EZRA, the author of the canonical book bearing his name, and, as LS supposed, of the two books of Chronicles and the book of Esther. Ezra, Esdras, or Eadra, in the Hebrew signifies help,' or 'succour.' His genealogy up to Aaron is given in chap. vii. 1-5. In verses 6 and 11 he is said to have been a priest and ready scribe of the words of the law of Moses, and he appears to have been an able and important agent in the principal events of his age and nation. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah were contemporary with Ezra. (Compare Hagg. i. 12, Zech. iii. 4, and Ezra v.) There are four books of Ezra so called. The book of Ezra, which as a canonical book of the Old Testament is placed next after the second book of Chronicles and before the book of Nehemiah, and, in the English version, is divided into ten chapters. By Jews and Christians it has generally been attributed to the priest whose name it bears, chiefly because through out chapters viii. and ix. the actions of Ezra are related in the first person. The book of Nehemiah, which by the ancient Jews and by the Greek and Roman churches is considered as the second hook of Ezra, and two books of Ezra, or Esdras, in the Apocrypha. The first of the two apocryphal books contains the substance of the canonical one, with many circumstantial additions, and in the Greek Church it is read as canonical ; but the second exhibits a more decided appear ance of fiction, and by no church is regarded as a work of inspiration, though it is cited by several of the ancient fathers. The first six chapters of the canonical book are regarded by some biblical critics as improperly ascribed to Ezra, for between the event with which the seventh chapter omilmenees, that is, the commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the seventh year of his reign, to Ezra to go up to Jerusalem, B.C. 458, and that which terminates the sixth chapter, namely, the completion of the second temple, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 516, there is a chasm of fifty-eight years. The events recorded in the whole ten chapters of the canonical book of Ezra embrace a period of ninetyone years, that is, from the edict of Cyrus issued in the first year of his reign, B.C. 636, for the return of the captive Jews to Jerusalem, to the termination of Ezra's government by the mission of Nehemiah to Jerusalem from Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the twentieth year of his reign, ac. 445. As Daniel's seventy prophetic weeks commence at the going forth of the edict of Cyrus to 7.erubbabel, or that of Artaxerxes to Vera, these events have been the subject of much critical investigation among biblical critics.
The contents of the first six chapters are briefly as follows :—Chap. L gives an account of the proclamation of Cyrus concerning his release of the captive Jews, permitting them to go from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple; of the restoration of their property, sacred vesicle and utensils; and of presents made by the Cheldreans of money and various provisions Chap. ii states the numbers of each of the families composing the multitude which returned to Justice with Zernte babel, and the number of their beasts of burden. All this account, except some of the numbers, is repeated word for word in the seventh chapter of Nehemiah, beginning at verse 6. In verses 64 and 65 of Ezra, the total number of the people is said to have been 42,360, which appears not to agree with the preceding particulars, since the addition of these produces only 29,818, that is, a deficiency of 12,542. The numbers given in Nehemiah occasionally differ very widely from those in Ezra : for instance, the children of Azgad are said in Ezra (ii. 12) to have been 1222; but in Nehemiah (vii. 17) they are said to have been 2322, or 1100 more. Nehemiah repeats precisely the total given by Ezra, 42,360; but the addition of Nehemiah'e particular numbers makea 31,089, or a deficiency of 11,271. The numbers of horses, 730, mules, 245, camels 435, and asses 6720, exactly agree in the iwo accounts; but in Ezra, verse 69, the chief fathers give to the trea sury 01,000 drams of gold ; in Nehemiah, ver. 71, they give only 20,000. Chap. iii. records the events of setting up the altar at Jerusalem and reestablishing the Jewish sacrificial worship. An account of the interruption of the building of the Temple by the liecree of Artaxerxes, and its completion by a subsequent decree of the same monarch, with transcripts of the documents written on these occasions, occupy chap tees iv., v., and vi. Chapters vii. and viii. contain an account of Ezra's commission from Artaxerxes to undertake the government of Judaea, his preparations and reception of presents for his journey thither, with a multitude of Jews, who it appears still remained in Babylon after the return to Judaea of the multitude under Zerubbabel ; an enumera tion of the people and families who returned, and the weight of gold and silver contributed by the king, his councillors, and the Israelites, for the use of the Temple at Jerusalem (viii. 25-28). The value of these presents amounts to 803,000/. Chapters ix. and x. relate the proceedings of Ezra in separating from their wives and children all the Israelites who bad married women from among the surrounding nations, and thus "mingled the holy seed with the abominations of the Gen tiles." Ezra (x. 3, 5, 19,44) made all the Israelites who had strange wives and children" swear, and give their hands, that they would put them away, which accordingly was done. The latter half of the last chapter contains a long list of the husbands and fathers who were the subjects of this national renovation. The part from iv. 8 to vii. 27 is written in the Chaldee idiom, the rest in Hebrew. The period to which the four last chapters relate, comprising the Jewish history from B.C. 453 to 445, is coeval with the ago of Pericles. The subject-matter of the book of Nehemiah being ideutical with that of Ezra, the colla tion of the two affords a mutual illustration. Chapter viii. of Nehe miah relates circumstantially the fact of Ezra's solemn reading and exposition of the law to the assembled Israelites, who, according to Dr. Prideaux, were taught the signification of the Hebrew words by means of Chaldaic) interpreters (8); for, since their seventy years' captivity in Babylon, the Chaldee instead of the Hebrew had become their vernacular language. (Dean Prideaux's 'Connoction,' fol., p. 203.) The critical arguments adduced in opposition to the opinion that the Israelite. lost the Hebrew language, and understood only the Chaldwan, are well exhibited in Dr. Gill's learned 'Dissertation on the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language,' 8vo, 1767, The two principal undertakings of Ezra were—L The restoration of the Jewish law and ritual, accord ing to the modes observed before the captivity ; and 2. The collection
and rectification of the Sacred Scriptures. On account of these im portant services the Jews regarded Ezra as a second Moses. It was commonly believed by the ancient fathers of the Christian church that all the Sacred Scriptures of the Jews were entirely destroyed in the conflagration of the temple and city of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon, and that, on the return of the Jews from the Claaldzean cap tiriti, these writings were wholly reproduced by a divine inspiration of Lzra. (See Irenreue, Adversus lireres.,' 1. hi. c. 25; Tertullian, ' De Habitu Mulierum,' o. iii.; Clemens Alexandrinus, ' Strom.,' i.; Basil, in Epiat. ad Chllonem.') The following pas/lava from the second Apocryphal book of Ezra, xlv. 20, 45,40, 47, appear to sanction this opinion. "Behold, Lord," says Ezra, "I will go an thou haat commanded me, and reprove the people. The world in set in dark ness, and they that dwell therein are without light, for 'thy law is kirk r therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee; but if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy Ghost into me, and I shall write all things that have been done in the world since the beginning, which were written in the law ; And God said, Go, prepare to write swiftly, and when thou haat done, some things shalt. thou publish, and some things shalt thou show secretly to the wise." Tho learned Dr. Prideaux Connection,' p. 260, folio) remarks, that "in the time of king Josiah (a.c. 640), through the impiety of the two preceding reigns of Manasseh and Ammon (a period of sixty years), the book of the law was ao destroyed and lost, that, besides the copy of it which Hilkiah, the high-priest, accidentally found in the Temple (2 Kings xxii. 8, &e.; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, &c.), there was then no other to be had ; for Hilkiah's surprise in finding it, and Josiab'e grief in hearing it read, do plainly show that neither of them had ever seen it before ; and if this pions king and the high-prient were without it, it cannot be thought that any one else had it." If this were the authentic copy laid up before the Lord in the Temple, it was burned, as believed by all Jewish and Christian writers, in the burning of the Temple, fifty two years afterwards, by Nebuchadnezzar. Dr. Prideaux takes it to be implied in several passages which he cites that, from the copy accidentally found by the high-priest IIilkiab, some transcriptions were made previous to the destruction of the Temple, and that from these scattered copies Ezra formed his improved edition of the sacred text. In common with most other modern divines, he rejects the opinion of the fathers respecting the restoration of the Scriptures by a new reve lation to Ezra. All, he continues, that Ezra did was—"he got together as many copies of the sacred writings as he could, and out of them all be set forth a corrected edition, in which he took care of the follow ing particulars :-1. He corrected all the errors introduced into these copies by the negligence or mistakes of transcribers; for, by comparing them, he found out the true reading, and set all to rights. 2. He col lected together all the books of which the Sacred Scriptures did then consist, disposed them in proper order, and settled the canon of Scrip ture up to that time." The Jewish writers state that the cauon was decided by a congress of 120 elders under the presidency of Ezra ; but since they mention as members of it, not only the contemporaries of Ezra, as Daniel, Shadruch, Meschech, and Abednego, but the high-priest Simon the Just, who lived 250 years later, it is evident that they mean the number of those who 'successively' arranged and rectified the canonical books. Ezra divided all the books he collected into three parts—the Law, that is, the Pentateuch; the Prophets, containing all the historical and prophetical books; and the Hagiographa, which comprised all the writings not included in the two other divisions. (Josephus, 'Advers. Apion.') He divided the Pentateuch into fifty four sections, one of which was read every Sabbath; and, according to the Jewish authorities, be was also the author of the smaller divisions called Peaukim, or verses, and of the various readings and suggested corrections inserted in the margins of the Hebrew copies. These, called Keri Cctib (that which is read and that which is written), appear however in the books attributed to Ezra himself. (On these particulars eee the remarks of Prideaux ; Buxtorf, Viudicire Veritatis Hehr:time,' par. ii. c. 4; Walton, 'Prolegom.,'viii. § 18; and Dr. Gill, 'Dissertation on the Hebrew Language?) Most Biblical critics state that Ezra changed the ancient names of places for those by which these places were known in his time, and some say that he wrote out all tho Scriptures iu the Chaldeo character, which alone was used and understood by the Jews after the Cbaldnan captivity. Whether Ezra added the vowel-points, and whether they were invented by the Masorite grammarians at a /cried far posterior to the rise of Christianity, are subjects of great controversy among Hebrew critics. A concise and able view of this dispute is contained in HoubiganCe ' Redoes Hebmiquea,' 1732. The Jewish commentators assert that all the rules and observances pre served by tradition from the time anterior to tho captivity were care fully collected by Ezra, and that having reviewed them, those which he sanctioned by his authority henceforth constituted the oral law, in contradistinction to that whit& is written ; the Church of Jerusalem, like the Church of Rome, regarding Scripture and tradition of equal authority, and believing the latter to bo highly necessary for clearing the obscurities, supplying the defects, and solving the difficultice of the former. (Soo the Rabbinical authorities cited by Dr. Prideeux.) It is a theory suggested by this learned divine, and since adopted by many others, that all the uumeroue passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which involve chronological inconsistencies were interpolations made by Ezra, and that this is the only possible way to solve the difficulties which arise from considering the several books as the productions of the persons to whom they are commonly ascribed. The Book of Ezra, with the two Hooka of Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi, aro supposed by Dr, Prideaux to have been added to the sacred canon by the high-priest Simon the Just, in the year ac. 150.