Book of Ezra facts for kids

The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew Tanakh. It details the return of the Jewish people from their exile in Babylon in the second half of the sixth century BC and the struggles they had. These include having to rebuild their previously destroyed temple and people failing to obey Jewish religious commandments.

Ezra and Nehemiah

The words that start Nehemiah 1:1, "The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah", shows that Ezra and Nehemiah were at first two different works. However, they were put together as one in the earliest Hebrew manuscripts. Josephus and the Jewish Talmud talk about the book of Ezra but not a different book of Nehemiah. The oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint also treat Ezra and Nehemiah as one book.

Origen (A.D. 185–253) is the first writer to treat the books as different works. He called them I Ezra and II Ezra. In translating the Latin Vulgate, Jerome called Nehemiah the second book of Esdrae (Ezra). The English translations by Wycliffe (1382) and Coverdale (1535) also called Ezra "I Esdras" and Nehemiah "II Esdras". The same separation first came out 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

In Spanish: Libro de Esdras para niños