History
Ezra and Nehemiah tells of the restoration of the Israelites in Judah, in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E. The narrative encompasses a 100 year period after Cyrus (538) permitted the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to the 32nd year of the reign of Artaxerxes.
During this period, the Temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem in 516 BCE.
Ezra, a descendant of the high priest Seraiah, was living in Babylon when King of Persia Artaxerxes sent him to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God. After leading a large group of exiles back to Jerusalem, Ezra discovered that Jewish men had been marrying non-Jewish women and set about enforcing Torah law and forbidding intermarriage.
According to Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8, Ezra reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem after Artaxerxes sent the Israelite noble Nehemiah to Jerusalem as governor to rebuild the city. Once Jerusalem’s walls were rebuilt, Nehemiah requested that Ezra read the Torah to the assembled Israelites. Accordingly, this is the first time that the Torah was read publicly and the tradition continues today with the public reading of Torah in synagogue.
Now all the people gathered as one man to the square that was before the Water Gate, and they said to Ezra the scholar to bring the scroll of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read in it before the square that was before the Water Gate from the [first] light until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who understood, and the ears of all the people were [attentive] to the Scroll of the Law. (Nehemiah 8:1-3)
This is viewed as the beginning of a new period in the narrative of Judaism because it gave all individuals access to the law.
There are two different locations for Ezra’s tomb, one in the Syrian village of Tedef and another near Basra, Iraq.
Sources
Ezra’s story is primarily found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were originally one book. Portions of the Book of Ezra (4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26) are written in Aramaic, but the majority of the text is written in Hebrew.
Ezra is mentioned in a non-canonical Greek translation of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah called First Esdras as having been a high priest, which is disputed in the rabbinic literature.
Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, also addresses Ezra’s story in his Antiquities of the Jews, but alters Ezra’s timeline as having involved Xerxes instead of Artaxerxes.
Several Hebrew fragments of the Book of Ezra were found in Cave 4 at Qumran by Bedouins in 1952.
Name Meaning
In the Greek, Ezra is rendered as Esdras from the Latin of the same rendering. There are some who believe that his name is a shortened version of the Hebrew Azaryahu, or “God helps."
Rabbinic Tradition
In rabbinic tradition, Ezra is credited with having established the Great Assembly of scholars and prophets, which was the precursor to the Sanhedrin. This assembly is believed to have established the command for a public Torah reading, the celebration of Purim, and the Amidah prayers.
Ezra also is believed to have been the author of the Books of Chronicles.