Ezra
A priest and scribe who came from Babylon to Jerusalem under a Persian royal commission, opposed marriages with foreign wives, and read the law of Moses to the people. A later Jewish book pictures him dictating the Scriptures by inspiration.
Ezra’s genealogy traces him to Aaron, and the book that bears his name calls him “a skilled scribe in the law of Moses” who had set his heart to study the law, to do it and to teach it (Ezra 7:1–6, 10). He came to Jerusalem in the seventh year of an Artaxerxes with the king’s written authority (Ezra 7:7, 11–14). Part of the account is told in his own voice (Ezra 7:27–28). He led the community to dissolve marriages with foreign women (Ezra 10:10–12) and read the law aloud to the assembled people (Nehemiah 8:1–8).
Whether he came before or after Nehemiah is debated; see Ezra Brings the Law to Jerusalem. A Jewish work written long afterwards under his name shows him dictating ninety-four books in forty days, some to be published and some kept for the wise (2 Esdras 14:44–46).
In the timeline
- 458 BC, estimated dateEzra Brings the Law to Jerusalem
The priest and scribe Ezra comes from Babylon with a commission from the Persian king, confronts marriages with foreign wives, and reads the law of Moses aloud to the assembled people, who bind themselves to keep it.