Rewriting Nehemiah 9

Nehemiah has rewritten scriptures. Luke has rewritten Nehemiah. There are four central issues that ought to be discussed: land, Sabbath, covenant and Torah. Instead, I plan to discuss the issue that is in the background.

In Nehemiah, intermarriage is the sin which is the context for the prayer yet there is no mention of this particular sin anywhere in the entire prayer which was delivered shortly after Sukkoth. Intermarriage separates one from the covenant community and makes one a permanent exile, a person unable to participate in the ingathering of the exiles.

In verses 36 and 37, Nehemiah presents the belief in the continuing exilic status of the people of God and that the exilic status did not end with the return of the exiles. Although Stephen does not mention the exile, he does proclaim that the deliverance, yet to come in the time of Nehemiah, has arrived. He introduces the deliverance with these words previously quoted: “God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up.”

The Apostles had to appoint seven elders to care for widows in a mixed community due to intermarriage although this reason admittedly is unstated. Stephen, in particular, developed a successful ministry among a segment of the community that had been excluded from participation in the Temple worship. [cf. the lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate; the Eunuch returning to Ethiopia; Cornelius the centurion with the non-Jewish widows being the first step]. The ministry of Stephen threatened the boundary markers of Judaism because it recognized outcasts due to intermarriage as members of the community of God. It was the first outreach program initiated by the followers of Jesus.

In Nehemiah, according to Throntveit, the prayer serves to motivate the people into making the proper response so lacking in the historical survey. Stephen, in using Nehemiah as his outline, also sought to obtain the proper response. It was not meant to be.

However Stephen makes a remarkable request. Although there had been no call for repentance and forgiveness, this final appeal to the “Lord” is for the forgiveness of those who rejected Jesus for eating with sinners and are now killing Stephen for waiting on tables for sinners.

Copyrighted 2006

Religion

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Gospel of Luke