Posts Tagged ‘Ezra 6:1-8 & 12-19’

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Ezra 6:1-8, 12-19, Luke 8:19-21

Today’s Hebrew Scripture lesson from the scribe Ezra describes the decrees of good King Darius and the search for documentary evidence concerning the First Temple and its records.  The Third Temple, built by Herod and in its final construction stages in Jesus’ time, is said to have contained tens of thousands of genealogical records.  After the Babylonian exile, there was an almost obsessive preoccupation with proving the purity of one’s family bloodlines.  Many of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries searched these records in their effort to demonstrate their good standing in the post-Exilic community.  Galilean families, living in a mixed Gentile- Jewish area and often marginalized by the Judean elite centered in Jerusalem seemed to have been particularly intent in proving their connection to this community and as we know, Jesus was a Galilean. Read More