been rebuilt. After an initial jubilation, the returnees soon became apathetic and construction of the new temple came to a grinding halt. Law and order was breaking down and eighty years after they had arrived, the return home of the exiles seemed like a horrible mistake. Ezra and the Torah Seeing anarchy breaking out in Judea, Persian King Artaxerxes sent Ezra to restore order. Ezra, a scribe and priest, brought with him a completed book of rules for the people in Jerusalem to live by - the Torah (or first five book of the Old Testament). Most of the returnees knew little of this book or its laws as it was a work in progress when they had first left Babylon. After gathering all the returnees in a public square, Ezra read aloud the entire contents of this new book and required the listeners to sign a covenant indicating that they would abide by its rules. This was considered a democratic revolution as there was no longer any secret knowledge confined to a priesthood class. Everyone could now know what the priests knew. The people and city of Jerusalem were revitalized. The temple was completed and became the central focus of Jewish life. A yearly pilgrimage to the temple to offer a sacrifice became of paramount importance. (Later, when a monetary system replaced the barter system, a farmer from the countryside would sell his best animal, then travel to Jerusalem to purchase another for sacrifice at the temple). One of the more controversial laws that Ezra had to impose on his subjects was the concept of marrying within the religion so as to keep it pure and uncorrupted. He had the unpleasant task of ordering many unorthodox marriages to be dissolved. Naturally, this led to discord among his subjects and the contents of the Torah pertaining to this topic were fiercely debated in public. The Book of Job Soon after their return to Jerusalem, a new story appeared that questioned Jews’ traditional views. The Book of Job told of a righteous man beset by catastrophe and affliction. Job's plight challenged the Hebrews’ notion of a God who consistently rewarded the righteous and punished the wicked – a central idea of biblical history. Job moans, “I helped the good, but got only wrong. I hoped for light, and got only darkness.” His suffering poses one of life's great questions and a