All these had taken foreign wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
All Commentaries on Ezra 10:44 Go To Ezra 10
Bede
AD 735
Now Ezra himself was clearly a type of the Lord Savior too, inasmuch as he restored sacred Scripture, recalled the people out from captivity to Jerusalem, enriched the Lord’s house with greater gifts, appointed leaders and guardians beyond the river Euphrates who were familiar with God’s law and purified the descendants of the exiles from their foreign wives. For the Lord restored sacred Scripture, because when the scribes and the Pharisees either had defiled it by their traditions or taught that it should be understood according to the letter alone, he showed it was full of spiritual meaning, according as to whether it was written by Moses or by the prophets; and by sending the Holy Spirit on them he also caused the New Testament to be written down by apostles and apostolic men. He led the people out from captivity in Babylonia and brought them now liberated to Jerusalem and the promised land, not only because by suffering on that one occasion on the cross he redeemed the world through his own blood, and descending into hell he rescued all true Israelites [i.e., the elect] he found there and, leading them to the walls of the heavenly city, granted them the joys of inheritance they had once been promised; but also because daily gathering the faithful from the turmoil of this world, he calls them together to the fellowship of the holy church and the eternal kingdom. He increased the riches of the temple with gold and silver and precious vessels that either the people of Israel or rulers of the Persians had sent there through him, because by bringing those who believe in him from both peoples [i.e., Jews and Gentiles] into the church, he does not cease to adorn and glorify her always through the splendor of their faith and good works. He appointed leaders and guardians for all the people beyond the river who knew and taught God’s law because in the holy church, which not only has been cleansed in the river of sacred baptism but also by the sincerity of its faith has transcended the Babylonian river (that is, the turmoil of this changing world), he placed apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He purified the descendants of the exiles from their foreign wives because he forbade that those who by professing the faith had renounced the world should be enslaved any more to the enticements of the world. He also cast out the children of these mothers from the assembly of the returned exiles in case by chance when they grew up they might follow the faithlessness of their mothers rather than the faith of their fathers, because he taught that even those of our works that seem good to people are spurious if they are mixed with carnal pleasure or originate from the contagion of human favor, and so are not worthy of the fellowship of those who, completely renouncing the world[i] with their whole mind, move on to the things of heaven and who rejoice not to be weakened by temporal enticements but on the contrary to be made stronger through adversities and to be prepared by them for their heavenly rest.
