THE FIRST BOOK OF ESDRAS
 

This book reproduces the substance of the end of II Chronicles, the whole of Ezra and a part of .Wehemiah. In the Septuagint, where Ezra and Nehemiah are called land II Esdras, this book is called Ill Esdras (or, by modern scholars, The Greek Ezra),but it is placed before the other two, and Josephtts' account of the period (Antiquities 11.1-5) uses it   and ignores the others.What the precise literary relationship between the parallel accounts may be, whether one is a  revision of the other or both derive independently from a common source, is a much debated question; both versions are more concerned with inculcating special views regarding the Temple and the observance of the Law than with the historical course of events.
 

What is new in I Esdras and most attractive is the story of the three guardsmen (3.1-5.6).  The story probably originated in Persia, was translated into Aramaic, and then adapted to  the purposes of this book. Our author has named the  victorious' guardsman Zerubabel to cement the connection with his history and to magnjfr his favorite persona ge;for his prize erubabel craves and obtains the privilege of rebuilding the walls of jerusalem and the Temple erubabel's eloquent defense of his thesis that truth is strongest (familiar in world literature as magnaest veritas et praevalebit) has been  acclaimed a precious bit of Achaemenid literature, perhaps of importance for the development of the doctrine of the logos.

The vicissitudes of the story offer an instructive example of the Hellenistic melting pot at work. The date of I Esdras is somewhere near the beginning of the common era.

---

      First Esdras 1:1-58    First Esdras 2:1-30    First Esdras 3:1-24    First Esdras 4:1-63  

     First Esdras 5:1-73    First Esdras 6:1-34    First Esdras 7:1-15    First Esdras 8:1-96

First Esdras 9:1-51    The Apocrypha