Ezra for Skeptics

There's not much in this little book to interest skeptics (or anyone else as far as I can tell). But here are a few things worth noting.

• Check out the contradictions between the boring lists given in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7.
• The Israelites offend God by "taking" foreign wives and thereby corrupting the "holy seed." 9:2
• When Ezra hears of the intermarriages he tears his clothes, plucks out his hair and beard, and sits down astonished. 9:3
• Ezra tells the men that they must abandon their "strange" wives and children if they want to avoid God's wrath. 10:2-3, 10-12