Biblical Essays
EZRA
Ezra (help), called Esdras in the Apocrypha, the famous scribe and priest. He was a learned and pious priest residing at Babylon in the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus1 The origin of his influence with the king does not appear, but in the seventh year of his reign he obtained leave to go to Jerusalem, and to take with him a company of Israelites (457 b.c.) The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem took just four months; and the company brought with them a large free-will offering of gold and silver, and silver vessels. It appears that Ezra’s great design was to effect a religious reformation among the Palestine Jews. His first step was to enforce separation upon all who had married foreign wives (Ezra 10). This was effected in little more than six months after his arrival at Jerusalem. With the detailed account of this important transaction Ezra’s autobiography ends abruptly, and we hear nothing more of him till, thirteen years afterwards, in the twentieth of Artaxerxes, we find him again at Jerusalem with Nehemiah. It seems probable that after effecting the above reformations he returned to the king of Persia. The functions he executed under Nehemiah’s government were purely of a priestly and ecclesiastical character. The date of his death is uncertain. There was a Jewish tradition that he was buried in Persia. The principal works ascribed to him by the Jews are:
1. Institution of the great synagogue
2. Settling the canon of Scripture, restoring, correcting and editing the whole sacred volume
3. Introduction of the Chaldee character instead of the old Hebrew or Samaritan
4. Authorship of the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and, some add, Esther; and, many of the Jews say, also of the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve prophets
5. Establishment of synagogues
Book of Ezra
The book of Ezra is a continuation of the books of Chronicles. The period covered by the book is eighty years, from the first of Cyrus, 536 b.c., to the beginning of the eighth of Artaxerxes, 456 b.c. It consists of the contemporary historical journals kept from time to time, containing (chapters 1-12) an account of the return of the captives under Zerubbabel, and the rebuilding of the temple in the reign of Cyrus and Cambyses. Most of the book is written in Hebrew, but from chapters 4:8 to 6:19 it is written in Chaldee. The last four chapters, beginning with chapter 7, continue the history after a gap of fifty-eight years – from the sixth of Darius to the seventh of Artaxerxes – narrating his visit to Jerusalem, and giving an account of the reforms there accomplished, referred to under Ezra. Much of the book was written was probably written by Daniel; and other hands are evident.
