Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition , livre ebook

EZRA AND THE LAW
in History and Tradition
STUDIES ON PERSONALITIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
James L. Crenshaw, Series Editor
EZRA
AND THE LAW
in History and Tradition
LISBETH S. FRIED
2014 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fried, Lisbeth S.
Ezra and the law in history and tradition / Lisbeth S. Fried.
pages cm. - (Studies on personalities of the Old Testament)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61117-313-0 (hardbound : alk. paper) 1. Ezra (Biblical figure) I. Title.
BS580.E9F75 2014
222 .7092-dc23
2013024196
To my students in the Emeritus Program at Washtenaw Community College
CONTENTS
Illustrations
Series Editor s Preface
Preface
1 Introduction to the Continuing Story of Ezra, Scribe and Priest
2 The Historical Ezra
3 Ezra in the Hebrew Bible
4 First, or Greek, Esdras-The Law Triumphant
5 Fourth Ezra-The Ezra Apocalypse
6 The Christian Additions to the Ezra Apocalypse
7 Ezra Ascends to Heaven and Goes to Hell
8 Ezra among Christians, Samaritans, Muslims, and Jews of Late Antiquity
9 Ezra in Modern Scholarship
Postscript: Reflections on Ezra and the Law
Appendix 1: Chronology
Appendix 2: Versions and Translations of 4 Ezra
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Modern Authors
Subject Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Ezra Scribe and Priest
Persian Nobles and Officials
Ezra Preaches to the People
When the sacred books had been consumed in the fires of war, Ezra repaired the damage
Map of the Sassanid Empire under King Shapur I
Hell in the Garden of Delights
Ezra Reads the Law
Ezra s tomb
SERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
Critical study of the Bible in its ancient Near Eastern setting has stimulated interest in the individuals who shaped the course of history and whom events singled out as tragic or heroic figures. Rolf Rendtorff s Men of the Old Testament (1968) focuses on the lives of important biblical figures as a means of illuminating history, particularly the sacred dimension that permeates Israel s convictions about its God. Fleming James s Personalities of the Old Testament (1939) addresses another issue, that of individuals who function as inspiration for their religious successors in the twentieth century. Studies restricting themselves to a single individual-for example, Moses, Abraham, Samson, Elijah, David, Saul, Ruth, Jonah, Job, Jeremiah-enable scholars to deal with a host of questions: psychological, literary, theological, sociological, and historical. Some, like Gerhard von Rad s Moses (1960), introduce a specific approach to interpreting the Bible, hence provide valuable pedagogic tools.
As a rule these treatments of isolated figures have not reached the general public. Some were written by outsiders who lacked a knowledge of biblical criticism (Freud on Moses, Jung on Job) and whose conclusions, however provocative, remain problematic. Others were targeted for the guild of professional biblical critics (David Gunn on David and Saul, Phyllis Trible on Ruth, Terence Fretheim and Jonathan Magonet on Jonah). None has succeeded in capturing the imagination of the reading public in the way fictional works like Archibald MacLeish s J. B . and Joseph Heller s God Knows have done.
It could be argued that the general public would derive little benefit from learning more about the personalities of the Bible. Their conduct, often less then exemplary, reveals a flawed character, and their everyday concerns have nothing to do with our preoccupations from dawn to dusk. To be sure, some individuals transcend their own age, entering the gallery of classical literary figures from time immemorial. But only these rare achievers can justify specific treatments of them. Then why publish additional studies on biblical personalities?
The answer cannot be that we read about biblical figures to learn ancient history, even of the sacred kind, or to discover models for ethical action. But what remains? Perhaps the primary significance of biblical personages is the light they throw on the imaging of deity in biblical times. At the very least, the Bible constitutes human perceptions of deity s relationship with the world and its creatures. Close readings of biblical personalities therefore clarify ancient understandings of God. That is the important datum which we seek-not because we endorse that specific view of deity but because all such efforts to make sense of reality contribute something worthwhile to the endless quest for knowledge.
James L. Crenshaw
Duke Divinity School
PREFACE
Although the figure of Ezra appears in only six chapters in the Hebrew Bible, he has sparked the imagination of writers, scholars, and tradents for almost two and a half millennia. Ezra s activities are described in chapters 7 -10 of the Book of Ezra and in chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah. He also makes a cameo appearance in Nehemiah 12. These two biblical books deal with the period of the return of Judeans to Judah under Cyrus the Great and tell how the returnees rebuilt Jerusalem and their temple. Ezra is described in these books as bringing the Torah (the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses) to Judah and reading it to the populace there.
The biblical story of Ezra inspired later writers and scholars. Fourth Ezra, written after the fall of the second temple, portrays Ezra as having dictated the entire Bible from memory since the original had been destroyed in the fire that destroyed the temple. Rabbinic traditions hail Ezra as a hero, the equal of Moses himself, and as the last prophet, the prophet Malachi. In contrast, several Church Fathers, as well as many medieval Samaritan and Muslim scholars, argue that Ezra falsified the text when he rewrote it and that the Bible we have now is not the same text that Moses had written but another. Modern biblical scholars attribute to Ezra the creation of Judaism and assert that without him Judaism would not exist.
Who was the real Ezra? What did he actually do? And how and why did all these conflicting and some rather unflattering views of him develop over the ensuing 2,400 years?
After a brief introduction, I present in chapter 2 the man whom I believe to be the real historical Ezra. This man would not be recognized in any of his other portrayals, not even in the Ezra depicted in the Hebrew Bible! In subsequent chapters I describe each of the other views of him and discuss how each originated and why. Each chapter discusses one ancient understanding of God, of his laws, and of the path toward salvation. It describes a journey of more than two thousand years that wends its way from ancient Judea and Arabia to modern Europe and the United States.
I want to express my appreciation to Peter Machinist for suggesting this book topic to me and to James Crenshaw for accepting my proposal for a volume on Ezra in history and tradition for his series Personalities of the Old Testament. It is truly an honor. I also thank him for the many profound suggestions for improvement he made on an earlier version. I would like to thank Debra Dash Moore and the Frankel Center of Judaic Studies as well as the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan for their continued support and encouragement. Without it, this book (and all my books and articles) would be impossible. Along with them I thank Jonathan Rodgers, head of the Near Eastern Collection at the University of Michigan Library; Karl Longstreth of the Clark Map Library at the University of Michigan; and Kim Schroeder of the Visual Resources Collection and Media Services, Department of History of Art, at the University of Michigan for all their efforts on behalf of this project. I want also to thank Natalie Niell for the wonderful work she did on all the indices.
My wonderful husband, Michael Fried, prepared the bibliography, and he and my friend Moshe Sharon read every word of the manuscript and critiqued it. Thank you, thank you. All remaining errors and problems are of course my own. My students of the Emeritus Program at Washtenaw Community College spent eight weeks reading, discussing, and commenting on the entire text and the ideas behind it. It is to them that I dedicate this book.
1
Introduction to the Continuing Story of Ezra, Scribe, and Priest
The biblical character of Ezra appears in only six chapters in the entire Bible, yet he has sparked the interest and concern of writers for more than two thousand years. He has been labeled a second Moses by the authors of the Talmud and a falsifier of the biblical text by Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim medieval scholars. Modern commentators have claimed he created Judaism, and without him Judaism would not exist. This book attempts to describe and to understand these conflicting images as well as to find the historical Ezra buried in the biblical text.
Ezra s activities are described in chapters 7 -10 of the book of Ezra and in chapter 8 and 12 of the book of Nehemiah. These two books, Ezra and Nehemiah, are the only narrative books of the Bible that deal with the period of the return of Judeans to Judah after the Babylonian exile. In 586 B.C.E . Judah was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. In the process, the temple was destroyed and the bulk of the population deported to Babylon or killed-either in the ensuing battles or by starvation and illness during the sieges of the cities. 1 In October 539 B.C.E ., however, Cyrus the Great of