Ezra the Scribe is a key figure in Jewish history, known for his contributions to the preservation and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. He lived during the 5th century BCE and played a crucial role in the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. Ezra is also credited with establishing the Great Assembly, a group of Jewish sages who played a critical role in shaping Jewish religious practices.

One of Ezra's most significant contributions is his involvement in the editing and canonization of the Hebrew Bible. He is believed to have played a major role in compiling and organizing the books of the Torah, as well as other biblical texts. Additionally, Ezra is known for his emphasis on studying and obeying the commandments of the Torah, which had a lasting impact on Jewish religious practices and beliefs.

Ezra's legacy as a religious leader, scholar, and scribe continues to be celebrated in Jewish tradition. His work laid the foundation for the development of Jewish religious practices and beliefs, and his commitment to the preservation of the Hebrew Bible has had a lasting impact on Judaism as a whole, and has impacted Christianity in ways rarely recognized or acknowledged.

Who is Ezra the Scribe?

Little is known about Ezra’s early life. Ezra was one of the most important personages of his day, and of far-reaching influence upon the development of Judaism; his biography must be reconstructed from scanty material, furnished in part by fragments from his own memoirs (see, the Book of Ezra in the Bible). For this work, we will accept at face value that the ancient histories of the Jewish people are true.

 Ezra was born in Babylon to a priestly family. By trade, he was a scribe, copying and maintaining books of Moses and Prophets. He lived in Babylon for the early decades of his life, studying under Baruk ben Neriyah.[2] He led the second wave of Jewish people returning from Babylon to Israel. He headed the religious revival of the people in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Second Temple era. He also led the Men of the Great Assembly, one of the most influential groups of scholars in Jewish history.[3] He did not return with the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem under the direction of King Cyrus. Talmud, Sanhedrin 21b documents that he stayed to continue his studies or to avoid any power struggles with Yeshua ben Yehozadak over the position of high priest but did later join under the leadership of King Darius. He lived during the time of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who commanded the resumption of the construction of the Temple during the time of Zerubbabel and Yeshua ben Yehozadak. While remaining in Babylon, he is credited with documenting and certifying Jewish lineages.[4]

 Under King Artaxerxes, Ezra led an additional 1,500 to immigrate to Israel. Upon seeing and confronting the intermarriage and sin of the previous Jewish returnees, he was appointed leader. In response, he set up officers and restored services, observance of biblical holy days, regular reading of scripture, and education in Hebrew. Nehemiah arrived twelve years later, finding the community in economic ruin. He was appointed governor.[5] Ezra's background and influence on Jewish history are extensively discussed in scholarly works such as Grabbe's ‘A history of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple period: Yehud, the Persian province of Judah’, Hanson's ‘The dawn of apocalypticism: the historical and sociological roots of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology, and Dever's ‘What did the biblical writers know and when did they know it?’[6] 

Ezra instituted ten major rules:[7]

1. That the Torah be read publicly during the afternoon service on the Sabbath.

2. That the Torah be read publicly during the morning services on Monday and Thursday.

3. That the judges should gather on Mondays and Thursdays to judge the people.

4. That clothing should be laundered on Thursday in preparation for the Sabbath.

5.   That garlic should be eaten on Friday, in preparation for the Sabbath [To increase fertility].

6. That women should bake bread early in the morning to have it ready to give to the poor.

7. That women should wear undergarments.

8. That women should wash their hair prior to immersing in a mikvah (ritual bathing).

9. That peddlers should circulate throughout the towns selling cosmetics, so that they would be readily available for purchase.

10. That men who experience a nocturnal emission should immerse in a mikvah before studying Torah.

Ezra was a prolific writer, authoring the book of Ezra, the book of Malachi, and the book of Chronicles up until his era.[8] He also meticulously established a model text for the Torah, writing a scroll against which all other Torah scrolls were to be checked for accuracy. It was kept in the Temple throughout the Second Temple period.[9] It is due to his diligence that our Torah scrolls have remained invariably and remarkably accurate until today.

 One of Ezra’s main accomplishments was the re-establishment of adherence to the commandments of God given to Israel in the Books of Moses, ensuring that its observance would not be lost.[10] He also established the Great Assembly, which was responsible for forming the liturgy of prayer [including the weekly readings from the Torah and Prophets], along with many of the systems of Jewish law that are in place today.’[11]

 In Jewish tradition Ezra the Scribe is known as the Moses of the post-exilic period the Canonicaler (compiler and organizer of the Jewish Bible’s source materials into a cohesive whole), and Redactor (editor).[12] Being the Canonicaler means he is the compiler of the Canon of Scripture, and I would posit that, led of the Holy Spirit, he is the author of the Unified Canon of and the original Aramaic Translations of Scripture.[13] Think of it like this: When Ezra heads to Jerusalem from Babylon, he has all this stuff that that the King allowed him to take out of the royal storage facilities, libraries, and such, to bring back with the Jewish captives to Israel to rebuild the Temple. As the Redactor, it was his responsibility to not only compile the Holy Book, but to edit what he had available, to clean it up, make sense of it. He did what any good, qualified Editor would do with a book that was going to be professionally published and made available to teach an entire people group. The Book of Ezra records how he translated the Bible into Aramaic, because all of those who returned to Jerusalem only knew Aramaic, the Babylonian language.[14] He is also credited with creating the Synagogue system, although some scholars credit Nehemiah with accomplishing this.[15]

Moses already did the same thing when he compiled the first five books of the Bible, so Ezra, using Moses’ model, got to work compiling the corpus of material that came into being after Moses. Moses also had all this source material from Egypt that the Jewish people already had with them.[16] For example, let us say that Moses had the histories that Shem, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and others had written. The Bridegroom also directed Moses to write things not found in those histories. Moses put it all together into the first Five books of the Bible, and then was commanded to read it to all of Bride-Israel. The only part of the Book of Moses that was not written was last chapter of Deuteronomy, written by Joshua after Moses died. In this analogy, Moses was a master compiler, writer, and editor. So was Ezra.

Key Lesson Concepts:

• Ezra the Scribe lived during the 5th century BCE
• He played a crucial role in the return of Jewish exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem
• Ezra edited and canonized the Hebrew Bible, emphasizing the importance of studying and obeying the Torah commandments
• His legacy as a religious leader and scribe continues to be celebrated in Jewish tradition