Editing 1 Esdras (section)

==Author and criticism==
[[File:Codex Vaticanus (1 Esdras 1-55 to 2-5) (The S.S. Teacher's Edition-The Holy Bible).jpg|thumb|200px|right|The Septuagint: A column of [[uncial]] text from 1 Esdras in the ''[[Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209|Codex Vaticanus]]'', the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton's Greek edition and [[Brenton's English Translation of the Septuagint|English translation]].]]
The purpose of the book seems to be retelling the [[Return to Zion]] in a way that it revolved around the story of the dispute among the courtiers, the 'Tale of the Three Guardsmen'. Since there are various discrepancies in the account, most scholars hold that the work was written by more than one author. However, some scholars believe that this work may have been the original, or at least the more authoritative. Most scholars agree that the original language of the work was [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], with a few arguing for the originality of the [[Greek language|Greek]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible |last=de Troyer |first=Kristin |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-19-007411-1 |pages=370 |editor-last=Kelle |editor-first=Brad E. |chapter=1 Esdras: Structure, Composition, and Significance |editor-last2=Strawn |editor-first2=Brent A. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T_kFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA367}}</ref> The text contains similarities to the vocabulary in the [[Book of Daniel]] and [[II Maccabees]], and it is presumed that the authors came either from [[Lower Egypt]] or [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and wrote during the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid period]]. Assuming this theory is correct, many scholars consider the possibility that the book made use of an Aramaic chronicle.<ref>{{Cite book |title=1 Esdras |last=Böhler |first=Dieter |publisher=Kohlhammer Verlag |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-17-029801-9 |pages=14–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHYiEAAAQBAJ |series=International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament}}</ref>

[[Josephus]] makes use of the 1 Esdras which he treats as Scripture, while generally disregarding the canonical text of [[Ezra–Nehemiah]]. Some scholars believe that the composition is likely to have taken place in the second century BC.<ref>{{Cite book |title=1 Esdras |last=Böhler |first=Dieter |publisher=Kohlhammer Verlag |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-17-029801-9 |pages=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHYiEAAAQBAJ |series=International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament}}</ref> Many Protestant and Catholic scholars assign no historical value to the sections of the book not duplicated in [[Ezra–Nehemiah]]. The citations of the other [[books of the Bible]], however, provide an early alternative to the [[Septuagint]] for those texts, which increases its value to scholars.

In the current Greek texts, the book breaks off in the middle of a sentence; that particular verse thus had to be reconstructed from an early Latin translation. However, it is generally presumed that the original work extended to the [[Sukkot|Feast of Tabernacles]], as described in Nehemiah 8:13–18. An additional difficulty with the text appears to  readers who are unfamiliar with chiastic structures common in Semitic literature. If the text is assumed to be a Western-style, purely linear narrative, then [[Artaxerxes I of Persia|Artaxerxes]] seems to be mentioned before [[Darius I of Persia|Darius]], who is mentioned before [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]]. (Such jumbling of the order of events, however, is also presumed by some readers to exist in the canonical [[Ezra and Nehemiah]].) The Semitic chiasm is corrected in at least one manuscript of Josephus in the ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', Book 11, chapter 2 where we find that the name of the above-mentioned Artaxerxes is called Cambyses.

Some scholars, including [[Joseph Blenkinsopp]] in his 1988 commentary on Ezra–Nehemiah, hold that the book is a late 2nd/early 1st century BC revision of Esdras and Esdras β,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3PvirfZkfvQC Blenkinsopp, Joseph, "Ezra-Nehemiah: A Commentary" (Eerdmans, 1988)] pp.70–71</ref> while others such as L. L. Grabbe believe it to be independent of the Hebrew-language Ezra–Nehemiah.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VK2fEzruIn0C Grabbe, L.L., ''A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period'', Volume 1 (T&T Clark, 2004)] p.83</ref>