EZRA, WRITINGS OF. The canonical writ• ings of Ezra are. besides the book which bears his name, most likely the two books of the Chron icles.
he reasons for ascribing the books of Chron icles to the authorship of Ezra have already been investigated in the article CHRONICLES (which see). Some authors have ascribed the books of Nehemiah and Esther likewise to Ezra, although they differ in style. (See ESTHER; NEHEMIAH.) 1. Book of Ezra. (1) Authenticity. Ezra speaks from chap. VII :27 to chap. ix :t5, in the first person. 'There is an essential difference be tween public events which a man recollects. though only as in a dream, to have Lard of at the time when they occurred, and those which preceded his birth. The former we think of with reference to ourselves; the latter are foreign to us. The epoch tinct According to other traditions Ezra returned to B.tbylon and died there at the age of I20 years (7) Death. The Talmudic statement is that he died at Zamzumu, a t )•n on the Tigris, while on its road from Jerusalem to Susa. whither he was going to converse with Artaxerxes about the affairs of the Jews. A tomb said to be his is shown on the Tigris, about twenty miles above its junction with the Euphrates.
3. Character. Ezra was distinguished he an ardent love for the word of God. "Ile had pre pared his heart to suck the law of the Lord, and to d it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judg (Ezra vii:to). lie was faithful in instruc tion, and delighted "to teaeli the law s of his God to such as knew them ( verse 2i) . Ile is a con spienous example of a man who di %Tinily believed in Divine providence and who was ever praying for the "good hand of (Ind" to be upon him While a man of prayer he was also thoroughly practical in attending to the affairs of life, and manifested a firm and inflexible will in carrying out his plans. Ile was willing to endure any privations or make any sacrifices to advance his national religion and secure the best interests of his people, whom lie so ardently loved, and duration of the f niter we in•asiire by our own life ; th•• latter I r luny to a peri,id tor which our iniagii....tt•on I, s to scole Life. and iletin.te
ncss arc imp•rted to all Obit we hear re • d with It pert to the everts of cur own (Ni 1.11 r, On the Pistincti, n Betz, 4., .1 nnals and ! ct ) These remarks, which Nicbuhr made in r( t r( nee to Tacit ty:, are. in a gri at measure. applicable ids, to •zra and account ill ise differ ences I •twei .1 the vino us parts of hit book, which love so in•ich startled some modern Ildilsc I schol ars tint they h i•e presumptuously undertaken to show the prtfIse• scams or gilt tint S by int:ins of which varions fragme its of different authors we re brought together In this attempt they. have been especially guided by the eh usze of tin rd i the first person, for which change we account by the above remarks d f Niebuhr.
Instances of similar donee of pi rcon arc so fr«nient in anti, it authors th.it rlictoricons love introduced it among the rhetorical figures under the name of email tge The prophet ical writings of the Old Testament furnish exam ples of such Iva1Ntiv,. For inst.inee, I. irk.
I 3: Zech vii:t. 4. 8; Jet: ‘‘:I. sq. Comp. with %Yrs,. 7, .s./ NX1:t ; X \ 1-8; llos. i So also in Habakkuk, Dan iel, etc. The frequency of this baXXa-H, es pecially in the prophetical parts of the Old Testa inent, arises from either the more objective or more subjective tendency of the style, which, of course, varies in harmony with the contents of the chapter. We may observe this evaXXa-yij even in our own writings, from which we are certainly taught by modern scholastic usage to eradicate it, al though it would, if preserved, frequently give greater freshness to our communications. We have made these remarks in order to show the per fect futility of the chief argument adduced by modern writers against the original unity of the book of Ezra, some of whom, on account of the cnallage personarum, assert that chap. vii :1-26 was written by an author different from that of the portion immediately following, up to chap. ix: 15 ; and that, again, the subsequent portion to the end of the book was indited by a still different writer.