Septuagint - 1ˢᵗ Ezra

By Scriptural Research Institute

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Hebrew and Samaritan scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
• Release date: Nov 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781989604281

Book preview

Septuagint: 1st Ezra

Septuagint, Volume 15

SCRIPTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Published by Digital Ink Productions, 2023

COPYRIGHT

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Septuagint: 1st Ezra

Digital edition. September 22, 2023

Copyright © 2023 Scriptural Research Institute.

ISBN: 978-1-989604-28-1

The Septuagint was translated into Greek at the Library of Alexandria between 250 and 132 BC.

This English translation was created by the Scriptural Research Institute in 2019 through 2023, primarily from the Codex Vaticanus. Additionally, the Leningrad Codex of the Masoretic Text, was used for comparative analysis.

The image used for the cover is an artistic reinterpretation of ‘The fall of Babylon, Cyrus the Great defeating the Chaldean’ by John Martin, painted circa 1831.

Note: The notes for this book include multiple ancient scripts. For your convenience, fonts correctly depicting these scripts are embedded in the ebook. If your reader does not support embedded fonts, you will need to install Unicode fonts that cover the ranges for Armenian, Avestan, Coptic, Cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Ethiopic, Greek, Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, Inscriptional Pahlavi, Meroitic, Old Persian, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ugaritic on your reader manually, or you may see blank areas, question marks, or squares where the scripts are used. The Noto fonts from Google cover most of the scripts used, however, will not depict Egyptian hieroglyphs, Old Phrygian, Neo-Assyrian cuneiform, Neo-Babylonian cuneiform, or Neshite (Hittite) cuneiform correctly due to current limitations in Unicode.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Forward

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Septuagint Manuscripts

Alternative Translations

Available Digitally

Available in Print

FORWARD

In the mid-3rd century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient texts written in Canaanite and Aramaic before the translation of the Septuagint. The two books of Ezra were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint before 200 BC when a large number of refugees fled the ongoing wars in Judea and settled in Egypt. The two books of Ezra were two different versions of the same basic story, however, 2nd Ezra appears to have been a massive redaction of 1st Ezra, in which even the god of Israel was changed. A Hebrew translation 2nd Ezra, became the Masoretic text’s Book of Ezra-Nehemiah, and by the year 100 AD the Apocalypse of Ezra was in circulation as 3rd Ezra. The original 2nd Ezra was later divided into two books in Latin translations, making a total of four books of Ezra, although one was later renamed Nehemiah. This has created some confusion among Biblical Translators throughout the centuries. This version of Ezra is called 1st Esdras (1st Ezra) in Orthodox Bibles and Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha, 3rd Esdras in Catholic Bibles that include the Apocrypha, and Greek Ezra in the Ethiopian Bible.

The Septuagint’s 1st and 2nd Ezra are thematically similar, telling generally the same story, however from two different points of view. They tell the story of the fall of Jerusalem, first to the Egyptians, and then the Babylonians, followed by Babylon’s fall to the Persians, the Persians releasing the captured Judahites to return to Judea, and the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. 1st Ezra was written from a non-religious viewpoint, and repeatedly makes it clear that the author and various kings, all viewed the Lord as the Judahite version of other supreme gods, including the North Egyptian creator and sun god Atum, South Egyptian sun god Amen, and the Zoroastrian ‘god of truth’ and ‘King of the Sky’ Ahura Mazda. These views are inconsistent with the view of later Judaism, which began developing under the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty after Judea broke free from the rule of the Greeks, when their God became a separate god from all others.

Both the Greek translations of 1st and 2nd Ezra, and the Hebrew translation of Ezra-Nehemiah (2nd Ezra), contain relics of Aramaic source texts, unfortunately, the Aramaic Books of Ezra and Nehemiah are lost. Based on the difference in the surviving Aramaic words within the Greek 1st Ezra, and Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah, it appears that the two versions of Ezra already existed in the Aramaic texts. 1st Ezra, the less religious of the two, clearly dates to the Persian era, as it treats the Judahite Lord of the temple in Jerusalem as another version of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian God. Several Zoroastrian titles of Ahura Mazda are applied to the Judahite Lord, including King of Truth, and King of the Sky. Letters from the Persian Kings Cyrus II, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II, are included in the book, all of which were closely associated with Zoroastrianism, yet, referred to the Judahite Lord using titles generally associated with Ahura Mazda. In the Greek 1st Ezra and 2nd Ezra, and the Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah, the temple is described as being a Zoroastrian fire temple, containing an eternal fire, which, in 2nd Maccabees, Nehemiah even referred to as burning naphtha, like the other fire temples across the Persian Empire.

A large section of the Persian Era is missing from Rabbinical history and is dubbed the ‘missing years.’ In Rabbinical history, the Second Temple was built in 352 BC, 70 years after the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple in 422 BC. This dating contradicts both the Tanakh (Christian Old Testament), and the Babylonian Chronicles, which both report that King Solomon’s Temple was destroyed in 587 or 586 BC. The Rabbinical timeline is recorded in many early-Jewish texts, including the Talmud and Seder Olam Rabbah. Yet, if the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed King Solomon’s Temple in 422 BC, instead of 587 BC, and the Babylonian Empire was conquered by King Cyrus 58 years later, that would have been 364 BC. This would then mean the entire span of the Persian Empire was only 34 years long, as Alexander III of Macedon conquered the empire in 330 BC according to Greek records. While Rabbinical sources dispute Alexander’s conquest in 330 BC, claiming it was 318 BC, this does not alter the fact that extensive records of the Persian Empire spanning centuries survive in Persian, Greek, Egyptian, and Indian texts.

Biblical history and the Babylonian Chronicles place the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 587 BC, while the Battle of Opis, in which the Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire, is dated to 539 BC from multiple sources. This means the captives taken to Babylon were there for 48 years, not 70. The idea that the captives were in Babylonia for 70 years, stems from the prophet Jeremiah’s prediction that they would be there for 70 years, however, in ancient Canaan, 70 was a number that was used as a metaphor for a very long time, as it was longer than most lived. The number 70 is found throughout ancient Ugaritic and Phoenician texts being used in this way, and therefore should not be taken literally.

Both Greek Ezras and the Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah include a Letter from Cyrus dated to the first year of his rule over Babylon, this letter would date to 539 BC, however,