myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Ezra 4:7–11

Where the Aramaic begins, and "Bishlam"

Ezra 4:7 says the letter was "written in Aramaic and translated"; from 4:8 the book itself is Aramaic. In 4:7 the Hebrew bishlam is a name in the KJV and "a peaceable letter" in the library's Greek. 4Q117 reportedly preserves parts of 4:9–11.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. 4Q117 (4QEzra), Qumran Cave 41st century BC (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)c. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

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

    Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

    Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra

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

    Tabéel écrivit une lettre bienveillante à Mithradate… une lettre en syriaque avec la traduction.

    One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

  3. 1st century BC (reported)

    4Q117 (4QEzra), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

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

    Reported to preserve parts of 4:9–11 in Aramaic. Letters not collated by the site.

    Source: Qumran Digital Reader, 4Q117 (4QEzra), transcription ↗; E. Ulrich, "4QEzra," in Qumran Cave 4.XI: Psalms to Chronicles, DJD XVI (2000) (edition not yet consulted by the site)

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    scripsit Beselam, Mithridates, et Thabeel… epistola autem accusationis scripta erat syriace, et legebatur sermone syro.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, 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.

    כָּתַב בִּשְׁלָם מִתְרְדָת טָבְאֵל… וּכְתָב הַנִּשְׁתְּוָן כָּתוּב אֲרָמִית וּמְתֻרְגָּם אֲרָמִית

    Bishlam (or: in peace) wrote, Mithredath, Tabeel… and the writing of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated: Aramaic

    The second "Aramaic" is probably a scribal heading marking that what follows is in Aramaic.

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

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

    wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel… written in the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in the Syrian tongue.

    "Syrian" = Aramaic.

What changed, and why

The repeated "Aramaic" in 4:7 is best explained as a label: like a note in the margin, it tells the reader that the text changes language here. The Aramaic then continues to 6:18, including narrative. The site's library shows the original language of every verse; English translations do not mark the change.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedEzra 4:8–6:18 is in Aramaic.
  • Disputed"Bishlam" is a personal name.

Sources

Related lessons

  • Opposition, Letters and a Leap in Time →"The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin" offer to help build, saying they have worshiped Israel's God since Esarhaddon brought them. Zerubbabel and Jeshua refuse. The people of the land then weaken the builders through Cyrus' reign to Darius'. The chapter then leaps forward: accusations under Xerxes, and under Artaxerxes an Aramaic letter about the city's walls and the king's order to stop. Verse 24 returns to the temple and Darius' second year.
  • 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.