B. List of returnees (2:1-70)

The inclination of modern Christians is to skip over this chapter and similar ones, because it seems only a meaningless list of ancient Jewish names. This list is repeated almost verbatim in Ne 7, and there are other similar lists in Ezr 8, 10; Ne 3, 11, 12. All together these lists constitute almost one third of Ezra-Nehemiah.

Such lists exist for at least two purposes: First, these lists establish continuity between the Jews who returned from Babylonian exile and their ancestors who, almost a millennium before, escaped from Egyptian bondage and became God’s covenant partner at Mount Sinai. The catastrophic physical, economic, and religious dislocation produced by the destruction of 586 b.c. burned into the Jewish psyche the need to maintain solidarity with their heritage.

Second, there is a religious reason for these lists. A primary concern of the postexilic community was the purity of the community. To establish membership in the covenant people, accurate family lists and records of priests, Levites, and other cultic personnel were required. The legitimacy of this concern is illustrated by the existence of several cases among both laity and priesthood of those who could not prove their lineage from Israel (2:59-63). This may seem bigoted to us, but for the Jews their national identity and cultic separation were of vital importance.