1 Esdras

What 1 Esdras is about

First Esdras covers ground the reader of Ezra will recognise: Josiah’s Passover, the fall of Jerusalem, the decree of Cyrus, the return of the exiles, opposition to the rebuilding, the completion of the temple, and Ezra’s reading of the law. It is a Greek version of that history, arranged somewhat differently and with one substantial episode found nowhere else.

That episode is the story of the three young bodyguards of King Darius. Each writes down what he believes is the strongest thing in the world and the king promises to reward the best answer. The first says wine. The second says the king. The third — identified as Zerubbabel — says women are stronger, and then says that above all things truth is the victor, in a speech that ends with the line the whole passage is remembered for: great is truth, and mighty above all things. Darius grants him his request, which is permission to rebuild Jerusalem.

The book ends mid-sentence, as Ezra’s reforms are underway, which has led most scholars to think the ending has been lost.

Where it sits

First Esdras is a witness to how Jewish communities in the Greek-speaking world told the story of the return. Where its account differs from Ezra and Nehemiah in order or detail, it gives historians a second line of evidence about how that history was remembered and arranged.

Its canonical standing differs across the church. Orthodox Christians receive it as scripture. It is not part of the Catholic canon, though it was printed in an appendix to the Latin Vulgate, and Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha print it there. Readers will find it under different names in different Bibles — sometimes 1 Esdras, sometimes 3 Esdras — which can cause confusion.

Why it is worth reading

For the contest at Darius’s court, which is a genuinely fine piece of storytelling and unlike anything else in this literature, and for the chance to see a familiar history told by a different hand. Read Ezra and Nehemiah first; this book is most interesting alongside them.