1 Esdras (Greek Ezra)

1 Esdras is a Greek book parallel to Ezra and parts of Nehemiah and 2 Chronicles 35–36 in the Hebrew canon. There has been a long debate on the relationship of 1 Esdras to the Hebrew books. Three main theories are examined here, along with a summary of the book’s contents. The thesis favored in this essay is that 1 Esdras represents in some fashion an earlier stage of the Zerubbabel–Joshua and the Ezra traditions from which the compiler of the Hebrew Ezra–Nehemiah drew. 1 Esdras was not, however, the specific source used but is itself also a development of that source. The tradition picked up by the Hebrew Ezra–Nehemiah apparently did not have the story of the guards’ contest. This and other considerations indicate that this story was added at a later date to 1 Esdras.