1 Esdras is a deuterocanonical book accepted by most Orthodox, but rejected as apocryphal by Jews, Catholics and Protestants. In large part it parallels the action of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Books of Chronicles, with some sections being only translations of those books.
Naming and numbering
The book now called 1 Esdras presents various problems of naming. In most editions of the Septuagint, the book is titled Ἔσδρας α′ (1 Esdras) and is placed before the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which are together entitled 2 Esdras. A third book, existing only in Latin translation and not accepted by any major sect, would then be titled 3 Esdras.
However, Jerome, in his translation of the Vulgate, rejected 1 Esdras as non-canonical, and titled the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as 1 and 2 Esdras, giving the current book the title 3 Esdras. Since most modern translations use the more Hebrew spelling of "Ezra" for the undoubtedly canonical book, Jerome's 3 Esdras is styled 1 Esdras and his 4 Esdras, an apocalyptic book rejected by all Christian canons, becomes 2 Esdras.
Contents
The majority of the content of 1 Esdras is simply translations from other Biblical books. In particular:
- Chapter 1 = 2 Chron 35:1 - 36:21. Josiah's death, history of Jerusalem up to its destruction. Two verses in this chapter are original to this book.
- Chapter 2:1-14 = Ezra 1:1-11. The edict of Cyrus
- Chapter 2:15-26 = Ezra 4:7-24. First attempt to rebuild the temple.
- Chapter 3:1-5:3 (original) Three courtiers of Darius dispute whether wine, the king, or women (but above all the truth) is the strongest. The winner of the dispute is to receive great honor from Darius. Darius concurs with Zerubbabel, who said women and truth, and at his request, sends him with the Jews, ordering the restoration of the temple. (The phrase "but above all the truth" seems to be a later addition to the story.)
- Chapter 5:4-6 (original) Beginning of a list of the exiles who returned.
- Chapter 5:7-73 = Ezra 2:1-4:5. List of exiles returning. Work on the temple. Interruption of building until Darius' time.
- Chapter 6-7:9 = Ezrah 5:1-6:18. Correspondence between Sisinnes and Darius about the temple. Completion of the Second Temple.
- Chapter 7:10-15 = Ezra 6:19-22. Celebration of the Passover.
- Chapter 8:1-9:36 = Ezra 7:1-10:44. Return of exiles under Ezra. Preaching against mixed marriages.
- Chapter 9:37-55 = Nehemiah 7:73-8:12. Ezra reads the Law.
Author and criticism
The purpose of the book seems to be the presentation of the dispute between the courtiers, to which details from the other books are added to complete the story. Since there are various discrepencies in the account and the phrase about the truth shows sign of addition, most scholars hold that the work was written by more than one author. Because of similarities to the vocabulary in the book of Daniel, it is presumed that the authors came from Lower Egypt and some or all may have even had a hand in the translation of Daniel.
Josephus makes use of the book, and the section from 3:1-2 seems to be influenced by Esther 1:1-4, so that the composition is likely to have taken place in the first century BC or the first century AD. Scholars assign no historical value to the "original" sections of the book. The citations of the other books of the Bible, however, provide a pre-Septuagint translation of those texts, which increases its value to scholars.
The book in the current Greek texts breaks off in the middle of a sentence, so that particular verse had to be reconstructed from an early Latin translation. However, it is generally presumed that the original work extended to the feast of Tabernacles, as described in Nehemiah 8:13-18. An additional difficulty with the text is its apparent ignorance of its author of the historical sequence of events, with Artaxerxes mentioned before Darius, who is mentioned before Cyrus. However such jumbling of the order of events is also suspected by some authors to exist in the canonical Ezra and Nehemiah.
Use in the Christian canon
The book was widely quoted by early Christian authors, and found a place in Origen's Hexapla. It was not included in early canons of the Western Church, and Jerome relegated it to an appendix of the New Testament in the Vulgate "lest it perish entirely". However, the use of the book continued in the Eastern Church, and it remains a part of the Orthodox canon.
