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Journey of a Passage

Nehemiah 8:8–9 and 1 Esdras 9:48–49

"Distinctly, and gave the sense"; and where is Nehemiah?

The Levites read "meforash, and gave the sense." Rabbinic tradition took this as translation into Aramaic; others read "clearly" or "with explanation." The library's Greek (Giguet) paraphrases quite differently. In the next verse, 1 Esdras has "Attharates" where Nehemiah has "Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha."

Read Nehemiah 8:8–9 and 1 Esdras 9:48–49 in every edition

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

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
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahMemoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC or laterTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgate (2 Esdras = Nehemiah)c. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. 1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha1611 (from a Greek text)Translated from Greek 1 Esdras
  2. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)

    Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC or later

    Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)

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

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

    Et ils lurent dans le livre de la loi de Dieu; puis, Esdras enseigna, et il apprit au peuple à connaître le Seigneur

    then Ezra taught, and instructed the people to know the Lord

    Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate (2 Esdras = Nehemiah)

    ✓ 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).

    legerunt in libro legis Dei distincte, et aperte ad intelligendum

    distinctly and openly for understanding

  4. 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.

    וַיִּקְרְאוּ בַסֵּפֶר בְּתוֹרַת הָאֱלֹהִים מְפֹרָשׁ וְשׂוֹם שֶׂכֶל… (8:9) וַיֹּאמֶר נְחֶמְיָה הוּא הַתִּרְשָׁתָא

    they read in the book, in the law of God, clearly (?) and giving the sense… (8:9) and Nehemiah, he is the Tirshatha, said

    Meforash also appears in Ezra 4:18 for an Aramaic letter "read plainly" or "translated."

  5. 1611 (from a Greek text)

    1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Greek 1 Esdras

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text.

    (9:48) taught the law of the Lord, making them withal to understand it. (9:49) Then spake Attharates unto Esdras the chief priest and reader

    1 Esdras 9:48–49, KJV Apocrypha. No Nehemiah; the title has become a name.

  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).

    So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha

What changed, and why

The Talmud (Megillah 3a; Nedarim 37b) reads meforash as "translation" (targum), making Ezra's reading the origin of the Aramaic Targums. Ezra 4:18 uses the same Aramaic word for a letter read before the king. Scholars divide: explanation, clear reading section by section, or translation. That 1 Esdras lacks Nehemiah here supports the view that his name was added when the books were joined.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented1 Esdras 9:49 has Attharates where Nehemiah 8:9 has Nehemiah. KJV Apocrypha; Hanhart's Greek not checked.
  • DisputedMeforash means translation into Aramaic.

Sources

Related lessons

  • The Public Reading of the Law and Booths →On the first day of the seventh month all the people, men, women and all who could understand, gather at the square before the Water Gate. Ezra the scribe reads the book of the law of Moses from a wooden platform from morning until midday; Levites help the people understand. The people weep; Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites tell them to celebrate instead. The next day the leaders find the command to dwell in booths and the whole community keeps the feast as it had not been kept since Joshua.
  • How Nehemiah Came to Us →Nehemiah begins with "the words of Nehemiah" and much of it is a first-person memoir, framed by lists, a public reading, a prayer and a covenant. In the Hebrew Bible it is the second half of the single book Ezra–Nehemiah. No verse of Nehemiah has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In Greek it is the last thirteen chapters of 2 Esdras; 1 Esdras shares only the public reading. Its earliest complete Hebrew copies are medieval.