Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Argumentum
Nehemiah originally, as is evident from I Ezra 23, before Ezra (who returned under Artaxerxes), had returned under Cyrus with Zerubbabel and the people from Babylon to Jerusalem, in order to rebuild it together with the temple. Hence Ezra found him there, as is evident from I Ezra, chapter VIII, 9; but when the Samaritans under Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, impeded the construction of the city and temple for nine years, Nehemiah returned with Zerubbabel to Babylon, and became the cupbearer of Artaxerxes; whence in the twentieth year of his reign, having obtained from him permission to restore the city, he returned a second time to Jerusalem, and restored it, and surrounded it with walls on every side, over a period of twelve years, namely from the 20th year of Artaxerxes to the 32nd year of the same, as is evident from chapter XIII, 6; which done, he returned a third time to Babylon, and from there returned a third time to Jerusalem, where shortly after he died. Hear Josephus, book XI, chapter v at the end: 'After these and many other honorable and praiseworthy works,' he says, 'Nehemiah, now an old man, died. A man born for virtue and justice, and most beneficent toward his countrymen, having left an everlasting monument of himself in the walls of Jerusalem.'
Zerubbabel, however, remained in Babylon; and there he died, as the Hebrews relate in the Seder Olam, and in book III of Ezra, chapters III, IV, and VI.
One may ask: Who and what sort of man was Nehemiah? Severus Sulpitius, St. Isidore, and Sixtus Senensis, in their commentary on Nehemiah, consider him to have been from the tribe of Judah. But that he was a priest, and therefore descended from the tribe of Levi, is clear from II Maccabees II, 21. Moreover, he was a courtier of Artaxerxes, indeed his cupbearer; whence he obtained from him the permission to rebuild the city, and he accomplished this with great labor and great fortitude, continually contending with the enemies who impeded the construction. This Artaxerxes was Longimanus, the son of Xerxes, under whom the High Priest of the Jews was Eliashib, the son of Joakim, the grandson of Jeshua, Nehemiah's familiar companion and helper.
Moreover, Nehemiah, besides this book, wrote another about the events that befell the Jews after their return to Jerusalem, which is mentioned in II Maccabees II, 13: 'The same things were also reported in the writings and memoirs of Nehemiah; and how, in founding a library, he gathered from the regions the books both of the Prophets and of David, and the Letters of the Kings, and concerning the offerings.'
One may ask secondly whether this Nehemiah is the same as the Nehemiah whom Ezra mentions in chapter II and following. Some consider him to be different: they prove this, first, because that Ezra was one of the leaders of those returning from captivity under Cyrus; therefore he was at least twenty years old at that time. But from the first year of Cyrus to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, to which our Nehemiah here attained, as will be evident from chapter XIII, 6, ninety-six years elapsed. Therefore Nehemiah was at that time at least one hundred and sixteen years old, and consequently unfit for the office of cupbearer to Artaxerxes, much more unfit for that laborious embassy and journey from Jerusalem to Persia to Artaxerxes, of which chapter XIII, 6 speaks; second, because this Nehemiah everywhere speaks of himself in the first person, but about the Nehemiah who was Ezra's companion, Scripture speaks in the third person, as is evident from chapter VII, 65, and chapter VIII, 9; third, because this Nehemiah saw Jaddua, who was High Priest and met Alexander the Great, as is implied in chapter XII, 11; therefore Nehemiah would have had to be two hundred years old (for that many years elapsed from Ezra and Cyrus to Alexander) and more.
But most consider that there was one and the same Nehemiah, not two, and this seems truer. For Nehemiah, both in this book and in the book of Ezra, is called Athersatha. Hear book I, chapter VIII, 9: 'And Nehemiah said (he is the Athersatha) and Ezra the priest'; second, because what is said about the Athersatha, that is Nehemiah, in I Ezra chapter II, 63, namely that he commanded that priests of uncertain and doubtful status should not eat of the sanctified victims until it was established by the oracle of the high priest that they were true priests — the very same thing is said about the same person in Nehemiah chapter VII, 65; third, because this Nehemiah in chapter VII, 7, is said to have come to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, or Jesus the son of Josedec, under Cyrus; fourth, because in chapter VIII, 9, Nehemiah with Ezra interpreted the law to the people. Therefore there was one Nehemiah, the same companion of Ezra, though younger than him. So Salianus, Sanchez, and others.
To the first objection I respond that Nehemiah was long-lived, and was therefore kept strong and vigorous by God into a great old age, for the benefit of the people, so that he might rebuild Jerusalem and plead the cause of the citizens before Artaxerxes. Likewise Ezra was 132 years old and more, as I showed in the introduction to Ezra.
To the second I respond: Nehemiah is the author of this book, and therefore he sometimes speaks of himself in the first person, but not always; for he speaks of himself in the third person in VII, 7 and 70, and VII, 9.
Commentary on Nehemiah, or Book II of Ezra, Chapter I.
To the third objection I will respond in chapter XII, verse 11.
Allegorically, Nehemiah was a type of Christ both in name and in reality: for Nehemiah in Hebrew means the same as 'consoler of God'; because he was sent by God for the comfort of the people, that he might strengthen them in rebuilding Jerusalem. So Christ was sent by the Father into the flesh, that He might console those who mourn in Zion, as Isaiah chapter LXII says, and that He might restore the old and declining Church, and transform it into a new and holy one, and indeed that He might make the souls of individual Christians into cities, nay temples of God: so Bede, the Gloss, others, and St. Jerome, in his epistle to Paulinus, whose words I cited in the introduction to Ezra.
Again, Nehemiah was distinguished both in family and lineage, and likewise in holiness of life and great endowments of soul, and therefore was very dear to Artaxerxes, indeed his cupbearer; so also Christ, descended from David, Solomon, and the other kings of Judah, was the Holy of Holies and the Wisest of the wise, indeed 'full of grace and truth,' John I, Luke II.
Third, Nehemiah with immense labor and zeal rebuilt Jerusalem, and fortified the commonwealth of the faithful with the best laws, and for it he continually fought against the Samaritans, nor did he flee any danger for its sake, nor refuse any toil, and indeed he went three times to Babylon or Persia, and returned three times to Jerusalem, although already aged and old. So Christ, inflamed with divine zeal, built the Church both militant and triumphant, and adorned and established it with the most holy precepts and counsels of the Gospel; and for it and for the salvation of souls He did not shrink from any labor or danger, but spent His whole life and all His strength for its salvation, and at last underwent the infamous and cruel death of the Cross. Let prelates, princes, pastors, priests, religious, and zealous faithful imitate the same.
In like manner, Ezra went twice to Babylon for the good of Israel, and returned twice to Jerusalem. Charlemagne four times, says Einhard in his Life, came to Rome, to aid the Pope and the Roman Church against the Lombards and other enemies. Whence he merited to be created Emperor in the year of the Lord 800, and to be crowned by Pope Leo III in Rome in the Basilica of St. Peter on the very feast of the Nativity of Christ, says Anastasius the Librarian, and from him Baronius, in the year of Christ 800. St. Louis twice undertook an expedition to the Holy Land: and although in the first he had been captured and badly treated, yet returning a second time, when a plague invaded the army he laid down his life in the same land, and dying gave his sons and posterity this last admonition: that for the glory of God and the salvation and protection of the Church they should fear no danger, refuse no labor; but, if need be, pour out their blood and life in so glorious a work, and that he had gone before them as an example, and died happy and eager in so pious a cause. Read his Life.