Confess to the God of your ancestors what you have done, and do what he wants. Separate yourselves from the people of this land and from your foreign wives.Apparently, Ezra was referring to the priestly tribe alone, and his initiative was directed to dismiss the Chief Priest Jozadak, whose clan was extensively married to local women.
The priesthood was also purged from families who were unable to prove, after the Babylonian captivity had ended, that they were descended from the priesthood before the captivity began. They were required to wait until priests in possession of Urim and Thummim were discovered; unfortunately, the Urim and Thummim had by then been lost.
4 comments:
This sounds like some kind of political dispute in which Ezra was able to use the issues of heredity and intermarriage as a club against his political opponents. Such issues are almost always raised as a smokescreen to hide the true agenda, which is probably now lost to history.
K
By enforcing tribal inbreeding rules, Ezra saved the Jewish people.
I take it this is not Ezra Pound?
Anon.
"By enforcing tribal inbreeding rules, Ezra saved the Jewish people."
Not a convincing argument. As Judaism of the time was patrilineal, what he did was to decrease the pool of people who identified with the Jewish nation arbitrarily. Ezra did achieve relatively greater religious adherence among the Jews, but considering that he was most likely the "editor" of much of the Hebrew Bible, that's not a surprise.
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