The So-Called "Post-Exilic" Return: Already-But-Not-Yet In Ezra-Nehemiah

Scholarship from traditional historical-criticism to contemporary evangelicalism and the Stone-Campbell Movement regarding Ezra, his time, and the book in which he is portrayed as a key leader show a bias against him. Further reflections on the theology of Ezra-Nehemiah suggest its importance as a step along the way to the New Testament's already-but-not-yet theology of the kingdom. This theology shows the importance of Ezra-Nehemiah in the Bible's canonical macro-narrative.