3rd book of Ezra
The 3rd Book of Esra (abbreviated 3 Esra ), also 1st Book of Esdras ( 1 Esdras ; ancient Greek Εσδρας α ' Esdras alpha ) is a history book that belongs to the canon of the Septuagint , but not to that of the Hebrew Bible . For a long time it runs parallel to the book Ezra – Nehemia of the Hebrew Bible.
Surname
Esdras (Εσδρας) is the Greek form of the name Esra ( Hebrew עֶזְרָא 'Ezrā , Latin Ezra ).
When naming, it should be noted that different counts of the Esra scripts compete with each other. The naming of the 'third' book Esra, which is common in the German-speaking world, owes the book to its position in the Vulgate editions. Since the Editio Sixto-Clementina (1592) it has been used regularly as 'III Ezrae' in the appendix, after the New Testament and Manasseh's prayer , before the apocalyptic IV Ezrae . In the Vulgate, the biblical books Esra and Nehemia , which Jerome himself translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, are referred to as 'I Ezrae' and 'II Ezrae' .
In the Septuagint, however, this book was initially the only Esra script. It is called here 'Esdras alpha' or the 'first book of Esdras' because the more recent, relatively literal Greek translation of Esra – Nehemiah usually only came second in the manuscripts, as the 'second book of Esdras' ( ancient Greek Εσδρας β ' Esdras beta ). In the Lucian manuscripts as well as in the Ethiopian and Slavic Bible translations, the two Greek Esra books change the order.
| Hebrew Bible | Septuagint | Vulgate | German Bibles | Apocrypha (German) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1. Esdras | III Ezrae | - | 3rd Ezra |
|
Ezra-Nehemiah ( a book) |
2. Esdras ( a book) |
I Ezrae II Ezrae |
Ezra Nehemiah |
- |
| - | - | IV Ezrae | - | 4. Ezra |
Text and translations
The oldest known version of 3 Esra / 1st Esdras is Greek. However, the book goes into Chap. 1–2 and 5–9 safely based on Hebrew and Aramaic models, in Chap. 3–4 probably based on an Aramaic model. It is controversial whether the whole book was put together for the Greek translation or whether there was a Hebrew-Aramaic original.
Volume VII / 1 of the Göttingen Septuagint company, published in 1991 and edited by Robert Hanhart , serves as the critical edition of the Greek text . This is also the basis of the German translation in the German Septuagint .
The Latin version in the appendix to the Vulgate has also been available in a German translation since 2018.
The book is not included in the German Bible editions with Apocrypha. In contrast, it belongs (as '1 Esdras') to the King James Version and to many more recent English Bible translations.
In Emil Kautzsch 's classic edition of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphs , The Third Book Ezra comes first. Paul Rießler only translated the 3rd and 4th chapters, with the competition of the personal pages.
Content and relationship to the sources
The book deals with individual episodes of the history of Judah from the Passover celebration under King Josiah to the reading of the Torah by Ezra in Jerusalem. The focus is on a detailed account of a competition between three pages at the court of Darius I , from which Zerubbabel emerges as the winner. The content, with the parallels, is the following:
| 3 Ezra | parallel | content |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1-31 | 2 Chr 35.1–27 EU | Passover celebration under Josiah and Josiah's end |
| 1.32-55 | 2 Chr 36.1–21 EU | End of the kingdom of Judah: Jehoiakim , Jehoiachin and Zedekiah |
| 2.1-14 | Esr 1,1-11 EU | Edict of Cyrus : Permission to return and order to build a temple in Jerusalem |
| 2.15-26 | Esr 4.7-24 EU | Interruption of the temple construction under Artaxerxes |
| 3.1-4.63 | - | The pages compete before Darius: What is most powerful, the wine, the king or the women and the truth? |
| 5.1-6 | - | Return to Jerusalem under Darius |
| 5.7-46 | Esr 2.1-70 EU | List of returnees |
| 5.47-63 | Esr 3,1-13 EU | New construction of the altar and laying of the foundation stone of the temple |
| 5.64-71 | Esr 4.1-5 EU | Interruption of the temple construction |
| 6.1-7.9 | Esr 5.1 EU –6.18 EU | Resumption and completion of the temple construction |
| 7.10-15 | Esr 6.19-22 EU | Common Passover in Jerusalem |
| 8.1-66 | Esr 7.1 EU –8.36 EU | Ezra leads exiles back to Jerusalem under Artaxerxes |
| 8.67-9.36 | Esr 9.1 EU -10.44 EU | Esra's fight against mixed marriages |
| 9.37-55 | Neh 7.73 EU -8.12 EU | Ezra reads the law of Moses |
If you consider the relationship between 3 Ezra and the parallel texts, then the relationship to the chronicle is easiest to explain: The end of the chronicle was reused in 3 Ezra as an introduction. In contrast, the relationship to Ezra-Nehemiah is explained differently in research. In addition to cuts, there must have been changes and expansions. In 3 Esra the so-called Nehemiah memorandum is missing, in Esra-Nehemia the page competition is missing. In addition, the chronological sequence of the events under the kings Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes is different.
Text output
- Robert Hanhart (Ed.): Esdrae Liber I. Septuaginta, id est Vetus Testamentum Graecum, Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum VIII, 1 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991.
literature
- Dieter Böhler: Esdras, Books of . In: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR). Volume 7, de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-018375-7 , Sp. 1198-1202.
- Dieter Böhler: The first book Esdras / The third book Esra. In: Martin Karrer and Wolfgang Kraus (eds.): Septuaginta German. Explanations and commentaries on the Greek Old Testament. German Biblical Society, Stuttgart 2011, Volume 1, pp. 1165–1197.
Remarks
- ^ Andreas Beriger, Widu-Wolfgang Ehlers and Michael Fieger: Biblia Sacra Vulgata Latin-German. Volume V: Evangelia - Actus Apostolorum - Epistulae Pauli - Epistulae Catholicae - Apocalypsis - Appendix. de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, pp. 1184–1251.
- ↑ Hermann Guthe : The third book Esra. In: Emil Kautzsch: Apocrypha and pseudepigraphs of the Old Testament. Volume 1: Apocrypha. Mohr, Tübingen u. a. 1900, pp. 1-23.
- ↑ Paul Rießler: Old Jewish literature outside the Bible. Benno Filser Verlag, Augsburg 1928, pp. 247-254 digitized .