Diminishing the Effectiveness of the Wall in Nehemiah: A Narratological Analysis of the Nehemiah Memoir and Third-person Narration

Abstract

The book of Nehemiah has often been understood to have an immense focus on the wall. A closer look at the narrative, however, shows that the focus on the wall is exclusively found in the Nehemiah Memoir and not in the third-person narrations. From a narratological perspective, the shifting of narrators is the author’s intention to relay a message. Hence, adopting the narratological approach, this article will argue that the author(s) effectively presents the wall as an inadequate solution to Israel’s problems.