Ezra
Ezra was a Jewish scribe and priest. In the Book of Ezra, he is called "Ezra the Scribe" (sofer) and "Ezra the Priest" (kohen) and was a Jewish lawyer and teacher who was very wealthy. Ezra was an individual with his own ideas on many issues; he strongly disagreed with interracial marriage. In Greco-Latin, Ezra is called Esdras (Greek).
Jewish tradition has long attributed authorship of this historical book to the scribe and scholar Ezra, who led the second group of Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:11–26). Ezra 8 includes the first-person reference, implying the author's participation in the events. He plays a significant role in the second half of the book and the book of Nehemiah, its sequel. In the Hebrew Bible, the two books were considered one work. However, some internal evidence suggests they were written separately and joined together in the Hebrew canon (and separated again in English translations).
Context
Ezra
Date of birth: 504 BC
Place of birth: Babylon
Parents: Seraiah
1. In the Hebrew Bible
2. "Who wrote the book of Ezra?"
2.1 The apocalyptic Ezra traditions
2.2 "What is the big idea?"
2.3 "Where are we?
3. Why is Ezra so important?
4. Gaining knowledge of Ezra
5. Academic view: The question asked most often is, "who wrote the book of Ezra?"
6. Why is Ezra so important?
7. Second Temple period literature
8. The apocalyptic Ezra traditions
9. Ten Standing Laws and Orders
10. Timeline
11. Historicity
12. How Do I Apply This?
In the Hebrew Bible
The events in Ezra are set in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. The returning exiles could populate only a tiny portion of their former homeland. Ezra came at the head of a caravan of about 1,800 men, not including their women and children. They made the four-month journey from Babylon without the benefit of military escort, thereby demonstrating their trust and reliance upon God.
Soon after he arrived in Jerusalem, Ezra reorganized the Temple services. In response to his vigorous program to persuade the people to observe the Mosaic Law, they entered into a covenant to keep the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year and other precepts of the Torah. However, the problem that perplexed Ezra most was that many of the Judean settlers had taken heathen wives from the neighboring peoples. Mixed marriages had become so prevalent as to threaten the very survival of the Jewish community. Ezra induced his people to divorce their pagan wives and to separate from the community those who refused to do so.
Ezra's extreme action, but he felt the critical situation warranted it. It aroused the ire of the Samaritans and other peoples, who resented the affront to their women. In retaliation, the Samaritans denounced Ezra to the Persian King for attempting to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which he was not authorized to do. The King stopped the work, and the rebuilt part was demolished.
Ezra convened an assembly of the people in Jerusalem (about 445) to bring about a religious revival. Standing on a wooden pulpit, he read aloud a portion of the Law of Moses, which the Levites expounded. At that time, too, Ezra reinstituted the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. He probably died shortly after this episode. The traditional tomb of Ezra is located in Basra, Iraq, though Josephus stated that he was buried in Jerusalem.
The Talmud ascribes a far more critical role to Ezra than recorded in the scriptural book bearing his name. The Talmud asserts that Ezra would have been worthy of having the Torah given to Israel had Moses not preceded him. It also attributes to him many ancient laws, perhaps to give them prestige and authority. It states that he introduced the use of the square Hebrew script. Ezra also is said to have determined the precise text of the Pentateuch. Moreover, tradition regards him as the founder of the Kenesset Hagdolah, the Great Assembly, which exercised supreme religious authority until the end of the 4th century B.C.
Other prominent Jewish religious customs are associated with Ezra. He is generally credited with removing the Torah from the priesthood's control and democratizing it by teaching it to the people. Scholars believe Ezra replaced the altars and shrines in the villages with synagogues. Finally, Ezra is regarded as the savior of Judaism's national and religious life at a most critical period.
The son of Seraiah, Ezra was a descendant of the ancient priestly house of Zadok. In 458 B.C., the seventh year of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra obtained the King's permission to visit Judea, bearing the latter's gifts for the Holy Temple. However, the primary purpose of his mission was to inquire into the deteriorating religious conditions of the Jewish community in Judea.
The question asked most often is, "who wrote the book of Ezra?"
Ezra was a direct descendant of Aaron, the chief priest (7:1–5); thus, he was a priest and scribe in his own right. His zeal for God and God's Law spurred Ezra to lead a group of Jews back to Israel during King Artaxerxes's reign over the Persian Empire (which had since replaced the Babylonian Empire that initially exiled the people of Judah).
Did I hear someone ask another question, "What is the big idea?"
Ezra's narrative reveals two main issues faced by the returning exiles: (1) the struggle to restore the Temple (Ezra 1:1–6:22) and (2) the need for spiritual reformation (7:1–10:44). Both were necessary for the people to renew their fellowship with the Lord.
A broader theological purpose is also revealed: God keeps His promises. God had ordained that His chosen people would return to their land after a seventy-year exile. Ezra's account proclaims that God kept His word, and it shows that when God's people remained faithful to Him, He would continue to bless them. Hence, the book emphasizes the Temple and proper worship, similar to Chronicles (also written during these days).
The questions keep a-come'in, "Where are we?"
The book of Ezra records two separate periods directly following the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Ezra 1–6 covers the first return of Jews from captivity, led by Zerubbabel—twenty-three years beginning with the edict of Cyrus of Persia and ending at the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem (538–515 BC). Ezra 7–10 picks up the story more than sixty years later when Ezra led the second group of exiles to Israel (458 BC). The book could not have been completed earlier than about 450 BC (the date of the events recorded in 10:17–44).
Finally, I want to know, "Why is Ezra so important?"
The book of Ezra provides a much-needed link in the historical record of the Israelite people. When their King was dethroned and captured and the people exiled to Babylon, Judah as an independent nation ceased to exist. The book of Ezra provides an account of the Jews' regathering, their struggle to survive and rebuild what had been destroyed. Through his narrative, Ezra declared that they were still God's people and that God had not forgotten them.
In the book of Ezra, we witness the rebuilding of the new Temple the unification of the returning tribes as they shared everyday struggles and were challenged to work together. Later, after the original remnant had stopped work on the city walls and spiritual apathy ruled, Ezra arrived with another two thousand people and sparked a spiritual revival. By the end of the book, Israel had renewed its covenant with God and had begun acting in obedience to Him.
Ezra also contains one of the great intercessory prayers of the Bible (Ezra 9:5–15; see Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 9 for others). His leadership proved crucial to the Jews' spiritual advancement.
Gaining Knowledge of Ezra
Ezra, Hebrew ?ezra?, (flourished 4th century BC, Babylon, and Jerusalem), religious leader of the Jews who returned from exile in Babylon, a reformer who reconstituted the Jewish community based on the Torah (Law, or the regulations of the first five books of the Old Testament). His work helped make Judaism a religion in which Law was central, enabling the Jews to survive as a community when dispersed worldwide. Since his efforts did much to give Jewish religion the form to characterize it for centuries, Ezra has been called the father of Judaism; i.e., its specific form after the Babylonian Exile. So important was he in the eyes of his people that later tradition regarded him as no less than a second Moses.
Knowledge of Ezra is derived from the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, supplemented by the Apocryphal (not included in the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament) book of I Esdras (Latin Vulgate form of the name Ezra), which preserves the Greek text of Ezra and a part of Nehemiah. It is said that Ezra came to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes (which Artaxerxes is not stated) of the Persian dynasty then ruling the area. Since he was introduced before Nehemiah, who was governor of the province of Judah from 445 to 433 BC and again, after an interval, for the second term of unknown length, it is sometimes supposed that this was the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 BC). However, serious difficulties are attached to such a view. Many scholars now believe that the biblical account is not chronological and that Ezra arrived in the seventh year of Artaxerxes II (397 BC) after Nehemiah had passed from the scene. Still, others, holding that the two men were contemporaries, regard the seventh year as a scribal error and believe that perhaps Ezra arrived during Nehemiah's second term as governor. Nevertheless, the matter must be left open.
When Ezra arrived from Babylon with the people he brought with him, the situation in Judah was discouraging. Religious laxity was prevalent; the Law was widely disregarded, public and private morality were low. Moreover, intermarriage with foreigners posed the threat that the community would mingle with the pagan environment and lose its identity.
Ezra set out in the spring at the head of a sizable caravan and arrived four months later. Ezra was a priest and "a scribe skilled in the law." He represented the stricter Babylonian Jews upset by reports of laxity in Judah and desired to see matters corrected. Ezra had official status as a commissioner of the Persian government. His title, "scribe of the law of the God of heaven," is best understood as "royal secretary for Jewish religious affairs," or the like. The Persians were tolerant of native cults but insisted that these be regulated under responsible authority to avert internal strife and prevent religion from becoming a mask for rebellion. The delegated authority over the Jews of the satrapy (administrative area) "beyond the river" (Avar-nahara), or west of the Euphrates River, was entrusted to Ezra; for a Jew to disobey the Law he brought was to disobey "the law of the king."
The order in which Ezra took the various measures attributed to him is uncertain. He probably presented the Law to the people during the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn, most likely in the year of his arrival. He also took action against mixed marriages and successfully persuaded the people to divorce their foreign wives voluntarily. His efforts reached their climax when the people engaged in solemn covenant before God to enter into no more mixed marriages, to refrain from work on the Sabbath, to levy on themselves an annual tax for the support of the Temple, regularly to present their tithes and offerings, and otherwise to comply with the demands of the Law.
Nothing further is known of Ezra after his reforms. In his Antiquities, the 1st-century Hellenistic Jewish historian Josephus states that he died buried in Jerusalem. According to another tradition, he returned to Babylonia, where his supposed grave is a holy site.
The book of Ezra–Nehemiah was always written as one scroll. In late medieval Christian bibles, the single book was divided into First and Second Ezra; this division became Jewish practice in the first printed Hebrew bibles. 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 7:12–26) were written in Aramaic, and the majority in Hebrew, Ezra himself being skilled in both languages. Ezra was living in Babylon when in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, King of Persia (c. 457 BCE), 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 fellow citizens to purify the community by enforcing the dissolution of the sinful marriages. Some years later, Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah (a Jewish noble in his service) to Jerusalem as governor to rebuild the city walls. Once this task was completed, Nehemiah had Ezra read the Law of Moses (the Torah) to the assembled Israelites. The people and priests entered into a covenant to keep the Law and separate themselves from others.
Contrariwise, Josephus does not appear to recognize Ezra-Nehemiah as a biblical book, does not quote from it, and relies entirely on other traditions in his account of the deeds of Nehemiah.
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 – mainly, it eliminates Nehemiah from the story. It gives some of his deeds to Ezra and tells 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.
According to the Hebrew Bible, he was a descendant of Sraya, the last High Priest to serve in the First Temple, and a close relative of Joshua, the first High Priest of the Second Temple. He returned from Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem. According to 1 Esdras, a Greek translation of the Book of Ezra still in use in Eastern Orthodoxy, he was also a High Priest. Rabbinic tradition holds that he was an ordinary member of the priesthood.
The canonical Book of Ezra and Book of Nehemiah are the oldest sources for the activity of Ezra. In contrast, 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.
Seven-Part Prophetic Revelation
The apocalyptic fourth book of Ezra (also sometimes called the 'second book of Esdras' or the 'third book of Esdras') was written c. (about) CE 100, probably in Hebrew-Aramaic, but now survives in Latin, Slavonic and Ethiopic. In this book, Ezra has a seven-part prophetic revelation, converses with an angel of God three times, and has four visions.
Thirty years into the Babylonian Exile (4 Ezra 3:1 / 2 Esdras 1:1), Ezra relates the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple. 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, 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, the end of this world and the coming of the next, and the Last Judgment."
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 70 for the wise alone (70 unnamed revelatory works). In the end, he is taken up to heaven like Enoch and Elijah. Ezra is seen as a new Moses in this book.
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 the celebration of the feast of Purim.
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 the study of the Law over the reconstruction of the Temple. 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 to not compete, even involuntarily, with Jeshua ben Jozadak for the office of chief priest.
According to Jewish tradition, Ezra was the writer of the Books of Chronicles, and is the same prophet also known as Malachi. There is a slight controversy within rabbinic sources as to whether or not Ezra had served as Kohen Gadol.
According to the Babylonian Talmud, Ezra the scribe is said to have enacted ten standing laws and orders, which are as follows:
1) That the public come together to read from the scroll of the Law on Sabbath days during the time of the afternoon oblation (Minchah), because of those traveling merchants who loiter in the closed shops in the street corners, and who may have missed the biblical lections that were read during the weekdays;
2) that the courts be opened throughout the Jewish townships on Mondays and Thursdays;
3) that women do not wait beyond Thursday to launder their clothes because of the honor due to the Sabbath day;
4) that men would accustom themselves to eat [cooked] garlic on the eve of the Sabbath (believed to enhance love between a man and his wife);
5) that women would rise early on Friday mornings to bake bread so that a piece of bread would be available for the poor;
6) that Jewish women in every place be girded with a wide belt (waistband), whether from the front or behind, out of modesty;
7) that Jewish women, during their menses (menstruation), wash and comb their hair three days prior to their purification in a ritual bath;
8) that the traveling merchants make regular rounds into the Jewish townships because of the honor due to the daughters of Israel;
9) that Jewish women or girls, as a precautionary measure, be accustomed to conversing with one another while one of their party goes out to relieve herself in the outhouse;
10) that men who may have suffered a seminal emission (especially after accompanying with their wives) be required to immerse themselves in a ritual bath before being permitted to read from the scroll of the Law.
In the Syrian village of Tedef, a synagogue said to be where Ezra stopped over has been venerated by Jews for centuries. Another tradition locates his tomb.
Timeline
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." The text does not specify whether the King in the passage refers to Artaxerxes I (465–424 BCE) or Artaxerxes II (404–359 BCE). Most scholars hold that Ezra lived during the rule of Artaxerxes I, though some have difficulties with this assumption: Nehemiah and Ezra "seem not to know each other; their missions do not overlap" however, in Nehemiah 12, both are leading processions on the wall as part of the wall dedication ceremony. So, they were contemporaries working together in Jerusalem when the wall and the city of Jerusalem were rebuilt in contrast to the previously stated viewpoint." 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.
Historicity
Ezra was a historical figure whose life was enhanced and given a theological buildup. 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. 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 the high priest), 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.
In his book Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Friedman argues that Ezra is the one who revised the Torah and, in fact, effectively produced the first Torah. It has been argued that even if one does not accept the documentary hypothesis, Ezra was instrumental in the start of the process of bringing the Torah together.[37]
Early Christian writers occasionally cited Ezra as the author of the apocalyptic books. Clement of Alexandria, in his Stromata, referred to Ezra as an example of prophetic inspiration, quoting a section from 2 Esdras. Early Christian writers refer to the 'Book of Ezra.' It is always the text of 1 Esdras that is being cited. No early Christian writer cites the Book of Ezra as a record of the deeds of Ezra. Death and burial
Several traditions have developed over his place of burial. One tradition says he is buried in al-Uzayr near Basra (Iraq), while another tradition alleges that he is buried in Tadif near Aleppo, in northern Syria. The Site traditionally described as the tomb of Ezra is at Al-Uzayr near Basra, Iraq
How Do I Apply This?
God moved the hearts of secular rulers (Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes) to allow, even encourage and help, the Jewish people to return home. He used these unlikely allies to fulfill His promises of restoration for His chosen people. Have you encountered unlikely sources of blessing? Have you wondered how God can work all things together for the good of those who are called by His name (Romans 8:28)? Take time today to acknowledge God's sovereignty and mercy in your life. Recommit to Him your trust, your love, and your obedience.
