Page 94 - Biblical Backgrounds

texts, and if there was any Zoroastrian influence on Judaism, it came during the late intertestamental
period, not at this time. 135

Social life

Traditional Hebrew custom empowered parents, specifically fathers, to arrange marriages of their
children. In isolated incidences, brides and grooms pushed their parents to arrange a marriage for them
with a person they desired to marry (Judges 14:1-10).

At the time of the restoration, most young people did not have parents to negotiate and arrange
marriages for them; they took matters into their own hands. We can get a general picture from scripture
that those who settled in the land while the Jews were away showed a dislike or a level of hatred toward
them as they settled back in their land. Many of the returning Jews did not own property and were poor.
These, among other circumstances, led to high levels of intermarriage, a violation of the Torah.

Many Jews married themselves to well-established non-Jewish locals for the sake of a better social or
economic standing. Ezra dealt with this problem of marriage to heathen women when he returned to
Jerusalem in 458 BCE (Ezra 9–10), and Nehemiah faced it some thirteen years later (Nehemiah 10) and
again about fifteen years after that (Nehemiah 13:23–28). 136 It should be noted that the forbidding of
intermarriages had to do with the preservation of the Jewish faith and religion, and not tribalism or
racism.

Either for other reasons or those already discussed, intermarriages mainly involved Jewish men marrying
foreign women (Ezra 10:2, 14, 17; Nehemiah 13:24). This could perhaps add some context to Malachi
2:10–17, where the contemporary prophet condemns divorce.

Jews returning to Judah during the Restoration farmed and ate much as their ancestors had in the days
of the southern kingdom before the Exile (see chapter 10). Terracing the hills of Judea continued to be
important agriculturally. For Jews still living in Babylonia, life continued much the same as in previous
decades there. 137 One notable change is that at this time, beekeeping emerged as a main source of
sugar. An average diet in Persia for both rich and poor consisted of staples of bread, fish, oil, and wine,
with the rich obviously affording more.
Partially free slaves worked large estates attached to the land in the empire at large, but in Persia, free
peasants worked the land. Wheat, barley, grapes, and olives comprised the chief crops, and donkeys,
mules, and horses were bred. 138

As it may be expected, classes of people were also marked by their quality of clothing and how many
articles of clothing they could afford. The poor usually put on a single layer of plain wool or goat hair
tunic, and mostly went barefoot. The wealthier often managed another layer, usually of dyed fabric,
with sandals.

135 Ibid., p. 334.

136 Ibid., p. 342.

137 Ibid., p. 341.
138 Ibid.

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