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Ezra and Nehemiah, Books of
from the canonical version in that Zerubbabel’s expedition
occurs under Darius rather than Cyrus.
Josephus used the work as a source for his discussion of
the post-Exilic Return (Ant., 11:1–56); little else can be said
about it with assurance. To some the work is complete and
the concluding conjunction and verb – “and they were gathered”
– are a formal close. If the work is a unit, the Nehemiah
passage may have been introduced to underscore Ezra’s emphasis
on the Law. Others see the conjunction-verb endings
as evidence that the work is incomplete; it belongs to the next
verse (Neh. 8:14). If the author’s starting point and closing are
unknown, so is his purpose. The translated material has been
seen as a version based on the Septuagint, a revision of a translation
older than the Septuagint, or an independent translation
from the Hebrew and Aramaic. And the “guardsmen”
episode has been variously labeled as a Greek, Oriental, or
more specifically, Aramaic or Persian folk-tale. The story may
be an originally non-Jewish story that was reworked. Scholars
think the answer “Truth” is an addition and the contest was
limited to one answer per guardsman. Furthermore, Truth is
praised; the force of the other elements is proved by example.
However, womankind’s power is shown in two ways. Woman
is presented as the life-giving mother and clother of man (an
important ancillary function of woman in antiquity). Without
a mother there can be no king or vine-cultivator to produce
wine. This sufficiently proves womankind’s superiority over
the others. At this point a new motif is introduced – woman as
temptress for whose favor man dares all; here biblical sounding
phrases appear – “beautiful to look at,” 4:18 (cf. Gen. 29:17);
and “leave one’s father and cleave to one’s wife,” 4:20 (cf. Gen.
2:24) – which may reflect Jewish influence. The guardsman
mentions an incident showing Darius’ subservience to a concubine.
Darius and his nobles exchange glances (shocked at
the temerity?); immediately Truth is eulogized. This second
motif on woman provides an opening for introducing Truth
and placing an aggadah-like moral lesson within the framework
of the Return.
Bibliography: Cook, in: Charles, Apocrypha, 1 (1913), 1–58
(translation and discussion); Thackeray, in: J. Hasting, A Dictionary
of the Bible, 1 (1898), 758–63 (lists early literature); O. Eissfeldt, Einleitung
in das Alte Testament (19643) 777–81; S. Jellicoe, The Septuagint
and Modern Study (1968), 290–4.
[Jacob Petroff]
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH, BOOKS OF, two books in the
Hagiographa (i.e., the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah),
which were originally a single work.
The Masoretic tradition regarded the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah as one book and referred to it as the Book of Ezra.
This was also the Greek tradition, and the same Greek name,
Esdras, was given to both books (see below). The division into
separate books does not occur until the time of Origen (fourth
century C.E.) and this division was transferred into the Vulgate
where the books are called I Esdras (Ezra) and II Esdras (Nehemiah).
It was not until the 15th century that Hebrew manu-
scripts, and subsequently all modern printed Hebrew editions,
followed this practice of dividing the books. However, there
are good reasons (linguistic, literary, and thematic) for the
argument that the two books were originally separate works
(Kraemer), which were brought together by a later compiler,
and are now to be read as a single unit (Grabbe).
Place in the Canon
There are two traditions regarding the place of Ezra-Nehemiah
in the Hebrew Bible. The more dominant Babylonian
tradition, which is followed by all modern printed editions,
places Ezra-Nehemiah immediately before Chronicles, the
last book of the Writings. However, the Palestinian tradition,
which is found in major Tiberian manuscripts, such as Aleppo
and Leningrad, places Chronicles first in the Writings (before
the Psalms), and places Ezra-Nehemiah last. In the Protestant
Old Testament (e.g., the NRSV version), Ezra-Nehemiah is
placed among the historical books, after Chronicles and before
Esther. In the Roman Catholic Old Testament (e.g., the
Douay-Rheims version), the books are similarly placed after
Chronicles but before Tobit, Judith, and Esther.
Text and Versions
Some Hebrew fragments from the Book of Ezra (4QEzra) were
found in Cave 4 at Qumran (Ulrich). The fragments contain
part of the text of Ezra 4:2–6, 9–11, and 5:17–6:5 and exhibit
two orthographic variants (e.g., at Ezra 4:10, 4QEzra zra reads ארֲהַנ ָ
for MT’s הרֲהַנ), ָ and two minor grammatical variants concerning
singular and plural forms of verbs (e.g., at Ezra 6:1 where
4QEzra zra reads the singular רקבו “he searched” for MT’s וּר ּקַ ַ בוּ
“they searched”). The Greek tradition knew of two versions
of Ezra-Nehemiah, one of which is known as II Esdras, and is
a very literal translation of the Hebrew. This version numbers
Ezra-Nehemiah consecutively so that chapters 1–10 of II Esdras
represent the Book of Ezra, and chapters 11–23 represent
the Book of Nehemiah. However, the other version, known as
I Esdras, is wholly concerned with Ezra and not Nehemiah.
It offers a rendering of the entire Book of Ezra but translates
only that portion of the Book of Nehemiah (7:72–8:13) which
deals with Ezra. This additional section is attached directly to
what is chapter 10 in the Masoretic version.
Languages of the Books
The language of Ezra-Nehemiah is late biblical Hebrew (Polzin)
and the text exhibits features which are characteristic of
this later language. These include use of the -ו consecutive
with the cohortative (הָחְלְׁ שֶ אָ ו), increased use of pronominal
suffixes to the verb (םֵנתִ ְּ
ּיַ ו) and of הָיָה with the participle (וּי ָה
םירִ ְמֹא), many Akkadian and Persian loan words (such as תרֶ ֶּגִ
א
“letter” = Akk. egirtu; סֵ ּדרַּ ְפ
“garden” = Pers. pairidaeza), and
many Aramaisms (Naveh and Greenfield). Parts of Ezra are
written in Aramaic (4:8–6:18, 7:11–26), and it has been suggested
that originally the entire book of Ezra-Nehemiah was
written in Aramaic and was subsequently translated (Marcus).
In support of this theory is the fact that there is no extant Targum
for Ezra-Nehemiah.
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