Similarities Between Ezra And Nehemiah

Ezra is a scribe and a priest, and when he arrived in Judea, he found the Temple rebuilt but the people's spirit lives in ruin. The Israelites had intermarried with the people from surrounding nations and had begun to follow their Gods instead of remaining faithful to the Lord. In his mind, Ezra considered intermarriage to be a sin, he sincerely expressed shame on it. Ezra feared the consequences that being married to a pagan would incline his people (the chosen people of God, the Holy seed) people to adopt pagan belief and practices. Ezra's desire was that the Godly people would come to their senses and repent.
In addition, Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the King. When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem following Ezra, he too found broken lives. Nehemiah …show more content…
Ezra's presentation focused more on religion, law, etc. Whereas, Nehemiah's focus touched on the basis of “political” aspects. They both opposed intermarriage to non-Jews, but shared the desire to repopulate and rebuild the city and the walls of Jerusalem after the great destruction of the ruling of King Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC.
In order to justify the program of Judahite separation from foreign wives and their children. “All those who married foreign women, were sent away with their children presumably to their fathers' houses.” (Ezra 10:3), (10:44) (Collins pg. 280). Traditionally, if a child was Jewish. The children of Jewish women would still be Jewish, even if the fathers were not, whereas the children of foreign women, would not be so.
Today intermarriages are somewhat racially biased, and yet, spiritual differences are concerns of today. Intermarriages of today have become very common, widespread and yet very problematic. Although the New Testament says that believers should not team up with those who are unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14). Many people today discount this problem only to regret it later. We must be careful, not to be blindsided to the importance of marrying someone with whom we are united