Open of old to the eastern tribesmen, who kept the peasants in constant fear, the Romans inaugu- rated a period of security, and the people made progress m the arts of civilization. But with the fall of the eastern empire, the Arab hordes rushed back, and restored the ancient conditions. In recent years the Turks have established more efl'ectual control over the nomads ; and the pea.sants, delivered from the rapacity of the Arabs, have been handed over to the tender mercies of certain Greek capitalists in Beirflt. We may doubt if their burdens have thus been lightened.
LmHATFM.— O. A. Bmlth, HGUL SSl-ilO; Baedeker, Pal.* 229 ; Furrer In Schenkcl's Bibetlex. Ui. 302 ; Thomson, Land and Book, ii. 179 (. ; Porter, Giant Citiet of Bashan, 245 1. ; PEFSt, 1872, 180f. ; 1873, 3ff., 40, «0 ; IS75, 40; 1879, 13; Conder, renMFori, 588. ; Moore, ,/ud(;M, 197 (. ; Schurer, HJ/" «■ U- 8». W. EWINO.
ESDRAS, FIRST BOOK OF.— Title.— The titles of the books that deal with the history of Ezra are confusmg. In the Sept. this book is entitled Esdras A, Esdras B embracing the canonical books
of Ezra and Neliemiah. In the Vulg., however, Jerome had used the words Esdras I. and II. for the canonical books ; Esdras A therefore became Esdras III., Esdras IV. being the designation of the other and later apocryplial book. In the sixth article of the Book of Common Prayer, and in all the early Eng. Bibles, the four books are numbered as in the Vulgate. "The Geneva Bible (15UU) was the first to adopt our present classification, which keeps the Heb. names Ezra and Neheiiiiah for the canonical, and gives the Latin names Esdras I. and Esdras II. to the apocryphal books.
Another title, 6 UpeOs, appears as the headxg of Esdras A in Cod. A of the LXX, which also has Updis at the head of Esdras B ; the subscriptions in both books give the ordinary names.
Yet another name for our book appears in the subscription to the Old Latin, ' Explicit Esdrae liber primus de templi restitutione,' which aptly describes the contents of the book. To avoid con- fu.sion, ' The Greek Esdras ' has been suggested a.a a suitable title.
Contents. — Except for one original section (3'-5'), the book is made up wholly from materials that exist in canonical books. It is a repetition of the history of the rebuilding of the temple. The first chapter corresponds to the last two of 2 Ch, the last to a portion of Neh 8 ; the inter- vening portion runs parallel to Ezra, and contains the whole of that book, with one transposition and one interpolation.
The following scheme gives the canonical paral- lels, and shows the chronological confusion of the book. (The verses are those of the Camb. LXX.)
Es 1 = 2 Ch 35. 36. Great passover of Josiah ; his defeat at Megiddo, and death ; the succeeding Jewish reigns and the Captivity briefly sketched.
Es 21-14 = Ezr 1. Ci/ru*" proclamation. Delivery of the sacred vessels to Sanabassar, and his return to Jerusalem.
Es 21^*5= Ezr 4*»-^. Opposition to the rebuilding of the temple. Letter of Persian officials resident in Samaria to Artax^rxit. The work abandoned till the reign oj I>iriu9,
Es 31-66. Original. Story of the three pages at the court of Darius, who each maintain a thesis before the king. The third, Zerubbabel, as a reward for his wisdom, is granted leave to lead a body of Jews to Jerusalem. Departure of the caravan under Joachim, son of Zerubbabel, and others.
Es 57-16= Ezr 2. Lists of those reluming with Zerubbabel.
Es 54^-70= Ezr 3-4*. Altar of burnt-offering set up; Feast of Tabernacles celebrated ; foundation of temple laid ; offer of ' the enemies ' to co-operate rejected. The work hindered through their opposition till the reign oi Darius.
Es 6. 7=Ezr 5. 6. Work resumed in second year of Darius. Letter of the Persian governors to Darius, and his favourable rescript. Completion of the temple.
Es 8-93^ =E2r 7-10. Return under Ezra in reign of .4 rtaj:err«. The abuse of mixed marriages redressed. Names of the tran». gressors.
Es 93rJ»= Neh 77»-8i3. Reading of the law by Ezra.
The history goes directly backwards : first ArtA- xerxes (2"''''), then Danus (3-5*), lastly Cyrus (5'"™), instead of Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes. After expressly stating that it was Darius who gave permission to Zerubbabel to return, the writer in 568-70 calmly refers this return to the time of Cyrus.
The booK is incomplete. It breaks otl' in the middle of a sentence, /cai iiriavv/ix^''l<'av (cf. Neh 8"). It probably continued the history to the Feast of Taoernacles described in Neh 8, but no further ; this is suggested by Jos. Ant. XI. v. 5, who de- scribes that feast, using an Esdras word iTav6p8ii)<ris, and at this point, having hitherto followed Es as his authority, passes on to the Book of Neh. The Latin versions add a clause completing the broken sentence of the Greek. There is no indication that the took ever began at an earlier point in the history than it does now.
Reception and Use of the Book.— The first witness to the existence of Es A is Josephus, who uses it in place of the canonical book not only in his description of the Return {Ant. XI. i.-v.), but also in his account of Josiiih {Ant. x. iv. 5B'.). He agrees with Es in shifting the first oppo.^ition to