The additional section begins with a story variously known as the “Darius contest” or “Story of the Youths” which was interpolated into 1 Esdras 3:4 to 4:4. This section forms the core of 1 Esdras with Ezra 5, which together are arranged in a literary chiasm around the celebration in Jerusalem at the exiles’ return. This chiastic core forms 1 Esdras into a complete literary unit, allowing it to stand independently from the book of Nehemiah. Indeed some scholars, such as W. F. Albright and Edwin M. Yamauchi, believe that Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem before Ezra.
| EZRA AND I ESDRAS COMPARED | ||
|---|---|---|
| Masoretic Text | Septuagint | Summary |
| Continuation of Paralipomenon (i.e., “Things Set Off” from Esdras) |
||
| (II Chr. 35) | (I Esd. 1:1-33) | |
| (II Chr. 36) | (I Esd. 1:34-58) | |
| Begin Ezra | ||
| Ezr. 1 | I Esd. 2:1-14 | Cyrus’s edict to rebuild the Temple |
| Ezr. 4:7-24 | I Esd. 2:15-30a | Flash forward to Artaxerxes’ reign (prolepsis) |
| Core: Chiasm of Celebration | ||
| — | I Esd. 2:30b | Inclusio: Work hindered until second year of Darius’s reign |
| — | I Esd. 3 | A Feast in the court of Darius with Darius contest |
| — | I Esd. 4 | B Darius vows to repatriate the exiles |
| — | I Esd. 5:1-6 | X The feast of those who returned to Jerusalem |
| Ezr. 2 | I Esd. 5:7-46 | B’ List of former exiles who returned |
| Ezr. 3 | I Esd. 5:47-65 | A’ Feast of Tabernacles |
| Ezr. 4:1-5[5] | I Esd. 5:66-73 | Inclusio: Work hindered until second year of Darius’s reign |
| Conclusion | ||
| Ezr. 5 | I Esd. 6:1-22 | In the second year of Darius’s reign |
| Ezr. 6 | I Esd. 6:23 — 7 | The temple is finished |
| Ezr. 7 | I Esd. 8:1-27 | In Artaxerxes’ reign |
| Ezr. 8 | I Esd. 8:28-67 | List of latter exiles who returned |
| Ezr. 9 | I Esd. 8:68-90 | Repentance from miscegenation |
| Ezr. 10 | I Esd. 8:91-9:36 | Putting away of foreign wives and children |
| (Neh. 7:73-8:12) | (I Esd. 9:37-55) | |
The purpose of the book seems to be the presentation of the dispute among the courtiers, to which details from the other books are added to complete the story. Since there are various discrepancies in the account, most scholars hold that the work was written by more than one author. However, some scholars believe that this work may have been the original, or at least the more authoritative; the variances that are contained in this work are so striking that more research is being conducted. Furthermore, there is disagreement as to what the original language of the work was, Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew. Because of similarities to the vocabulary in the Book of Daniel, it is presumed by some that the authors came from Lower Egypt and some or all may have even had a hand in the translation of Daniel. Assuming this theory is correct, many scholars consider the possibility that one chronicler wrote this book.
Josephus makes use of the book and some scholars believe that the composition is likely to have taken place in the first century BC or the first century AD. Many Protestant and Catholic scholars assign no historical value to the sections of the book not duplicated in Ezra-Nehemiah. The citations of the other books of the Bible, however, provide an early alternative to the Septuagint for those texts, which increases its value to scholars.
In the current Greek texts, the book breaks off in the middle of a sentence; that particular verse thus had to be reconstructed from an early Latin translation. However, it is generally presumed that the original work extended to the Feast of Tabernacles, as described in Nehemiah 8:13–18. An additional difficulty with the text appears to readers who are unfamiliar with chiastic structures common in Semitic literature. If the text is assumed to be a Western-style, purely linear narrative, then Artaxerxes seems to be mentioned before Darius, who is mentioned before Cyrus. (Such jumbling of the order of events, however, is also presumed by some readers to exist in the canonical Ezra and Nehemiah.) The Semitic chiasm is corrected in at least one manuscript of Josephus in the Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11, chapter 2 where we find that the name of the above-mentioned Artaxerxes is called Cambyses.
