Back on Track: 5:1–2  The narrator apparently did not know of any political factors that would have brought about the shift from work stoppage to renewed activity in rebuilding the temple. All he had to illustrate this next stage was the edited text of messages from two postexilic prophets, Haggai and Zechariah (Hag. 1–2; Zech. 1–8), and copies of the Tattenai correspondence. Verses 1–2 are based on the biblical evidence. Once again prophecy plays a decisive role—not in the fulfillment of an older oracle, as in 1:1, but now by means of immediate access to the divine will through contemporary prophets. The narrator integrated their ministry into his earlier story by associating it with the letter of Tattenai, sent in the same period and also concerned with building the temple. The prophet’s…