It is useful to appreciate who Ezra was. What was his family line? This is listed in Ezra 7:1-5. In this list, certain names stand out, Hilkiah, who was the high priest in the days of Josiah, 2 Chronicles 34:9, Zadok the priest in the days of David and Solomon, and going back further, Phineas, Eleazar and Aaron, the chief priest. So, Ezra was of the priestly line; in fact, going by his ancestors, very distinguished in the priestly line. He was one of over four thousand priests in Judea, most of whom had already returned to Judea years before Ezra. But he was the one selected by God to restore the true religious observance and worship in the country. He is reputed to have written three books of the Bible, Ezra, and the last two books of the Jewish Scriptures, 1 and 2 Chronicles. He also arranged the books of the Old Testament in the order in which we have them today in the Hebrew Bible, but not in the English Bible (compare “The Authority of the Bible”, page 85). So important was he in the eyes of his people that later tradition regarded him as no less than a second Moses. It is interesting that Ezra himself is not even mentioned in his book until the seventh chapter.
He was sent back by the king to investigate the spiritual condition of the Jews in Judea. This is mentioned in Ezra 7:14. The time setting of his return is mentioned in Ezra 7:1: “Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia…” These things were the building and dedication of the temple and the keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, mentioned in Ezra, chapter 6. These events had occurred over fifty years earlier before Ezra came to Jerusalem, so the term “after these things” does not mean immediately after them.
The people of Israel had had a great amount of zeal during the building of the temple with the encouragement of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. In Haggai 2:6-7, we read, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.” However, after the fifty-plus-years-period since completing the temple, nothing in this prophecy had occurred and there was the strong probability that the people had become slack concerning the observance of God’s Law.
This was a reason for the king to send Ezra to Judea to inquire about their spiritual condition which is stated in Ezra 7:23: “Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it diligently be done for the house of the God of heaven. For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?” He did not want the God of heaven to be displeased about what was happening in Judea and bring wrath on the king’s and his sons’ kingdom.
Ezra was fluent in two languages, Aramaic and Hebrew. In fact, parts of the book of Ezra were written in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 and 7:12-16), but the majority of the book was written in Hebrew. At the time of Ezra, it is claimed that the language commonly spoken by the ordinary people was Aramaic, not Hebrew, although the religious, governmental and upper class did use Hebrew. The two languages have similarities but are not identical.
Ezra was an expert in the Law of Moses, commonly called the Torah, which made him a scribe as well as a priest. But why did he have to be skilled? This is mentioned in Ezra 7:6, “… this Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the LORD God had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.” This is reinforced in Ezra 7:11, “This is a copy of the letter that king Artaxerxes gave Ezra the priest, the scribe, expert in the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of His statutes to Israel.”
The language of Hebrew has a number of features which, to be understood fully, require much instruction, training and knowledge. The first obstacle to be overcome is that the writing of the official scrolls in the temple or synagogues had no vowels. If we were to look at a modern printed Hebrew Bible, we would see marks under the letters suggesting which vowels, accents and pronunciations to employ for the text to make sense. However, these markings were added around the time of the Masoretes, somewhere around the eighth or ninth centuries CE. While the Masoretes were extremely accurate in copying the consonants in the scrolls, their additions as mentioned were according to their best understanding at the time.
To understand why skill was needed, we could look at a simple Hebrew word like “dm,” using English letters. It basically means “red”. When vowels are added, it can be either Adam or Edom, depending on context. The Masoretes added the required vowel marks to suggest which was the correct meaning. However, Ezra had to know what the correct meaning was because when he read it, there were no added prompts or markings for him to use at that time.
To complicate the situation further, there were no word breaks between words. The word breaks had been added more recently, probably again in the time of the Masoretes. Ezra had to determine where words started and finished among a continuous row of letters. As an English example, we might read “gtthntyslggrd” and after some thought realise it was “Go to the ant you sluggard,” by adding vowels and word breaks. However, the word breaks are usually correctly inserted but in extremely rare cases they are not in the correct position.
An example of this is in Proverbs 26:23: “Fervent lips with a wicked heart Are like earthenware covered with silver dross.” When analysed, fervent lips and a wicked heart are opposites, designating hypocrisy. However, with an earthenware pot covered with silver dross, both are of little value, silver dross, commonly called slag, being what’s left after the silver has been refined and removed from the ore. But if the word breaks are slightly modified, and the correct vowels added, “silver dross” becomes “glaze”, which has the effect of making something cheap and common look valuable, thus redefining the sentence into two opposites: “Fervent lips compared with a wicked heart” and “Cheap earthenware compared with a beautifully glazed item of pottery.” The glaze hides the cheapness of the item, in a similar way that fervent lips hide the wickedness of the heart.
The reason the word break was placed in the wrong position in that passage by the Masoretes was that the Hebrew word referring to glaze was unknown in the period when they finalised their text, but the words for silver and dross were known. By making the word breaks in particular positions and inserting the corresponding seemingly appropriate vowels, they could make some sort of sense, although not giving the correct meaning. More recent translations have corrected this error and, as an example, the Good News Version renders this proverb as “Insincere talk that hides what you are really thinking is like a fine glaze on a cheap clay pot.”
Aside from adding the correct vowels and word breaks, Ezra also had to be very familiar with the Oral Law. It refers to Jewish legal traditions and interpretations that are not part of the written Torah. They were passed down orally. Some of those were adopted to enable one to correctly obey many written laws, the details of which were not revealed in the written Law. However, many of those were added to “make a fence for the Law,” especially when referring to the Sabbath. Their additions and interpretations were rejected by Jesus Christ (compare “God’s Commanded Holy Days,” pages 17 following).
It is intended in a future Q&A to explain the necessity and history of the Oral Law.
So, we see that for Ezra to carry out the commission that God gave to him to restore true religion to the land of Judea, he had to understand the Scriptures in fine detail, including pronunciation and providing correct word breaks. He would have needed much instruction and training and inspiration from God. Also, he needed to know in minute detail the correct oral laws necessary to be able to apply God’s Law in the right way. Therefore, he needed to be a highly “skilled Scribe,” and an “expert in the words of the commandments of the LORD.”
Lead Writer: Paul Niehoff (Australia)