce any of them to return to Palestine and few felt this. Accordingly, the greatest difficulty was encountered in arousing enough enthusiasm to make up a party for the first returning group.

The first return somewhat resembled a religious crusade. It consisted of forty to fifty thousand people. Small groups of exiles continued to come for the next century from Babylonia, but the majority of Jews did not return, and for centuries there was a greater number of Jews in Babylon than in the Holy Land. A person known in the book of Ezra as Sheshbazzar see Ezra 1: Scholars dispute whether Sheshbazzar was the same person as Zerubbabel.

When the Jews returned to Israel, they found the land inhabited by Samaritans, a people whose name came from the city of Samaria, which had been the capital of the Northern Kingdom. The Assyrians brought other peoples to inhabit the land, and they intermarried with the remaining Israelites. They adopted some forms of the worship of Jehovah, but they mixed them with pagan ideas. The Jews in the Southern Kingdom viewed these Samaritans as being not only impure Israelites but pagans as well. The Jews returning from Babylonia were eager to reinstitute the official worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem.

Their first act was to repair the altar of burnt offering and to renew the regular morning and evening sacrifices. They then observed the feast of Tabernacles and other feasts in routine succession. Under the direction of Zerubbabel, the Jews repaired the altar and began to rebuild the temple.

The Samaritans asked to join in the project, saying that they had been offering sacrifice to Jehovah since the days of the Assyrian conquest see Ezra 4: The Jews flatly refused their help, and the Samaritans in anger openly opposed the project see Ezra 4: Because of this interference from the Samaritans and because of indifference that arose among the Jews see Haggai 1: The resumption of the temple construction was inspired by two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah see Ezra 5: The local governor and the leaders of Samaria attempted to obstruct the project. The Jews appealed to Darius, eventually proving that they were doing only what Cyrus had granted them permission to do.

So they were allowed to continue their project see Ezra 5—6. The second temple did not compare in splendor to the temple of Solomon, for the people were very poor at the time they built it. There is no mention of Zerubbabel after the temple was completed. After his time, the leadership of the community was held by the priests.

This theocratic government was permitted by the Persians and for a time by Alexander the Great. In any event, there is a span of about three generations between the first return and the return of Ezra and Nehemiah. During this period, Persian culture reached its greatest height, as evidenced by the impressive ruins standing at Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire. The luxury of the Persian court is described in the book of Esther. Little is known about Jewish life during this period. In view of the reforms initiated later by Ezra and Nehemiah, a strict adherence to the laws of Moses was evidently not observed.

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The priests intermarried with their non-Israelite neighbors, and the city of Jerusalem was allowed to further deteriorate. Ezra seems to have held some kind of important court office, and he was accredited as a special envoy to reorganize the temple services at Jerusalem. Nehemiah was a royal cupbearer in the Persian court see Nehemiah 2: Since assassination was an ever-present danger for kings anciently, and poison was often employed, the cupbearer held a highly trusted position in the court.

See Samuel Fallows, ed. The restoration of Jerusalem, which had lain in ruins for a century and a half, was begun.

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