Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition (Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament)

Discover the real Ezra in this in-depth study of the Biblical figure that separates historical facts from cultural legends. The historical Ezra was sent to Jerusalem as an emissary of the Persian monarch. What was his task? According to the Bible, the Persian king sent Ezra to bring the Torah, the five books of the Laws of Moses, to the Jews. Modern scholars have claimed not only that Ezra brought the Torah to Jerusalem, but also that he actually wrote it, and in so doing Ezra created Judaism. Without Ezra, they say, Judaism would not exist. In Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition, Lisbeth S. Fried separates historical fact from biblical legend. Drawing on inscriptions from the Achaemenid Empire, she presents the historical Ezra in the context of authentic Persian administrative practices and concludes that Ezra, the Persian official, neither wrote nor edited the Torah, nor would he even have known it. The origin of Judaism, so often associated with Ezra by modern scholars, must be sought elsewhere. After discussing the historical Ezra, Fried examines ancient, medieval, and modern views of him, explaining how each originated, and why. She relates the stories told about Ezra by medieval Christians to explain why their Greek Old Testament differs from the Hebrew Bible, as well as the explanations offered by medieval Samaritans concerning how their Samaritan Bible varies from the one the Jews use. Church Fathers as well as medieval Samaritan writers explained the differences by claiming that Ezra falsified the Bible when he rewrote it, so that in effect, it is not the book that Moses wrote but something else. Moslem scholars also maintain that Ezra falsified the Old Testament, since Mohammed, the last judgment, and Heaven and Hell are revealed in it. In contrast Jewish Talmudic writers viewed Ezra both as a second Moses and as the prophet Malachi. In the process of describing ancient, medieval, and modern views of Ezra, Fried brings out various understandings of God, God's law, and God's plan for our salvation. "A responsible yet memorable journey into the life and afterlife of Ezra as a key personality in the history, literature and reflection of religious and scholarly communities over the past 2, 500 years. A worthwhile and informative read!" —Mark J. Boda, professor of Old Testament, McMaster Divinity College, professor of theology, McMaster University Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition 4 Contents 8 Illustrations 9 Series Editor’s Preface 10 Preface 12 1 Introduction to the Continuing Story of Ezra, Scribe and Priest 14 The Story of the Return—Ezra Chapters 1–6 14 The Story of Ezra in Ezra Chapters 7–10, Nehemiah Chapter 8 15 First Esdras—The Law Triumphant 16 Fourth Ezra, the Ezra Apocalypse 17 Translations of 4 Ezra 18 Christian Additions to 4 Ezra 18 Ezra’s Tours of Hell 19 Ezra in Medieval Islamic, Samaritan, Christian, and Jewish Scholarship 19 Ezra in Modern Scholarship 19 2 The Historical Ezra 21 Ezra’s Letter from Artaxerxes 24 Ezra as the King’s “Ear,” or Episkopos 25 By Means of the Dātā of Your God That Is in Your Hand 27 Dātā, “Right Decisions,” in Persian Imperial Inscriptions 27 Dātā in Babylonian Texts from the Time of Darius 29 Dātā on the Trilingual Inscription of Xanthus 29 The Dātā (“Word”) of Your God That Is in Your Hand 30 Who Was Ezra’s God? 31 Ezra’s Second Task: To Appoint Judges 32 The Date of Ezra’s Arrival 34 Ezra and the Mixed Marriages 35 Life in Contemporaneous Athens 37 Persian Concerns 39 The Mass Divorce 40 Conclusion 40 3 Ezra in the Hebrew Bible 41 Ezra’s Priestly Genealogy 41 The Date of Ezra’s Arrival According to the Biblical Writer 44 Ezra as Scribe 46 Ezra’s Task in Biblical Tradition—to Teach Torah 49 Ezra Inquires of the Torah 49 Ezra as Teacher of Torah 51 Ezra Reads the Torah 53 A Covenant Renewal Ceremony (Nehemiah 8–10) 54 Is the ’Amānāh a Covenant Oath? 56 Does the ’Amānāh Reflect a Religious Association in Yehud? 57 Ezra—a Second Moses—Brings the Torah into the Temple 58 The Existential Threat of the Mixed Marriages 63 Conclusion 66 4 First, or Greek, Esdras—The Law Triumphant 67 First Esdras and Canonical Ezra-Nehemiah Compared 67 Issues Surrounding 1 Esdras 69 Date and Place of Composition 70 Purpose of 1 Esdras 71 Coping with an Angry God: Torah as Antidote 72 Josephus’s Use of 1 Esdras in His Jewish Antiquities 74 5 Fourth Ezra—The Ezra Apocalypse 78 The Name of the Book 78 Fourth Ezra, the Ezra Apocalypse 79 Narrative Framework 79 Revelations Mediated by an Otherworldly Being to Ezra 82 The First Three Episodes—Three Conversations with the Interpreting Angel, Uriel 82 The Fourth Episode: A Vision of a Woman and a City 83 The Fifth Episode: A Vision of an Eagle with Twelve Wings and Three Heads and a Vision of the Anointed One 85 The Sixth Episode—A Vision of a Man Flying out of the Sea 87 The Seventh Episode—The Voice out of the Bush 87 The Angel Discloses a Transcendent Reality 88 The Angel Tells of Another Age 88 The Time of the Present Age Is Fixed 89 Signs of the End 91 The Angel Tells of Another World 94 Fourth Ezra as Theodicy 95 Vision 1. First Conversation with Uriel 95 Vision 2. Second Conversation with Uriel 97 Vision 3. Third Conversation with Uriel 98 The Only Possible Response 101 6 The Christian Additions to the Ezra Apocalypse 102 Fifth Ezra—A Christian Introduction to 4 Ezra (Chapters 1 and 2) 102 Purpose of These Chapters 102 Date and Provenance 106 Sixth Ezra—A Tumultuous Conclusion 107 Author 107 Date 108 7 Ezra Ascends to Heaven and Goes to Hell 113 The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra 113 The Vision of the Blessed Ezra 120 The Questions of Ezra 121 The Apocalypse of Sedrach 122 Political Apocalypses 125 The Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra 125 An Ethiopic Apocalypse of Ezra 126 The Revelation of Ezra 130 8 Ezra among Christians, Samaritans, Muslims, and Jews of Late Antiquity 131 Ezra in Early Christian Tradition 131 Ezra in Samaritan Tradition 136 Ezra in Islamic Traditions 141 Ezra as the Son of God 142 Ezra Censured Because He Questioned Predestination and God’s Ability to Revive the Dead 145 Ezra as the Falsifier of the Torah 146 Ezra’s Tomb 150 Ezra in Rabbinic Tradition 150 Ezra as Prophet 150 The Date of Ezra’s Ascent to the Land of Israel 153 Ezra as High Priest 154 Ezra as Second Moses 155 Ezra as a Second Joshua 157 Reaction to the Fall of the Temple 158 Conclusion 160 9 Ezra in Modern Scholarship 161 Seventeenth Century—Moses No Longer 161 Eighteenth Century—The Documentary Hypothesis 163 The Nineteenth Century—The Laws Are Jewish, Not Israelite 164 The Fallacy behind the Theories of Wellhausen and Meyer 167 The Place of Worship 167 The Role of Temples and Altars in the Ancient Near East 168 The Role of Temples in Ancient Greece 170 Rules of Sacrifice 171 The Role of Ezra in Wellhausen’s Thought 174 The Twentieth Century and Ezra’s Law Book 175 The Role of Ezra in Late-Twentieth- and Early Twenty-First-Century Scholarship 176 Imperial Authorization of Local Law and the Creation of Judaism 177 The Fallacy behind Frei’s Theory of Imperial Authorization 179 The So-Called Demotic Chronicle 180 The Xanthus Inscription 180 The So-Called Passover Letter 181 Artaxerxes’s Letter to Ezra 181 Q: Then How and When Did Torah Law Become Legally Binding on Jews? A: It Never Did. 182 Postscript: Reflections on Ezra and the Law 184 Appendix 1: Chronology 186 Kings of Ancient Mesopotamia 186 Egyptian Pharaohs 186 Appendix 2: Versions and Translations of 4 Ezra 188 Fourth Ezra in the Armenian Tradition 188 Human Free Will as Justification for Evil 189 Why God Made Evil 191 God Is Merciful 192 More Than One Creator? 193 Fourth Ezra According to the Syriac Translation 194 Fourth Ezra in the Ethiopic Tradition 194 No Predestination 195 No Antipathy against Rome 196 Some Omissions of the People Israel 196 Colophon 198 4 Ezra in the Arabic Versions 198 Arabic Translation 1 (Ar1) 199 Denial of Predestination and Emphasis on Free Will 199 God Is Merciful, Evil Is from the Enemy 200 Arabic Translation 2 (Ar2) 201 Arabic Translation 3 (Ar3) 202 Notes 206 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Continuing Story of Ezra, Scribe and Priest 206 Chapter 2: The Historical Ezra 206 Chapter 3: Ezra in the Hebrew Bible 210 Chapter 4: First, or Greek, Esdras—The Law Triumphant 213 Chapter 5: Fourth Ezra—The Ezra Apocalypse 214 Chapter 6: The Christian Additions to the Ezra Apocalypse 215 Chapter 7: Ezra Ascends to Heaven and Goes to Hell 216 Chapter 8: Ezra among Christians, Samaritans, Muslims, and Jews of Late Antiquity’ 217 Chapter 9: Ezra in Modern Scholarship 220 Postscript: Reflections on Ezra and the Law 224 Appendix 1: Chronology 224 Appendix 2: Versions and Translations of 4 Ezra 224 Bibliography 228 Index of Ancient Sources 248 Index of Modern Authors 258 Subject Index 260 About the Author 272 An in-depth examination that separates the historical Ezra from the biblical legend The historical Ezra was sent to Jerusalem as an emissary of the Persian monarch. What was his task? According to the Bible, the Persian king sent Ezra to bring the Torah, the five books of the Laws of Moses, to the Jews. Modern scholars have claimed not only that Ezra brought the Torah to Jerusalem, but that he actually wrote it, and in so doing Ezra created Judaism. Without Ezra, they say, Judaism would not exist. In Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition, Lisbeth S. Fried separates historical fact from biblical legend. Drawing on inscriptions from the Achaemenid Empire, she presents the historical Ezra in the context of authentic Persian administrative practices and concludes that Ezra, the Persian official, neither wrote nor edited the Torah, nor would he even have known it. The origin of Judaism, so often associated with Ezra by modern scholars, must be sought elsewhere. After discussing the historical Ezra, Fried examines ancient, medieval, and modern views of him, explaining how each originated, and why. She relates the stories told about Ezra by medieval Christians to explain why their Greek Old Testament differs from the Hebrew Bible, as well as the explanations offered by medieval Samaritans concerning how their Samaritan Bible varies from the one the Jews use. Church Fathers as well as medieval Samaritan writers explained the differences by claiming that Ezra falsified the Bible when he rewrote it, so that in effect, it is not the book that Moses wrote but something else. Moslem scholars also maintain that Ezra falsified the Old Testament, since Mohammed, the last judgment, and Heaven and Hell are revealed in it. In contrast Jewish Talmudic writers viewed Ezra both as a second Moses and as the prophet Malachi. In the process of describing ancient, medieval, and modern views of Ezra, Fried brings out various understandings of God, God's law, and God's plan for our salvation. Introduction To The Continuing Story Of Ezra, Scribe And Priest -- The Historical Ezra -- Ezra In The Hebrew Bible -- First, Or Greek, Esdras : The Law Triumphant -- Fourth Ezra : The Ezra Apocalypse -- The Christian Additions To The Ezra Apocalypse -- Ezra Ascends To Heaven And Goes To Hell -- Ezra Among Christians, Samaritans, Muslims, And Jews Of Late Antiquity -- Ezra In Modern Scholarship -- Postscript: Reflections On Ezra And The Law -- Appendix 1: Chronology -- Appendix 2: Versions And Translations Of 4 Ezra. Lisbeth S. Fried. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.