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Journey of a Passage

Nehemiah 8:14–18

"Not since Joshua": Booths in Jerusalem

"For since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so." All the library's texts agree. Booths was kept under Solomon and after the return (Ezra 3:4), so the phrase must mean "not in this way."

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Ezra 3:4 (parallel, Masoretic Text)Ezra–Nehemiah
  2. Original Ezra–NehemiahMemoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC or laterTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah
Latin
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Ezra–Nehemiah

      Ezra 3:4 (parallel, Masoretic Text)

      ✓ Contains this passage

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

      They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written

      KJV.

    2. Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)

      Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.

    3. Translated c. 2nd century BC or later

      Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      depuis le temps de Josué, fils de Nau, jusqu'à ce jour-là, le peuple d'Israël n'avait pas fait ainsi

      Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

    4. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      כִּי לֹא־עָשׂוּ מִימֵי יֵשׁוּעַ בִּן־נוּן כֵּן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד הַיּוֹם הַהוּא

      for since the days of Jeshua son of Nun the Israelites had not done so until that day

      Ken, "so, thus": the manner, not the fact.

    5. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so

    What changed, and why

    Compare 2 Kings 23:22 and 2 Chronicles 35:18 on Josiah's Passover ("there was no passover like to that"). Such phrases praise the completeness of an observance. Here: everyone in booths, in Jerusalem, with daily reading of the law (Deuteronomy 31:10–13).

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedBooths is reported earlier in Ezra 3:4 and 1 Kings 8.
    • Conflicts with current evidenceBooths was never kept from Joshua to Nehemiah.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • The Public Reading of the Law and Booths →On the first day of the seventh month all the people, men, women and all who could understand, gather at the square before the Water Gate. Ezra the scribe reads the book of the law of Moses from a wooden platform from morning until midday; Levites help the people understand. The people weep; Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites tell them to celebrate instead. The next day the leaders find the command to dwell in booths and the whole community keeps the feast as it had not been kept since Joshua.