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The Book of Ezra is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Originally combined with the Book of Nehemiah in a single book of Ezra-Nehemiah, the two became separated in the early centuries of the Christian era.^[1] Its subject is the Return to Zion following the close of the Babylonian captivity, and it is divided into two parts, the first telling the story of the first return of exiles in the first year of Cyrus the Great (538 BCE) and the completion and dedication of the new Temple in Jerusalem in the sixth year of Darius (515 BCE), the second telling of the subsequent mission of Ezra to Jerusalem and his struggle to purify the Jews from the sin of marriage with non-Jews. Together with the Book of Nehemiah, it represents the final chapter in the historical narrative of the Hebrew bible.^[2]

Ezra is written to fit a schematic pattern in which the God of Israel inspires a king of Persia to commission a leader from the Jewish community to carry out a mission; three successive leaders carry out three such missions, the first rebuilding the Temple, the second purifying the Jewish community, and the third sealing of the holy city itself behind a wall. (This last mission, that of Nehemiah, is not part of the Book of Ezra.) The theological program of the book explains the many problems its chronological structure presents.^[3] It probably appeared in its earliest version around 400 BCE, and continued to be revised and edited for several centuries after before being accepted as scriptural around the time of Christ.^[4]

Summary[link]

For the bible text, see Bible Gateway (opens at NIV version) or see King James Version

The Book of Ezra consists of ten chapters: chapters 1-6, covering the period from the Decree of Cyrus to the dedication of the Second Temple, are told in the third person; chapters 7-10, dealing with the mission of Ezra, are told largely in the first person. The book contains several documents presented as historical inclusions.

Chapters 1-6 (documents included in the text in italics)

• 1. Decree of Cyrus, first version: Cyrus, inspired by God, returns the Temple vessels to Sheshbazzar, "prince of Judah", and directs the Israelites to return to Jerusalem with him and rebuild the Temple.
• 2. 42,360 exiles, with men servants, women servants and "singing men and women", return from Babylon to Jerusalem and Judah under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua the High Priest.
• 3. Jeshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel build the altar and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. In the second year the foundations of the Temple are laid and the dedication takes place with great rejoicing.
• 4. Letter of the Samaritans to Artaxerxes, and reply of Artaxerxes: The "enemies of Judah and Benjamin" offer to help with the rebuilding, but are rebuffed; they then work to frustrate the builders "down to the reign of Darius." The officials of Samaria write to king Artaxerxes warning him that Jerusalem is being rebuilt, and the king orders the work to stop. "Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia."
• 5. Tattenai's letter to Darius: Through the exhortations of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Zerubbabel and Joshua recommence the building of the Temple. Tattenai, satrap over both Judah and Samaria, writes to Darius warning him that Jerusalem is being rebuilt and advising that the archives be searched to discover the decree of Cyrus.
• 6. Decree of Cyrus, second version, and decree of Darius: Darius finds the decree, directs Tattenai not to disturb the Jews in their work, and exempts them from tribute and supplies everything necessary for the offerings. The Temple is finished in the month of Adar in the sixth year of Darius, and the Israelites assemble to celebrate its completion.

Chapters 7-10

• 7. Letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra (Artaxerxes' rescript): King Artaxerxes is moved by God to commission Ezra "to inquire about Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the Law of your God" and to "appoint magistrates and judges to administer justice to all the people of Trans-Euphrates—all who know the laws of your God." Artaxerxes gives Ezra much gold and directs all Persian officials to aid him.
• 8. Ezra gathers a large body of returnees and much gold and silver and precious vessels for the Temple and camps by a canal outside Babylon. There he discovers he has no Levites, and so sends messengers to gather some. The exiles then return to Jerusalem, where they distribute the gold and silver and offer sacrifices to God.
• 9. Ezra is informed that some of the Jews already in Jerusalem have married non-Jewish women. Ezra is appalled at this proof of sin, and prays to God: "O God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence."
• 10. Despite the opposition of some of their number, the Israelites assemble and send away their foreign wives and children.

Historical background[link]

In the early 6th century Judah rebelled against Babylon and was destroyed. As a result the royal court, the priests, the prophets and scribes, were taken into captivity in Babylon. There a profound intellectual revolution took place, the exiles blaming their fate on disobedience to their God and looking forward to a future when he would allow a purified people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. The same period saw the rapid rise of Persia, previously an unimportant kingdom in present-day southern Iran, to a position of great power, and in 539 BCE Cyrus II, the Persian ruler, conquered Babylon.^[5]

It is difficult to describe the parties and politics of Judah in this period because of the lack of historical source, but there seem to have been three important groups involved: the returnees from the exile who claimed the reconstruction with the support of Cyrus I; "the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin"; and a third group, "people of the land," who seem to be local opposition against the returnees building the Temple in Jerusalem.

The following table is a guide to major events in the region during the period covered by the Book of Ezra:

Texts[link]

Ezra-Nehemiah[link]

The oldest texts of the Bible treat Ezra-plus-Nehemiah as a single book. It was divided into two separate works by the time of the 3rd century Christian scholar Origen, and the separation became entrenched in Christian Bibles in the Western European tradition when this was followed by Jerome in his Latin translation.^[1] It was not until the Middle Ages that the two became separated in Jewish Bibles.^[9]

First Esdras[link]

1 Esdras (or Esdras α - there is also an Esdras β) - is an alternate Greek-language text of Ezra. This text has one additional section (and related changes) in the middle of Ezra 4. The addition arranges the text around a chiastic structure and relieves a textual problem surrounding the identity of King Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6. Although the content is substantially the same, the verses are numbered differently from Ezra.

Structure, composition and date[link]

Structure[link]

The contents of Ezra-Nehemiah are structured in theological, rather than chronological, order: "The Temple must come first, then the purifying of the community, then the building of the outer walls of the city, and so finally all could reach a grand climax in the reading of the law."^[10] The "plot" follows a repeating pattern in which the god of Israel "stirs up" the king of Persia to commission a Jewish leader (Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah) to undertake a mission; the leader completes his mission in the face of opposition; and success is marked by a great assembly.^[11] The tasks of the three leaders are progressive: first the Temple is restored (Zerubabbel), then the community of Israel (Ezra), and finally the walls which will separate the purified community and Temple from the outside world (Nehemiah).^[12] The pattern is completed with a final coda in which Nehemiah restores the cult of Yahweh.^[13] This concern with a schematic pattern-making, rather than with history in the modern sense of a factual account of events in the order in which they occurred, explains the origin of the many problems which surround both Ezra and Nehemiah as historical sources.^[14]

Composition[link]

In the 20th century views on the composition of Ezra revolved around the competing views that either it was written by Ezra himself, who may also have been the author of the Books of Chronicles, or alternatively, that the author of Chronicles was also the author of Ezra.^[15] More recently it has been increasingly recognised that Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles all have extremely complex histories stretching over many stages of editing,^[16] and most scholars now are cautious of assuming a unified composition with a single theology and point of view.^[17] As an indication of the many layers of editing which Ezra has undergone, one recent study finds that Ezra 1-6 and Ezra 9-10 were originally separate documents, that they were spliced together at a later stage by the authors of Ezra 7-6, and that all have undergone extensive later editing.^[18]

Date[link]

There is general recognition that the editing of Ezra continued well into the Hellenistic era^[4] The question of when the core of the book originated depends in the first place on the dates assigned to Ezra himself (assuming him to have been a historic person). The only clue to go by is the note in Ezra 7:7-8 that he arrived in Jerusalem in "the seventh year of Artaxerxes." Unfortunately there were three kings of this name and the text doesn't specify which one. The traditional date, and currently the most popular candidate, is 458 BCE, based on the assumption that the king is Artaxerxes I. A date of 398 BCE, based on the possibility that the king might be Artaxerxes II, was once popular but has been seriously challenged in recent scholarship. A date of 428 BCE, based on the idea that the "seventh" year of Artaxerxes is a mistake for "thirty-seventh" year, has become less popular, as it is based entirely on conjecture.^[19]

Persian documents[link]

Seven purported Persian decrees of kings or letters to and from high officials are quoted in Ezra. Their authenticity has been contentious; while some scholars accept them in their current form, most accept only part of them as genuine, while still others reject them entirely. L.L. Grabbe surveys six tests against which the documents can be measured (comparative known Persian material, linguistic details, contents, presence of Jewish theology, the Persian attitude to local religions, and Persian letter-writing formulas) and concludes that all the documents are late post-Persian works and probable forgeries, but that some features suggest a genuine Persian correspondence behind some of them.^[20]

See also[link]

• Greek Ezra
• Ezra-Nehemiah

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Fensham, F. Charles, "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Eerdmans, 1982) p.1
2. ^ Albright, William (1963). The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra: An Historical Survey. Harpercollins College Div. ISBN 0-06-130102-7. http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Period-Abraham-Ezra-Historical/dp/0061301027. 
3. ^ Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992) pp.1-3
4. ^ ^{a b} Blenkinsopp, Joseph, "Judaism, the first phase" (Eerdmans, 2009) p.87
5. ^ Fensham, F. Charles, "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Eerdmans, 1982) p.10
6. ^ Coggins, R.J., "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Cambridge University Press, 1976) p.xi
7. ^ Fensham, F. Charles, "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Eerdmans, 1982) pp.10-16
8. ^ Min, Kyung-Jin, "The Levitical authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah" (T&T Clark, 2004) pp.31-32
9. ^ Dillard, Raymond B.; Longman, Tremper (January 1994). An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-310-43250-0. LCCN 2006005249. OCLC 31046001. http://books.google.com/?id=nydPyx_n1vYC&pg=PA180. Retrieved 2012-02-24. 
10. ^ R.J. Coggins, "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Cambridge University Press, 1976)p.107, quoted in Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992) p.3
11. ^ Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992) pp.2-4
12. ^ Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992) p.3
13. ^ Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992) p.2
14. ^ Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992) pp1-3
15. ^ Fensham, F. Charles, "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Eerdmans, 1982) pp.1-2 ff.
16. ^ Pakkala, Juha, "Ezra the scribe: the development of Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8" (Walter de Gryter, 2004) p.16
17. ^ Grabbe, L.L., "A history of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 1" (T&T Clark, 2004) p.71
18. ^ Pakkala, Juha, "Ezra the scribe: the development of Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8" (Walter de Gryter, 2004), pp.132, 135, and p.302, Appendix C: reconstructed text of Ezra 7-10
19. ^ Min, Kyung-Jin, "The Levitical authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah" (T&T Clark, 2004) p.32
20. ^ Grabbe, L.L., "A history of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 1" (T&T Clark, 2004) p.78

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Book of Ezra

Commentaries etc.

• Blenkinsopp, Joseph, "Ezra-Nehemiah: A Commentary" (Eerdmans, 1988)
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph, "Judaism, the first phase" (Eerdmans, 2009)
• Coggins, R.J., "The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Cambridge University Press, 1976)
• Fensham, F. Charles, "The books of Ezra and Nehemiah" (Eerdmans, 1982)
• Grabbe, L.L., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (Routledge, 1998)
• Grabbe, L.L., "A history of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 1" (T&T Clark, 2004)
• Pakkala, Juha, "Ezra the scribe: the development of Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8" (Walter de Gryter, 2004)
• Throntveit, Mark A., "Ezra-Nehemiah" (John Knox Press, 1992)

Translations

• Ezra (Judaica Press) translation [with Rashi's commentary] at Chabad.org
• Bible Gateway (opens at NIV version)
• Ezra - King James Version

Ezra from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Site traditionally described as the tomb of Ezra at Al Uzayr near Basra.

Ezra ( /ˈɛzrə/; Hebrew: עזרא, Ezra;^[1] fl. 480–440 BC), also called Ezra the Scribe (Hebrew: עזרא הסופר, Ezra ha-Sofer) and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem (Ezra 7-10 and Neh 8). According to First Esdras, a non-canonical Greek translation of the Book of Ezra, he was also a high priest.

His name may be an abbreviation of Azaryahu, "God-helps". In the Greek Septuagint the name is rendered Esdras (Greek: Ἔσδρας), from which Latin: Esdras.

The Book of Ezra describes how he led a group of Judean exiles living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem (Ezra 8.2-14) where he enforced observance of the Torah and cleansed the community of mixed marriages.^[2][3]

Ezra, known as "Ezra the scribe" in Chazalic literature,^[4] is a highly respected figure in Judaism.^[5]

In the Hebrew Bible[link]

The canonical Book of Ezra and Book of Nehemiah are the oldest sources for the activity of Ezra,^[3] whereas many of the other books ascribed to Ezra (First Esdras, 3-6 Ezra) are later literary works dependent on the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Book of Ezra-Nehemiah

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one scroll. (Nehemiah 3:32, footnote)^[6] Later the Jews divided this scroll and called it First and Second Ezra. Modern Hebrew Bibles call the two books Ezra and Nehemiah, as do other modern Bible translations. A few parts of the Book of Ezra (4:8 to 6:18 and 7:12:12-26) were written in Aramaic, and the majority in Hebrew, Ezra himself being skilled in both languages.^[7][8] Ezra, a descendant of Seraiah the high priest, was living in Babylon when in the seventh year (~ 457 BCE) of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, the king sent him to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God to any who did not know them. Ezra led a large body of exiles back to Jerusalem, where he discovered that Jewish men had been marrying non-Jewish women. He tore his garments in despair and confessed the sins of Israel before God, then braved the opposition of some of his own countrymen to purify the community by enforcing the dissolution of the sinful marriages. Some years later Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah, a Jewish noble in his personal service, to Jerusalem as governor with the task of rebuilding the city walls. Once this task was completed Nehemiah had Ezra read the Law of Moses (the Torah) to the assembled Jews, and the people and priests entered into a covenant to keep the law and separate themselves from all other peoples.

In later Second Temple period literature[link]

1 Esdras[link]

1 Esdras, probably from the late 2nd/early 1st centuries BCE, preserves a Greek text of Ezra and a part of Nehemiah distinctly different from that of Ezra-Nehemiah - in particular it eliminates Nehemiah from the story and gives some of his deeds to Ezra, as well as telling events in a different order. Scholars are divided on whether it is based on Ezra-Nehemiah, or reflects an earlier literary stage before the combination of Ezra and Nehemiah accounts.

Josephus[link]

The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, deals with Ezra in his Antiquities of the Jews. He preferred 1 Esdras over the canonical Ezra–Nehemiah and placed Ezra as a contemporary of Xerxes son of Darius, rather than of Artaxerxes.^[9]

The apocalyptic Ezra traditions[link]

The apocalyptic fourth book of Ezra (also called the second book of Esdras) was written c.AD 100, probably in Hebrew-Aramaic. It was one of the most important sources for Jewish theology at the end of the 1st century. In this book, Ezra has a seven part prophetic revelation, converses with an angel or God three times and has four visions. Ezra, thirty years into the Babylonian Exile (4 Ezra 3:1 / 2 Esdras 1:1), recounts the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple.^[2] This would place these revelations in the year 557 BC, a full century before the date given in the canonical Ezra. The central theological themes are "the question of theodicy, God's justness in the face of the triumph of the heathens over the pious, the course of world history in terms of the teaching of the four kingdoms,^[10] the function of the law, the eschatological judgment, the appearance on Earth of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Messianic Period, at the end of which the Messiah will die,^[11] the end of this world and the coming of the next, and the Last Judgment."^[2] Ezra restores the law that was destroyed with the burning of the Temple in Jerusalem. He dictates 24 books for the public (i.e. the Hebrew Bible) and another 70 for the wise alone (70 unnamed revelatory works).^[12] At the end, he is taken up to heaven like Enoch and Elijah.^[2] Ezra is seen as a new Moses in this book.^[2]

There is also another work, thought to be influenced by this one, known as the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra.

Ezra in rabbinic literature[link]

Woodcut for Die Bibel in Bildern, 1860, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.

Traditionally Judaism credits Ezra with establishing the Great Assembly of scholars and prophets, the forerunner of the Sanhedrin, as the authority on matters of religious law. The Great Assembly is credited with establishing numerous features of contemporary traditional Judaism in something like their present form, including Torah reading, the Amidah, and establishing the feast of Purim.^[13]

In Rabbinic traditions, Ezra is metaphorically referred to as the "flowers that appear on the earth" signifying the springtime in the national history of Judaism. A disciple of Baruch ben Neriah, he favored study of the Law over the reconstruction of the Temple and thus because of his studies, he did not join the first party returning to Jerusalem in the reign of Cyrus. According to another opinion, he did not join the first party so as not to compete, even involuntarily, with Jeshua ben Jozadak for the office of chief priest.^[13] According to Bamidbar Rabbah, Ezra was doubtful of the correctness of some words in the Torah and said, "Should Elijah... approve the text, the points [ed: dots that he scribed above the letters] will be disregarded; should he disapprove, the doubtful words will be removed from the text".^[13][14]

According to tradition, Ezra was the writer of the Books of Chronicles.^[13]

In the Syrian village of Tedef, a shrine said to be the burial place of Ezra has been venerated by Jews for centuries. Another tradition locates his tomb near Basra, Iraq.

Ezra in Christian traditions[link]

Early Christian writers occasionally cited Ezra as author of the apocalyptic books attributed to him. Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata referred to Ezra as an example of prophetic inspiration, quoting a section from 2 Esdras.^[15]

Ezra in Islam[link]

In Islam he is known as Uzair (Arabic: عزير). He was mentioned in the Qur'an. Although he was not mentioned as one of the Prophets of Islam, he is considered as one of them by some Muslim scholars, based on Islamic traditions.^[16][17] His tomb at Al-ʻUzair on the banks of the Tigris near Basra, Iraq, is a pilgrimage site for the local Marsh Arabs.^[18][19]

Academic view[link]

Historicity and genealogy[link]

Mary Joan Winn Leith in The Oxford History of the Biblical World believes that Ezra was an historical figure whose life was enhanced in the scripture and given a theological buildup.^[20] Gosta W. Ahlstrom argues the inconsistencies of the biblical tradition are insufficient to say that Ezra, with his central position as the 'father of Judaism' in the Jewish tradition, has been a later literary invention.^[21] Those who argue against the historicity of Ezra argue that the presentation style of Ezra as a leader and lawgiver resembles that of Moses. There are also similarities between Ezra the priest-scribe (but not high priest) and Nehemiah the secular governor on the one hand and Joshua and Zerubbabel on the other hand. The early 2nd century BCE Jewish author Ben Sira praises Nehemiah, but makes no mention of Ezra.^[20]

Timeline[link]

Scholars are divided over the chronological sequence of the activities of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra came to Jerusalem "in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the King".^[22] The text does not specify whether the king in the passage refers to Artaxerxes I (465-424 BCE) or to Artaxerxes II (404-359 BCE).^[23][24] Most scholars hold that Ezra lived during the rule of Artaxerxes I, though some have difficulties with this assumption:^[3] Nehemiah and Ezra "seem to have no knowledge of each other; their missions do not overlap;^[25] and no reflection of Ezra's activity appears in Jerusalem of Nehemiah."^[26] These difficulties have led many scholars to assume that Ezra arrived in the seventh year of the rule of Artaxerxes II, i.e. some 50 years after Nehemiah. This assumption would imply that the biblical account is not chronological. The last group of scholars regard "the seventh year" as a scribal error and hold that the two men were contemporaries.^[3][27]

See also[link]

Esdras, about the classification of the books adscribed to Ezra: Book of Ezra (and Book of Nehemiah for the non-rabbinical tradition, combined with the former into Ezra-Nehemiah), 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bossman, D. (1979). "Ezra's Maniage Reform: Israel Redefined". Biblical Theology Bulletin 9: 32–38. DOI:10.1177/014610797900900105. 
• Bright, John (1981). A history of Israel (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-21381-2. 
• Fensham, F. Charles (1983). The books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-2362-9. 
• LaSor, William Sanford; Hubbard, David Allan; Bush, Frederick William (1982). Old Testament survey. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-3556-2. 
• Williamson, H.G.M. (1987). Ezra and Nehemiah. Sheffield: JSOT for the Society for Old Testament Study. ISBN 1-85075-045-9. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ezra

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Ezra the Scribe
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Esdras