The Levitical Authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah

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The study of Ezra-Nehemiah has been revolutionized in recent years by a growing rejection of the long-established belief that it was composed as part of the Chronicler's work. That shift in scholarly paradigms has re-opened many questions of origin and purpose, and this thesis attempts to establish an answer to the most important of these: the question of authorship. Here, Kyungjin Min argues that Ezra-Nehemiah most likely originated in a Levitical group that received Persian backing during the late-fifth century BCE and that valued the ideologies of decentralization of power, unity and cooperation among social groups, and dissatisfaction with the religious status quo.

Reviews

"The author construes the book of Ezra and Nehemiah as a unified work, independent from the Chronicler and written in Levitical circles around 400 B.C.E. Mainly discussing and analyzing existent views and theories on Ezra-Nehemiah develop this thesis... Kyung-jin Ming has presented an interesting thesis."- Bob Becking, Society of Biblical Literature, 2005
"In the context of the globalization of biblical hermeneutics, it is good to see the careful work of a colleague, who-while being trained in Europe-is making a contribution to biblical studies in Asia. I hope that more of this academic interaction will be forthcoming in the future and that mainstream publishers will provide opportunities for scholars from Asia, Africa, South, or Central America to present their original contributions to the larger academic community." -Hebrew Studies 47 (2006)
From gatekeepers to prophets (Jeremiah), the Levites ascended the ladder of priestly success careful study of biblical text reveals the story of the rise (and fall) of the Levitical priesthood in relation to the Zadokite and Aaronite priestly classes. In his analytical study, Min argues that Levitical priests wrote the book of Ezra-Nehemiah, which is evidence of their elevation of status in the early Second Temple period. He further argues that Ezra- Nehemiah is a unity of text and that it is discontinuous with Chronicles. Min develops his arguments in two ways: he documents the history of scholarship and he analyzes word usage. In the first level of argument, Min gives a detailed account of scholarship on issues of authorship, priesthood, and unity of text. He builds his own arguments by examining, Aquinas-like, each assertion of scholarship and refutes or agrees, giving his reasoning and conclusions on each point. On the second level of argument, Min examines word usage statistics to argue for unity of text and Levitical authorship in Ezra-Nehemiah. Min's work is an excellent piece of scholarship on the Levitical priesthood... This work will be of interest to biblical scholars and students of the early Second Temple period. Susan E. Bond Claremont Graduate University v * Religious Studies Review *

Author Bio

Kyungjin Min received a Ph.D. from the University of Durham and is Lecturer in Theology at Busan Presbyterian University, Gimhae, South Korea.