RLST 145: Introduction to the Old Testament
Lecture 22 - The Restoration: 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. This lecture continues the discussion of the psalms, and the genres and forms in which they appear, such as psalms of praise and thanksgiving, divine kingship, lament and petition, blessing and cursing, or wisdom. Another poetic book of the Bible is the Song of Songs, an erotic work the sexually explicit content of which has been piously reinterpreted over the centuries. The second half of the lecture turns to the period of the Restoration when the Judean exiles returned to what was now the province of Yehud under Cyrus, the Persian ruler. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles refer to some of the events of this time as well as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah are said to renew the Mosaic covenant with the Torah at its center, and to institute a number of social and religious reforms (including a universal ban on intermarriage that will ultimately fail) in order to consolidate the struggling community. (from oyc.yale.edu)
| Lecture 22 - The Restoration: 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah |
| Time | Lecture Chapters |
| [00:00:00] | 1. Additional Forms and Genres in the Book of Psalms |
| [00:10:30] | 2. Song of Songs |
| [00:14:38] | 3. The Restoration and the Books of Chronicles I and II, Ezra and Nehemiah |
| [00:30:10] | 4. Ezra's Dissolution of Foreign Marriages and Renewal of the Covenant |
| [00:42:29] | 5. The Calamities as Cautionary Tales in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah |
| References |
| Lecture 22 - The Restoration: 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah Instructor: Professor Christine Hayes. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov]. |
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