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Journey of a Passage

Ezra 1–10 and 1 Esdras 1–9

Ezra and 1 Esdras: two editions of one story

1 Esdras (Greek Esdras A) is not a translation of Ezra but a separate retelling. It starts with Josiah's Passover, reorders Ezra 4, adds the contest of the three bodyguards in which Zerubbabel praises truth, and ends with Ezra's reading of the law from Nehemiah 8. The bodyguards story has no Hebrew original.

Read Ezra 1–10 and 1 Esdras 1–9 in every edition

Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
  • Related (shared ancestry)
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. 1 Esdras (Esdras A), library's Greek (Giguet's French)Composed c. 2nd century BC (debated)Related witness to the Ezra tradition
  2. Esdras B (Greek Ezra–Nehemiah), library's Greek (Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st c. BCTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra–Nehemiah
  3. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 11.1–158c. AD 93–94Related witness to 1 Esdras
Latin
    English
    1. 1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)1611Translated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras
    2. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Structure

    1 Esdras 1
    = 2 Chronicles 35–36 (Josiah's Passover to the exile)
    1 Esdras 2:1–15
    = Ezra 1 (Cyrus' decree; vessels)
    1 Esdras 2:16–30
    = Ezra 4:7–24 (Artaxerxes' letter) placed before the return
    1 Esdras 3:1–5:6
    No parallel: the three bodyguards; Zerubbabel's speech on truth; Darius sends the exiles
    1 Esdras 5:7–73
    = Ezra 2:1–4:5 (list, altar, foundation, opposition)
    1 Esdras 6–7
    = Ezra 5–6 (Tattenai; the temple finished)
    1 Esdras 8:1–9:36
    = Ezra 7–10
    1 Esdras 9:37–55
    = Nehemiah 7:73–8:12 (Ezra reads the law)

    Every witness, in order

    1. Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      – No copy survives

      No original survives.

    2. Composed c. 2nd century BC (debated)

      1 Esdras (Esdras A), library's Greek (Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Related witness to the Ezra tradition

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Zorobabel ayant cessé de parler, tout le peuple cria à haute voix: La vérité est grande, et rien n'égale sa force.

      1 Esdras 4:41. One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

    3. Translated c. 2nd–1st c. BC

      Esdras B (Greek Ezra–Nehemiah), library's Greek (Giguet's French)

      ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Translated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Follows the Hebrew order; no bodyguards story. One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

    4. c. AD 93–94

      Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 11.1–158

      ❝ Quotes or alludes to part of itRelated witness to 1 Esdras

      How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

      Follows 1 Esdras, including the bodyguards, for the Persian period.

    5. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      No bodyguards story in the Hebrew–Aramaic book.

    6. 1611

      1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)

      ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      And all the people then shouted, and said, Great is Truth, and mighty above all things.

      1 Esdras 4:41.

    7. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Ezra has no such story; the KJV prints 1 Esdras separately in the Apocrypha.

    What changed, and why

    The bodyguards contest makes Zerubbabel the hero who wins Darius' favor, and it explains the return under Darius. Its wisdom-tale style is Hellenistic or Persian in flavor. Scholars debate whether 1 Esdras is the remnant of an older Hebrew edition of the Ezra story (in some parts) or a later compilation; most regard the bodyguards story as an added composition. Orthodox churches include 1 Esdras in the Old Testament; it is in the Catholic Vulgate's appendix and the Protestant Apocrypha; it is not in the Jewish Bible.

    What the evidence shows

    Sources

    Related lessons

    • How Ezra Came to Us →Ezra and Nehemiah were one book in Hebrew tradition, written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic, combining memoirs, lists and official letters. One Qumran manuscript, 4Q117, preserves pieces of the Aramaic chapters. In Greek there are two different books: Esdras B, a translation of Ezra–Nehemiah, and Esdras A (1 Esdras), a separate retelling with a story not found in Ezra. Their names in Latin and English are famously confusing.