recorded in it, and hence its historical truth is admitted almost universally. l'he language closely resembles that of other Books of Scripture written about the same time, as Chronicles, Daniel, and Haggai. Like Daniel, it is written partly in Hebrew, partly in Chaldee, the latter being the form which Hebrew had assumed during the captivity. Like the same Book, Chronicles, and Esther, it contains a number of Persian words, as was natural at a time when Judrea. was a province of Persia. The tone of the writing is level and uniform, never ' sinking into the familiar, and only in one place ( eh. ix. 6-15) rising to eloquence. Very little that is directly didactic occurs in it: the writer tells his story as plainly as he can, and leaves his story to teach its own lessons. Once only (eh. vii. 27, 28) does he interrupt his narrative with a burst of gratitude and devotion, as he thinks of the goodness of God in putting good resolves into the heart of a Persian king, and in making him (Ezra) the instrument of carrying these out. Apart from this, he simply narrates facts, placing before us, briefly but clearly, the circumstances of the two returns, and the events immediately following them. It is remarkable that, instead of making his history continuous, he passes over, absolutely without notice, an interval of nearly sixty years, which is the space of time intervening between his sixth and his seventh chapters. We may perhaps conclude from this that from the time of the dedication of Zerubbabel's temple (a.c. 516) to the mission of Ezra (B.c. 458), the history of the Palestinian Jews was a blank; which may well be, since during the whole of the period they were submissive and attached subjects of the Persian empire.
§ 5. POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR. The only facts which are certainly known to us of Ezra are those recorded in his own Book and in the Book of Nehemiah. From these works it appears- !. That he was a priest, a descendant of Eleazar, the son of Aaron (eh. vii. 5). 2. That he belonged to that branch of Eleazar's family which had recently furnished the high priests, being descended from Hilkiah, high priest in the reign of Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 4), and from Seraiah, high priest at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem (ibid. xxv. 18). 3. That he was a "scribe," or teacher, interpreter, and copier of the law, one who made the law of Moses hi5 main study, and the teaching and expounding of it his chief practical work. 4. That, being resident at Babylon, one of the Persian capitals, and well known to the king, Artaxerxes (Longimanus), he requested (eh. vii. 6) and obtained permission from the king to visit Jerusalem, and was allowed to carry with him all those of Israelite extraction who liked to take the opportunity of returning to their own land (ibid. ver. 13) ; various privileges were granted to him (ibid. vers. 16-26), and a commission issued giving him supreme authority over Judrea for a time. He accordingly quitted Babylon in a.c. 458, the seventh year of Artaxerxes (ibid. ver. 8), accompanied by a band of about 1800 men (eh. viii. 3- 14) with their families (ibid. ver. 21), and reached Jerusalem after a journey of INTRODUCTION TO
four months (eh. vii. 9). His authority was recognized; and after depositing in the temple a number of sacred vessels which .Artaxerxes had intrusted to his care, and making numerous offerings ( eh. viii. 35), he effected a reformation of religion, inducing &11 those Israelites who had married heathen wives, and become entangled in the abominations of heathen idolatry, to put their wives away (eh. x. 16-44), and return to the pure worship of Jehovah. He then, it is probable, returned to Babylon. Afterwards, in B.c. 444, he is again found at Jerusalem (Neh. viii. 1), occupying a position secondary to that of Nehemiah the governo~ (ibi,d. ver. 9)-a position purely ecclesiastical, in which, as scribe and priest, he teaches, blesses, and directs the devotions of the people. Here he continues till the dedication of the wall (u.c. 431), when he takes a leading part in the solemn procession, or perambulation of the wall (ibid. xii. 36), which was a principal feature of the ceremony. At this point the Scriptural notices terminate. Ezra is not said to have been concerned in the religious reformation of Nehemiah --one in some respects so like his own - whereof we have an account in Nehemiah's last chapter; and the probability would seem to be that he had died, or quitted Jerusalem, previously to it. Jewish tradition adds to this account various particulars, which would be of the utmost interest if we could rely on them. 1. Ezra is said to have instituted the "Great Synagogue," and to have been its first president. 2. He is declared to have settled the Canon of the Jewish Scriptures, and to have re-edited the whole of them, making additions and alterations under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time forming the arrangement into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, which obtains among the Jews to the present day. 3. He is said to have begun the practice of building synagogues in the Jewish provincial towns, and to have instituted the synagogue service, which seems certainly to have been unknown to the Jews before the captivity. Finally, he is reported to have lived to a good old age, and to have died-on his way from Jerusalem to the court of Artaxerxes -at Sa.ma.rah, on the Lower Tigris, where his tomb was shown in the time of Benjamin of Tudela. What historical basis these traditions rest upon it is impossible to say. AR we :find no trace of the "Great Synagogue" either in Ezra or in Nehemiah, its institution by Ezra is scarcely probable. Even less weight belongs to the statement that he finally settled the Canon, since Nehemiah probably, and Malachi certainly, wrote their works after his decease. On the other hand, it is anteriorly probable that some priest learned in the law collected and Te-edited the sacred Books on the return from the captivity, and the tradition that Ezra did eo ie remarkably in accordance with what is said of him, both in his own Book and in that of Nehemiah, as, that he was " a ready scribe in the law of Moses" (Ezra vii 6), "a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel " ( ibi,d. ver. 11 ), and that he " had prepared hie heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgll!:.ents" {ibid. ver. 10). With regard to the institution of synagogues, there is no evidence; but perhaps it ie most probable that they arose in the early THE BOOK OF F:ZRA.