A guide to Ezra

Who wrote Ezra, and when?

Traditionally Ezra. Events 538–about 457 BC; written about 440 BC.

The book is traditionally credited to Ezra the scribe, and several chapters (7 to 10) are written partly in the first person as his own memoir. The earlier chapters draw on official Persian documents, letters and lists, some of them preserved in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Ezra and Nehemiah were treated as one book in the Hebrew Bible, and many scholars think a later editor combined Ezra's memoir, Nehemiah's memoir and the archival material into the form we have. The events run from the decree of Cyrus in 538 BC to Ezra's reforms around 457 BC. The finished book is usually dated to about 440 BC or a little later, within living memory of the people it describes.

Who was Ezra written to?

The restored community in Judah, needing to keep its identity as God’s people among the nations.

Ezra was written for the restored community in Judah, the descendants of exiles who had returned to a small province of the Persian empire. They lived among neighbours who worshipped other gods and who sometimes offered help and sometimes opposition. The temple had been rebuilt, but the temptation to blend in, to marry outside the faith and to let the law slip was constant. The book gave them their own founding story: how God moved a pagan king to send them home, how the temple went up despite years of delay, and how a scribe who loved the law called them back to it. It was meant to strengthen their sense of being God's people in a foreign world.

What was happening at the time?

Cyrus of Persia lets the Jews go home in 538 BC. The first group under Zerubbabel rebuilds the altar and, despite opposition and long delay, finishes the temple in 516 BC. Decades later Ezra the scribe arrives with authority to teach the law and confronts the people over intermarriage with those who worshipped other gods.

Why was Ezra written?

To show God moving the hearts of kings to restore his people, and to call that people to holiness under his word.

Ezra wants its readers to see that the return from exile was God's work from start to finish. He stirred the heart of Cyrus, he sent prophets to restart the stalled building, and he gave Ezra favour with Artaxerxes. The book also wants them to respond with holiness. The temple is not enough on its own; the people must live by God's word, and the painful final chapters about intermarriage show a community trying to protect its identity from being absorbed. Christians differ on how to apply those chapters today, but agree on the underlying call to belong wholly to God. In the wider story of the Bible, Ezra shows the promises of return made by Jeremiah and Isaiah beginning to come true, and points toward a fuller restoration still to come.

How to read Ezra today

Read chapters 1 to 6 as one story of the temple, from decree to dedication, and notice how long the delay lasted and how the prophets Haggai and Zechariah got the work moving again. Then read chapters 7 to 10 as Ezra's own account. The prayer in chapter 9 is the emotional centre of the book. Watch for the phrase about the good hand of God, which the writer uses to explain every success. Do not force the intermarriage crisis of chapters 9 and 10 into a rule for today without care; it concerned religious loyalty in a specific moment, and Christians read it in the light of the whole Bible. As you read, pray about where your own life needs to be rebuilt, and ask for the kind of love for God's word that Ezra had.

The key verse in Ezra

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Passages worth knowing in Ezra

• Ezra 1

  Cyrus’s decree

  A pagan king fulfils Jeremiah’s prophecy.

• Ezra 3

  The foundation laid

  Joy and weeping mixed as the old remember the first temple.

• Ezra 6

  The temple finished

  Completed in the sixth year of Darius, with Passover celebrated.

• Ezra 7

  Ezra arrives

  He set his heart to study, do and teach the law.

• Ezra 9–10

  Ezra’s prayer and the people’s response

  Confession over intermarriage and costly repentance.

The main themes of Ezra

• Restoration
• God’s sovereignty over empires
• The temple
• The word of God
• Separation and holiness

An outline of Ezra