Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, December 16, 2012 Read – Nehemiah 8 & 9 Once again Ezra shows up in the story. He is the same scribe talked about earlier. He comes with a book to teach the Law (Torah) to the people. As mentioned earlier many Biblical scholars have wondered if this book of the law was the compilation of materials that were developed in the exile into what we have come to know as the Old Testament, especially the books of the Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. One of the things that leads to this consideration is chapter 9 of Nehemiah which is really a recitation of the major parts of the Old Testament story. This chapter is a summary of the story we find in the first five books of the Bible. We’re going to leave the rest of the book of Nehemiah at this time and move on to the book of Daniel.