Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 12/04/2007 00:02, Peter Kirk wrote:

> ... This was never 
> God's intention, as far as I can tell from the Hebrew Bible, although we 
> do see the roots of that exclusiveness in Nehemiah, where the excluded 
> Gentiles were those seeking to destabilise the newly rebuilt city and so 
> were rejected for political reasons.
>
>   
I note Nehemiah 13:1-3 which quotes the Torah, Deuteronomy 23:4-6, as 
the reason for the exclusion of all Gentiles from the Temple. But in 
fact this verse applies only to Ammonites and Moabites, and only to the 
tenth generation from Moses' time when they committed the sin which led 
to this curse. So it seems to me that the Judeans of Nehemiah's time 
were more zealous than they should have been and went beyond the Torah. 
Of course it served Nehemiah's political purpose to find this excuse to 
eject Tobiah the Ammonite and his associates who were undermining his 
rule. And there was clearly a problem at this time with mixed marriages 
leading to apostasy. So perhaps Nehemiah did what he had to do in his 
time. But this was never intended to be a rule for all Gentiles at all 
times.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
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Website: http://www.qaya.org/