The Book Of Nehemiah

Who is the Author?

Though there has been much debate over the years regarding both the unity of Ezra and Nehemiah and Ezra and Nehemiah’s relationship to the book of Chronicles, the scholarly consensus today is that Ezra–Nehemiah represents one literary work and that this work is distinct from Chronicles. The book of Ezra–Nehemiah can be divided into two main sections: Ezra 1–6 and Ezra 7–Nehemiah 13. These sections were most likely compiled from ancient source materials by two separate editors at distinct, though similar, times in Israel’s history.1 The first-person accounts given by Ezra and Nehemiah in the book form a large part of the source material used to produce Ezra 7–Nehemiah 13.These personal “memoirs” were likely written by Ezra and Nehemiah themselves as reports to their Persian superiors on how their individual commissions had been fulfilled.2