Biblical Hebrew Forum

[RGmyrken AT aol.com]

Dear Liz,

    I think it rather doubtful that the so-called Nehemiah Memoir (i.e. Neh. 
1:1-7:72a; 11:1-2; 12:31-43; 13:4-31) constituted in its entirety a source 
document as commonly presumed.  My own analysis suggests that the oldest 
source document in Ezra-Nehemiah is Neh. 1-6; 7:1b-4 (the Nehemiah Building 
Account), which concerned itself almost exclusively with Nehemiah's 
rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls.  (You might be right that Neh. 1 is not of a 
piece with the rest of Neh. 1-6, i.e. that the Building Account has its own 
textual evolution; and that the Persian period was believed to be of very 
short duration.)  The Nehemiah Building Account does not appear to display 
awareness of any other portions of Ezra-Nehemiah, and does not display 
awareness of any sort of a return from Babylon.  (Neh. 1:2-3 and the rest of 
the Building Account rather pictures a desolate Jerusalem occupied by those 
who escaped captivity under Nebuchadnezzar IMO.)  Further, the themes of Neh. 
11-13 appear to be based on the Ezra Memoir (i.e. Ezra 7-10, Neh. 8-9), and 
the portions of Neh. 11-13 usually attributed to the Nehemiah Memoir have 
closer linguistic affinities to Chronicles, Ezra, and Neh. 8-10 than the 
Building Account does.  The Ezra Memoir includes first person material, and 
it appears likely that the author of the Ezra Memoir also wrote the first 
person portions of Neh. 11-13.  
    I discuss these matters in greater depth in a forthcoming book.

Best regards,
Russell Gmirkin
>From lizfried AT umich.edu  Mon Feb 17 20:08:07 2003
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From: "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
To: <RGmyrken AT aol.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Neh. 1:2
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 20:13:50 -0500
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Dear Russell,
This is extremely interesting.
Would it be possible for me to obtain an advance
copy of your book somehow?
Liz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of
> RGmyrken AT aol.com
> Sent: Mon, February 17, 2003 8:04 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Neh. 1:2
>
>
> Dear Liz,
>
>     I think it rather doubtful that the so-called Nehemiah
> Memoir (i.e. Neh.
> 1:1-7:72a; 11:1-2; 12:31-43; 13:4-31) constituted in its
> entirety a source
> document as commonly presumed.  My own analysis suggests that
> the oldest
> source document in Ezra-Nehemiah is Neh. 1-6; 7:1b-4 (the
> Nehemiah Building
> Account), which concerned itself almost exclusively with Nehemiah's
> rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls.  (You might be right that
> Neh. 1 is not of a
> piece with the rest of Neh. 1-6, i.e. that the Building
> Account has its own
> textual evolution; and that the Persian period was believed
> to be of very
> short duration.)  The Nehemiah Building Account does not
> appear to display
> awareness of any other portions of Ezra-Nehemiah, and does
> not display
> awareness of any sort of a return from Babylon.  (Neh. 1:2-3
> and the rest of
> the Building Account rather pictures a desolate Jerusalem
> occupied by those
> who escaped captivity under Nebuchadnezzar IMO.)  Further,
> the themes of Neh.
> 11-13 appear to be based on the Ezra Memoir (i.e. Ezra 7-10,
> Neh. 8-9), and
> the portions of Neh. 11-13 usually attributed to the Nehemiah
> Memoir have
> closer linguistic affinities to Chronicles, Ezra, and Neh.
> 8-10 than the
> Building Account does.  The Ezra Memoir includes first person
> material, and
> it appears likely that the author of the Ezra Memoir also
> wrote the first
> person portions of Neh. 11-13.
>     I discuss these matters in greater depth in a forthcoming book.
>
> Best regards,
> Russell Gmirkin
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