![]() ![]() The book could not have been completed earlier than about 450 BC (the date of the events recorded in 10:17–44). Ezra 7–10 picks up the story more than sixty years later, when Ezra led the second group of exiles to Israel (458 BC). Ezra 1–6 covers the first return of Jews from captivity, led by Zerubbabel-a period of twenty-three years beginning with the edict of Cyrus of Persia and ending at the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem (538–515 BC). The book of Ezra records two separate time periods directly following the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. His zeal for God and God’s Law spurred Ezra to lead a group of Jews back to Israel during King Artaxerxes’s reign over the Persian Empire (which had since replaced the Babylonian Empire that originally exiled the people of Judah). In the Hebrew Bible, the two books were considered one work, though some internal evidence suggests they were written separately and joined together in the Hebrew canon (and separated again in English translations).Įzra was a direct descendant of Aaron the chief priest (7:1–5), thus he was a priest and scribe in his own right. He plays a major role in the second half of the book, as well as in the book of Nehemiah, its sequel. Ezra 8 includes a first-person reference, implying the author’s participation in the events. Jewish tradition has long attributed authorship of this historical book to the scribe and scholar Ezra, who led the second group of Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:11–26). ![]()
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