Book of Ezra facts for kids

The Book of Ezra is a book found in the Bible. It's part of the Old Testament and also in the Hebrew collection called the Tanakh.

This book tells the story of the Jewish people. They returned home from being forced to live in Babylon. This happened in the late 500s BC. The book talks about their challenges. They had to rebuild their special temple, which had been destroyed. It also shows how some people struggled to follow their religious rules.

Ezra and Nehemiah: Two Books in One?

The Book of Nehemiah starts with "The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah." This shows that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally separate writings.

However, in the very first Hebrew manuscripts, they were often put together as one book. Important historical writers like Josephus and the Jewish Talmud only mention the Book of Ezra. They do not talk about a separate Book of Nehemiah. The oldest copies of the Septuagint, which is an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, also treated Ezra and Nehemiah as one book.

When Did They Become Separate?

A writer named Origen (who lived from A.D. 185 to 253) was one of the first to treat Ezra and Nehemiah as different books. He called them I Ezra and II Ezra.

Later, when the Latin Vulgate Bible was translated, Jerome called Nehemiah the "second book of Esdrae" (Ezra). English translations by Wycliffe (1382) and Coverdale (1535) also called Ezra "I Esdras" and Nehemiah "II Esdras." The two books first appeared separately in a Hebrew manuscript in 1448.

Images for kids

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  Ezra calls for the rebuilding of the temple in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld

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  Ezra reads the Law in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld

See also