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Nehemiah · Chapter VII of XIII · Worksheet

The Book of Names

Gates barred, watches set, every family counted

Prepared for the Irvine chapter of the Google Christian Fellowship

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The Chapter

The wall is built, the doors set; now the city must be kept. Nehemiah appoints gatekeepers, singers, and Levites, and gives charge of Jerusalem to his brother Hanani and to Hananiah, “a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.” The gates are to open late and be barred early, with watches posted opposite each house. The city is wide and large, but the people within are few. Then God puts it into Nehemiah’s heart to enroll the people by genealogy, and he finds the book of those who came up first with Zerubbabel. The chapter becomes a register of names: families, towns, priests, Levites, and servants, with totals counted and gifts given freely to the work.

“Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.”
Nehemiah 7:5
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Voices From the Traditions

6
Ethiopian Orthodox
“Remember Thou through Thy mercy those whose names we do not know. Write their names in the book of life in free Jerusalem.”
Anaphora of St. Athanasius · Ethiopian Divine Liturgy, Anaphora of St. Athanasius §104 (trans. Daoud)
Eastern Orthodox
“For the Church is not wall and roof but faith and life.”
St. John Chrysostom · Homily II on Eutropius (NPNF 1.9)
Roman Catholic
“At the door of the monastery, place a sensible old man who knows how to take a message and deliver a reply.”
St. Benedict of Nursia · The Rule of Saint Benedict, ch. 66 (RB 1980)
Contemplative
“In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.”
Thomas Merton · Letter to Jim Forest, 21 Feb 1966 (“Letter to a Young Activist,” in The Hidden Ground of Love)
Reformed
“He that has approved himself faithful in less shall be entrusted with more.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Neh. 7:2 (Hanani and Hananiah given charge of the gates)
American Evangelical
“Every human person is a heart-soul-mind-strength complex designed for love.”
Andy Crouch · The Life We’re Looking For (2022), p. 33
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For Discussion

3
  1. Hananiah was chosen because he was ‘more faithful and God-fearing than many.’ When you entrust responsibility, what weight do character and reverence carry alongside competence — and how do you discern them?
  2. Half the chapter is a list of names. What might it mean that God’s rebuilding is recorded as persons and families counted, not achievements — and who goes uncounted around us?
  3. In the Time of AI · Magnifica Humanitas ¶10Leo XIV rejects the pretense that even “the mystery of the person” can be translated “into data and performance” (¶10). Nehemiah’s census names families one by one. When does counting people honor them — and when diminish them?