Book of Ezra
Encyclopedia
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. 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
.
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. 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.
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)
Chapters 7-10
, the Persian ruler, conquered Babylon.
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:
was first divided into two separate works by the early Christian scholar Origen
, in the 3rd century, and the separation became entrenched in Christian Bibles in the Western European tradition when this was followed by Jerome
in his Latin translation
. It was not until the Middle Ages that the two became separated in Jewish Bibles.
(or Esdras α - there is also an Esdras β) - is a Greek-language text which covers much of the same material as Esdras, Nehemiah and Chronicles, but with significant differences in content and order. Some scholars, including Joseph Blenkinsopp in his 1988 commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah, holding that it is a late 2nd/early 1st century BC revision of Esdras and Esdras β, while others such as L.L. Grabbe believe it to be independent of the Hebrew-language Ezra-Nehemiah.
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. 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). The pattern is completed with a final coda in which Nehemiah restores the cult of Yahweh. 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.
, or alternatively, that the author of Chronicles was also the author of Ezra. More recently it has been increasingly recognised that Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles all have extremely complex histories stretching over many stages of editing, and most scholars now are cautious of assuming a unified composition with a single theology and point of view. 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.
Translations
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. Originally combined with the Book of Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
in a single book of Ezra-Nehemiah
Ezra-Nehemiah
Ezra-Nehemiah is the combined biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah - the two were originally one, but were divided by Christians in the 3rd century CE, and in Jewish circles in the 15th century...
, the two became separated in the early centuries of the Christian era. Its subject is the Return to Zion
The Return to Zion
The Return to Zion is a term that refers to the event written in the biblical books of Ezra-Nehemiah in which the Jews returned to the Land of Israel from the Babylonian exile following the decree by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great, the conqueror of the Babylonian empire in 538 BC, also known...
following the close of the Babylonian captivity
Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon—conventionally 587–538 BCE....
, 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
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
(538 BCE) and the completion and dedication of the new Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
in the sixth year of Darius
Darius I of Persia
Darius I , also known as Darius the Great, was the third king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire...
(515 BCE), the second telling of the subsequent mission of Ezra
Ezra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe 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...
to Jerusalem and his struggle to purify the Jews from the sin of marriage with non-Jews. Together with the Book of Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
, it represents the final chapter in the historical narrative of the Hebrew bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
.
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
Nehemiah
Nehemiah ]]," Standard Hebrew Nəḥemya, Tiberian Hebrew Nəḥemyāh) is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work rebuilding Jerusalem and purifying the Jewish community. He was the son of Hachaliah, Nehemiah ]]," Standard Hebrew Nəḥemya, Tiberian Hebrew Nəḥemyāh) is the...
, is not part of the Book of Ezra.) The theological program of the book explains the many problems its chronological structure presents. 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.
Summary
For the bible text, see Bible Gateway (opens at NIV version) or see King James VersionThe 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
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
, 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 ZerubbabelZerubbabelZerubbabel was a governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia . The date is generally thought to...
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 HaggaiHaggaiHaggai was a Hebrew prophet during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the author of the Book of Haggai. His name means "my holiday"...
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
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 IICyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
, the Persian ruler, conquered Babylon.
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
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
; "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:
| King of Persia | Main events | Correlation with Ezra-Nehemiah |
|---|---|---|
| Cyrus II Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much... (550-530) |
Fall of Babylon, 539 | Directive to the Jews to rebuild the Temple - first return of the exiles to Jerusalem (taken as 538, as Babylon fell in October of 539) |
| Cambyses Cambyses Cambyses can refer to two ancient rulers and two plays:-*Cambyses I, King of Anshan 600 to 559 BCE*Cambyses II, King of Persia 530 to 522 BCE*Cambyses, a tragedy by Thomas Preston... (530-522) |
Conquest of Egypt, 525 | |
| Darius I (522-486) | Secures the throne in 520/519 after fighting off various rivals | Temple rebuilt, sixth year of Darius (515) |
| Xerxes Xerxes I of Persia Xerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:... (486-465) |
Failed attempt to conquer Greece, beginning of struggle with Greeks for control of the eastern Mediterranean | |
| Artaxerxes I (465-424) | Successful suppression of Greek-supported revolt in Egypt, 460-456; revolt of Megabyzus, governor of the territory which included Judah, 449 | Currently most widely accepted period for arrival of Ezra in the "seventh year of Artaxerxes" - second return of the exiles to Jerusalem (458 if the king is Artaxerxes I, or 428 if the year is read as his thirty-seventh instead of his seventh); mission of Nehemiah, 445-433 (return before the death of Artaxerxes) |
| Darius II Darius II Darius II , was king of the Persian Empire from 423 BC to 405 BC.Artaxerxes I, who died on December 25, 424 BC, was followed by his son Xerxes II. After a month and a half Xerxes II was murdered by his brother Secydianus or Sogdianus... (423-404) |
||
| Artaxerxes II (404-358) | Egypt regains independence, 401 | Alternative period for arrival of Ezra and second return of exiles to Jerusalem (398 if the king is Artaxerxes II) |
| Artaxerxes III (358-338) | Egypt reconquered | |
| Darius III (336-330) | Persia conquered by Alexander the Great |
Ezra-Nehemiah
The oldest texts of the Bible treat Ezra-plus-Nehemiah as a single book. (Nehemiah 3:32, footnote) 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 Aramaic, and the majority in Hebrew, Ezra himself being skilled in both languages. Ezra-NehemiahEzra-Nehemiah
Ezra-Nehemiah is the combined biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah - the two were originally one, but were divided by Christians in the 3rd century CE, and in Jewish circles in the 15th century...
was first divided into two separate works by the early Christian scholar Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
, in the 3rd century, and the separation became entrenched in Christian Bibles in the Western European tradition when this was followed by Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
in his Latin translation
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
. It was not until the Middle Ages that the two became separated in Jewish Bibles.
First Esdras
1 Esdras1 Esdras
1 Esdras , Greek Ezra, is an ancient Greek version of the biblical Book of Ezra in use among ancient Jewry, the early church, and many modern Christians with varying degrees of canonicity and a high historical usefulness....
(or Esdras α - there is also an Esdras β) - is a Greek-language text which covers much of the same material as Esdras, Nehemiah and Chronicles, but with significant differences in content and order. Some scholars, including Joseph Blenkinsopp in his 1988 commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah, holding that it is a late 2nd/early 1st century BC revision of Esdras and Esdras β, while others such as L.L. Grabbe believe it to be independent of the Hebrew-language Ezra-Nehemiah.
Structure
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."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. 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). The pattern is completed with a final coda in which Nehemiah restores the cult of Yahweh. 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.
Composition
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 ChroniclesBooks of Chronicles
The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...
, or alternatively, that the author of Chronicles was also the author of Ezra. More recently it has been increasingly recognised that Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles all have extremely complex histories stretching over many stages of editing, and most scholars now are cautious of assuming a unified composition with a single theology and point of view. 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.
Date
There is general recognition that the editing of Ezra continued well into the Hellenistic era. 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.Persian documents
Seven purported Persian decrees of kings or letters to and from high officials are quoted in Ezra. Their authenticity has been contentious, some scholars accepting at least some of them as genuine, others rejecting them, either in whole or in part. 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.External links
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)
- http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VK2fEzruIn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+the+Jews+and+Judaism+in+the+Second+Temple+Period,+Volume+1++Lester+L.+Grabbe&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=A%20history%20of%20the%20Jews%20and%20Judaism%20in%20the%20Second%20Temple%20Period%2C%20Volume%201%20%20Lester%20L.%20Grabbe&f=falseGrabbe, 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 RashiRashiShlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
's commentary] at Chabad.orgChabad.orgChabad.org is the flagship website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. It serves not just its own members but Jews worldwide in general. It was one of the first Jewish internet sites and the first and largest virtual congregation.-History:... - Bible Gateway (opens at NIV version)
- Ezra - King James Version