1 Esdras (Ancient Greek: Ἔσδρας Αʹ), also known as Esdras A, Greek Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras, is an ancient Greek text that constitutes the Septuagint version of the biblical Book of Ezra. It is a deuterocanonical or apocryphal book depending on the religious tradition, and it is recognized as canonical scripture by the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox Churches, while it is placed in an appendix to the Latin Vulgate and considered apocryphal in the Western tradition.
Content and Structure
1 Esdras is substantially similar to the standard Hebrew version of Ezra–Nehemiah, though it removes or reattributes passages specific to the career of Nehemiah to Ezra and includes additional material. The book contains the whole of Ezra with the addition of one major section. It begins with the last two chapters of 2 Chronicles, starting with King Josiah's celebration of the Passover, which suggests that Chronicles and Esdras may have been read as one book at some point in antiquity.
The most distinctive feature of 1 Esdras is the "Tale of the Three Guardsmen" (also called the "Darius contest" or the "Story of the Three Youths"), interpolated at chapters 3:1 to 4:42. This section, which is not found in the canonical Book of Ezra, describes a contest at the court of King Darius in which three guardsmen debate what is the strongest force in the world; one argues that wine is strongest, another that the king is strongest, and the third—Zerubbabel—argues that women are strongest but that truth conquers all. Zerubbabel wins the contest, and Darius vows to repatriate the Jewish exiles.
The book is arranged in a chiastic structure around the celebration in Jerusalem at the exiles' return, forming a complete literary unit that can stand independently from the Book of Nehemiah.
Authorship and Dating
Most scholars hold that the work was written by more than one author, given various discrepancies in the account. The original language is generally believed to have been Aramaic and Hebrew, though a few scholars argue for the originality of the Greek. The text contains vocabulary similarities to the Book of Daniel and 2 Maccabees, and it is presumed that the authors came either from Lower Egypt or Palestine and wrote during the Seleucid period. Many scholars consider the composition to have taken place in the second century BC.
Some scholars, including Joseph Blenkinsopp, hold that the book is a late 2nd/early 1st century BC revision of the Greek Esdras texts, while others, such as L. L. Grabbe, believe it to be independent of the Hebrew-language Ezra–Nehemiah.
Canonical Status and Nomenclature
The numbering of the Esdras books varies considerably among different Bible traditions, which can cause confusion. In most editions of the Septuagint, the book is titled Ἔσδρας Αʹ and is placed before Ezra–Nehemiah, which is titled Ἔσδρας Βʹ. In the Latin Vulgate, the book is called 3 Esdras, while the Vulgate designates Ezra as 1 Esdras and Nehemiah as 2 Esdras. The King James Version and many modern English translations refer to it as "1 Esdras."
The book was widely quoted by early Christian authors and found a place in Origen's Hexapla. The Jewish historian Josephus made use of 1 Esdras, treating it as Scripture while generally disregarding the canonical text of Ezra–Nehemiah. At the Council of Trent, the question of the Esdras books' canonical status was left theoretically open, as the overwhelming majority of bishops withheld an explicit decision on these books.
In the Roman rite, 1 Esdras is used in the 1962 Missal in the offertory prayer of a Votive Mass for the election of a Pope.
Scholarly Significance
Many Protestant and Catholic scholars assign no historical value to the sections of the book not duplicated in Ezra–Nehemiah. However, the citations of other books of the Bible within 1 Esdras provide an early alternative to the Septuagint for those texts, which increases its value to scholars. The book is also significant for the study of early Jewish literature and the development of the biblical canon.
