Book of Ezra

Encyclopedia : B : BO : BOO : Book of Ezra

Old Testament and Hebrew Bible
Jewish, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra (1 Esdras)
Nehemiah (2 Esdras)
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox
Tobit
Judith
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Wisdom
(Wisdom of Solomon)
Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) (Wisdom of Sirach)
Baruch
Letter of Jeremiah - Considered as part of Baruch in Roman Catholic Tradition
Additions to Daniel
Additions to Esther
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox
1 Esdras (3 Esdras)
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Book of Odes (includes Prayer of Manasseh)
Psalm 151
Russian and Oriental Orthodox
2 Esdras (4 Esdras)
Oriental Orthodox
Jubilees
Enoch
[ edit]

Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Ketuvim
Three Poetic Books
Psalms
Book of Proverbs>Proverbs
Book of Job>Job
The Five Scrolls>Five Scrolls
Song of Solomon>Song of Songs
Book of Ruth>Ruth
Book of Lamentations>Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Book of Esther>Esther
Other Books
Book of Daniel>Daniel
Book of Ezra>Ezra-Nehemiah
Books of Chronicles>Chronicles
The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew Tanakh. This book is the record of events occurring at the close of the Babylonian captivity. At one time, it included the book of Nehemiah, the Jews regarding them as one volume. The two are still distinguished in the Vulgate version as I and II Esdras. It consists of two principal divisions:

The history of the first return of exiles, in the first year of Cyrus the Great (536 BC), till the completion and dedication of the new temple, in the sixth year of Darius Hystapes (515 BC), ch. 1-6. From the close of the sixth to the opening of the seventh chapter there is a blank in the history of about sixty years.
The history of the second return under Ezra, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and of the events that took place at Jerusalem after Ezra's arrival there (7-10).

The book thus contains memorabilia connected with the Jews, from the decree of Cyrus to the reformation by Ezra (456 BC), extending over a period of about eighty years. Several Aramaic letters are quoted in their original language, while the rest of the book is written in Hebrew.

There is no quotation from this book in the New Testament.

In the King James Bible, contains every letter of the alphabet except J.

Ezra was probably the author of this book, at least of the greater part of it (comp. 7:27, 28; 8:1, etc.), as he was also of the Books of Chronicles, the close of which forms the opening passage of Ezra. Some authors think that the historical order of events in both Ezra and Nehemiah has become jumbled, from which they conclude that at least the final arrangement and revision of their text must have occurred at a later period.

There are two more books going by the name "Book of Ezra", or "Book of Esdras". These are found in the Apocrypha of the Bible; see their descriptions for details on their varying and complex numbering scheme.

External links

Jewish translations:
* [Ezra (Judaica Press)] translation with Rashi's commentary at [chabad.org]

Christian translations:
*[Online Bible at GospelHall.org]

* [Ezra at The Great Books] (New Revised Standard Version)

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.