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ESDRAS, First Book of
Book that is largely a compilation of material from 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
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Author and Date
The author or compiler of 1 Esdras is unknown, and scholars disagree about its origin. Three theories seem to summarize the critical debate. Some think that 1 Esdras might be the original Septuagint (ancient Greek Old Testament) version, and that canonical Ezra and Nehemiah reflect the translation and editing of Theodotion, a second-century AD reviser of the Septuagint. Others speculate that 1 Esdras goes back to a now-lost Hebrew text outside the Masoretic Hebrew Text tradition. Most scholars, however, think that 1 Esdras is probably an edited compilation taken from the Septuagint translation of 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Esdras (or Ezra, the spelling most familiar to American Protestants) was a descendant of Aaron’s priestly line and one of those (like Nehemiah and Zerubbabel) who led parties of exiled Jews back to Judea from Babylon. His ministry of leadership, and preservation and promulgation of the law, probably can be dated to the latter part of Persian king Artaxerxes I Longimanus’s reign (465–424 BC).
It is certain that 1 Esdras was written before AD 90 because first-century Jewish historian Josephus quoted from it. The best date for 1 Esdras is probably around 150–100 BC.
Background
There are four books about Ezra and the history of the postexilic restoration of the Jews in Judea. Two of those books, titled Ezra and Nehemiah in Protestant versions of the Bible, are accepted as canonical by Jews, Roman Catholics, and Protestants alike. The other two books, 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, were not included in the Hebrew canon of the OT by Jews or by Protestants, who followed Hebrew tradition in identifying the books of the OT. The two Esdras books were included in the Latin Vulgate Bible (a translation from the Hebrew by biblical scholar Jerome completed in AD 404), and when the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (1545–1663) defined the apocryphal books that would be recognized by Catholics as part of the OT Scriptures, 1 and 2 Esdras were included. In the Vulgate, 1 Esdras is called 3 Esdras; Ezra and Nehemiah there are named 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, respectively.
Content
First Esdras is a history of the Jews from the reign of King Josiah in Jerusalem (640–609 BC) through the postexilic ministry of Ezra, accentuating the career of Ezra and deletes all mention of Nehemiah. Originally written in idiomatic Greek, 1 Esdras retells the material found in 2 Chronicles 35:1–36:23, Ezra 1:1–10:44 (excluding 4:6 and placing 4:7-24 before 2:1), and Nehemiah 7:73–8:12. Esdras contains two sections of material, one minor (1:23-24) and the other major, not found in the canonical records. The major addition (3:1–4:63) is a story about three youths who are bodyguards or pages of Darius I of Persia (522–486 BC). They engage in a contest to determine whether wine, royal power, or women are the strongest. The third youth, Zerubbabel, argues for women but adds “truth” as part of his argument, and thereby wins the verbal contest. For his reward he requests permission to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, which Darius grants. The story concludes with the preparations for Zerubbabel’s temple-building expedition. Thus, 1 Esdras differs from canonical Ezra and Nehemiah by placing Zerubbabel’s return under Darius I rather than under Cyrus (559–530 BC).