ABSTRACT
An analysis of Ezra-Nehemiah for historical purposes is quite different from that required for literary and theological purposes. The historical analysis must take into account the results of the literary and theological study, but the questions asked are different. A literary or theological investigation can be internal to the literature itself. It is concerned with what the literature says or implies. A historical study must go beyond this and ask about the relationship of the literature to external reality—to actual historical events. It must also make use of sources other than the literature, wherever they are extant. The aims of historical study and how they differ from those of literary and theological study have been discussed in chapter 1.
