Nehemiah

The historicity of Nehemiah, his mission, and the Nehemiah Memoir have recently become controversial in academic scholarship, with maximalists viewing it as a historical account and minimalists doubting whether Nehemiah existed. He is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers.

Book of Nehemiah narrative

In the 20th year (445 or 444 BC) of the reign of Artaxerxes I, the Achaemenid emperor, Nehemiah was cup-bearer to the king. Learning that the remnant population in Judea were in distress and that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, he asked the king for permission to return and rebuild the city (Nehemiah 1:1-2:5) around 13 years after his contemporary, Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem in ca. 458 BC. Artaxerxes sent him to Judah as provincial governor with a mission to rebuild, gave letters explaining his support for the venture, and provision for timber from the king's forest (Nehemiah 2:6-9). Once there, Nehemiah defied the opposition of Judah's enemies on all sides (Samarians under Sanballat the Horonite, Ammonites, and Arabs) and rebuilt the walls within 52 days, from the Sheep Gate in the North, the Hananeel Tower at the North West corner, the Fish Gate in the West, the Furnaces Tower at the Temple Mount's South West corner, the Dung Gate in the South, the East Gate and the gate beneath the Golden Gate in the East.

No archaeological evidence supports the existence of a harem or the seclusion of women from contact with men in Achaemenid Persia. They appeared freely in public at all levels of society. However, the ancient Greeks portrayed Persians as engaging in the segregation of the sexes, and earlier scholars suggested Nehemiah's appearance in the presence of the Achaemenid queen consort (שֵׁגָל) alongside the king in Nehemiah 2:6 (הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ וְהַשֵּׁגַ֣ל ׀ יוֹשֶׁ֣בֶת אֶצְל֗וֹ "the king with the consort seated at his side") indicated that he was a eunuch, as he must have been inside the harem. In the Septuagint, the earliest translation of the Hebrew Bible, he is described as such: eunochos (Koine Greek: εὐνοῦχος, romanized: eunuch), rather than oinochoos "cup-bearer" (οινοχόος). If so, the attempt by his enemy Shemaiah to trick him into entering the Temple is aimed at making him break religious commandments rather than simply hide from assassins.

Nehemiah took measures to repopulate the city and purify the community, enforcing the cancellation of debt, assisting Ezra in publicizing the law of Moses, and enforcing the divorce of Jewish men from their non-Jewish wives.

After twelve years as governor, during which he ruled with justice and righteousness, he returned to the king in Susa. After spending some time in Susa, he returned to Jerusalem, only to find that the people had reverted to their evil ways. Non-Jews were permitted to conduct business inside Jerusalem on Shabbat and to keep rooms in the Temple. Greatly angered, he purified the Temple and the Kohenim and Levites and enforced the observance of the law of Moses.