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The books of Ezra and Nehemiah differ in their definition of the repatriates from Babylon, the boundaries of the in-group, the appellations of God, the celebration of the Sukkot festival, the status of the priests, the prestige bestowed on Ezra, and the attitude toward the foreign Yahwistic singers (Ezrahites) who took part in musical worship at the Jerusalem temple. The intersection of all these differences reveals the contrasting ideological backgrounds of these two books. In Ezra, the returnees from Babylon and their religious elite (priests, Levites, and prophets) constitute the nucleus preserved by YHWH from destruction from which Israel as a whole is expected to regenerate. Both this view of the repatriates as the sole legitimate remnant and its ideological consequences are challenged in Nehemiah. These differences are perceptible not only when the first-person narrative sections in Ezra and Nehemiah are compared (the so-called Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs) but also in the third-person narration segments. These positions are consistent throughout Ezra and Nehemiah, leading to the conclusion that the two books were composed and/or edited by two distinct authors who expressed contrasting views on the theological importance of the Babylonian exile.
A lengthy tradition, promoted by the Septuagint, the Masoretes, the Talmud (b. B. Bat. 15a), and many medieval commentators, pairs the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.1 The opposing view, however, has also long been defended. Origen (185-254 CE) considered Ezra and Nehemiah two separate entities; the editors of the Vulgate concurred. Some ancient Jewish exegetes also expressed doubts about the common authorship of Ezra and Nehemiah, as reflected in the separation of the two books in the earliest printed editions of the Masoretic Bible.2 This timeworn question has not been fully resolved. Today, most scholars assume that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in their final form, should be treated as a single literary entity.3 Some, however, still subscribe to the opposite premise.4
The question is not easy to resolve. For example, the repetition of the list of returnees in Ezra 2 and in Neh 7:6-72 is both treated as confirmation of the literary unity of these two books and employed by those who advocate for independent authorship on the grounds that a single author would not have inserted the same list twice.5...