Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Ezra and Nehemiah, says St. Jerome in his epistle to Paulinus which is prefixed to the Bible, that is, "helper" and "consoler" from the Lord, are compressed into one volume; they restore the temple, build up the walls of the city, and all that throng of people returning to their fatherland, and the description of the priests, Levites, Israelites, proselytes, and the work of walls and towers divided among individual families — all these things present one thing on the surface, but retain another in their inner meaning.
Here note: the captivity of the Hebrews was twofold. The first was that of Israel, or the ten tribes, who were carried off into Assyria by Shalmaneser, and this was perpetual, as described in IV Kings XVII and Tobit I, verse 1. The second, which came 134 years after the first, was when the remaining two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were led away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, IV Kings, last chapter. This book treats of the return to Jerusalem from Babylon after 70 years of this second captivity, so that the history of the Jewish nation and of the Synagogue, that is, the Church of God, may be woven together in a continuous thread.
The first and second books of Ezra are canonical Scripture, and no one has doubted their authenticity. For they exist in Hebrew and are in the Hebrew canon; the third and fourth, however, are apocryphal, as I shall say in their proper place.
The author of the first book is Ezra, of the second Nehemiah, as is clear from the title of each, as well as from the course of the narrative. The book of Nehemiah is nevertheless called "Second Ezra," partly because it contains events accomplished jointly by Ezra and Nehemiah, partly because among the Hebrews and Greeks of old, Nehemiah and Ezra formed but a single book. So say Sixtus of Siena and Bellarmine, in On Ecclesiastical Writers under Nehemiah, and St. Jerome in the cited epistle, Lyranus, Dionysius, and others; although St. Athanasius in his Synopsis, and Isidore, Book VI of the Etymologies, chapter 11, hold that both the second and the first book were written by Ezra.
You ask first: Who was Ezra? I reply that he was the son of Seraiah, the high priest, who was slain by Nebuchadnezzar at the destruction of Jerusalem along with other leading men, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, IV Kings XXV, 18 and 21. That this is so is clear from chapter VII, verse 1, where Ezra, recounting his genealogy, says: "Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah (who was High Priest under Uzziah king of Judah, as is clear from II Chronicles XXVI, 20), the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok," etc. All of these are listed in the catalog of High Priests in II Chronicles VI, 12 and 14, where it is also added: "Seraiah begot Jozadak. And Jozadak went forth when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar." Whence it follows that Ezra, begotten from the same father Seraiah, was the brother of Jozadak, who was High Priest in the captivity, and to whom succeeded his son Joshua, also a High Priest, who with Zerubbabel as leader brought the Jews back from Babylon to Jerusalem. Indeed the Hebrews, as cited by St. Jerome in his Traditions on the Book of Chronicles, and Sixtus, Book I of the Library under Ezra, think that Ezra was the same person as Jozadak (for he had two names) and therefore was High Priest. Hence in III Ezra, last chapter, he appears to exercise the full and absolute pontifical authority in dissolving the marriages of the Israelites, even of priests, with foreign wives. But this cannot be maintained; for if Ezra was Jozadak the High Priest, then Joshua the son of Jozadak was not High Priest in Babylon — for Ezra was then still living. We must therefore say that Jozadak was the elder brother of Ezra, and therefore the High Priest, and that when he died in Babylon his son Joshua succeeded him, and consequently as High Priest led the people back from Babylon with Zerubbabel. For Joshua would not have done this, but rather Ezra, if he himself had been Jozadak the High Priest.
Rupert and others think that Ezra was the prophet Malachi, whose arguments I have reviewed at length and refuted in the proem to Malachi. Ezra did, however, live at the same time as Malachi, and treats nearly the same subject matter — which gave occasion for suspecting they were one and the same person.
You ask secondly whether Ezra was a prophet. St. Augustine seems to deny this, Book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXVI, saying: "Ezra is regarded as a writer of history rather than a prophet." But I say that Ezra was not merely a historiographer and a scribe, that is, a doctor of the law, but also a prophet. This is clear because by divine inspiration he wrote this book as canonical Scripture, and, as many hold, the books of Chronicles, and chapter XXXVI of Genesis, and the last chapter of Deuteronomy — for that chapter records the death of Moses, which Moses himself, being already dead, could not have written. Indeed St. Augustine, Book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXVI, etc., and St. Isidore, Book VI of the Etymologies, chapter 11, hold that Ezra was also the author of the book of Esther. Moreover it is no less, indeed a greater gift of prophecy, to compose sacred books from God than to predict the future. Finally, Ezra in this entire book narrates how the Jews, at the command of Cyrus, returning from Babylon to Jerusalem, began to restore the city with its temple, but were hindered by the calumnies of adversaries and compelled to desist.
You ask thirdly whether Ezra restored Holy Scripture. Many hold that all the books of the Old Testament were burned by the Chaldeans along with the Temple, and were restored by Ezra from memory that was more divine than human. For this seems to be narrated at length in IV Ezra, chapter XIV, a book that is cited from time to time as canonical by St. Augustine, Cyprian, Athanasius, Clement of Alexandria, and others. Hence from this book this opinion was drawn by Tertullian, in his book On the Apparel of Women, chapter VIII: "When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian conquest, it is agreed that the entire body of Jewish literature was restored by Ezra." St. Irenaeus, Book III, chapter XXV, speaking of the miraculous agreement of the Seventy translators: "It is not remarkable," he says, "that God accomplished this in them, since during the captivity of the people that took place under Nebuchadnezzar, when the Scriptures had been corrupted, and after 70 years when the Jews had returned to their land, then in the times of Artaxerxes king of Persia, He inspired Ezra the priest of the tribe of Levi to recall all the discourses of the former prophets, and to restore to the people the law that had been given through Moses." Eusebius asserts the same in the same words, Book V of his History, chapter VIII. St. Jerome, Against Helvidius: "Whether you wish to call Moses the author of the Pentateuch, or Ezra the restorer of the same work, I do not object." Clement of Alexandria, Book I of the Stromata: "Zerubbabel," he says, "having overcome his adversaries by wisdom, obtained from Darius the renewal of Jerusalem, and with Ezra returned to his fatherland, through whom the redemption of the people was achieved, and the review and renewal of the divinely inspired Scriptures."
St. Basil, in his epistle to Chilo: "Ezra," he says, "poured forth all the divine books by the command of God." Theodoret says the same in his preface to the Psalms; Isidore, Book VI of the Etymologies, chapter III; Rabanus, in his book On the Institution of Clerics, chapter LIV; Leontius, who narrates this more clearly in his book Against the Sects, action 2, at the end (it is found in volume IV of the Library of the Holy Fathers). "This return," he says, "was described by Ezra, who, when he came to Jerusalem and found all the books burned during the time when the people had been carried into captivity, is reported to have set down in writing from memory those 22 books which we enumerated above." The same is proved by Leo of Castro in his preface to Isaiah, IV — namely, that Ezra restored the books of the law from memory. Nor is this remarkable. More remarkable is what we read of St. Anthony of Padua, that he knew all of Holy Scripture so well that by the Pope he was surnamed "the Ark of the Testament." "For he had the pages of both Testaments so firmly fixed in his memory that, like Ezra, he could have restored all the sacred writings entire and complete from his memory, even if all the manuscripts had been utterly destroyed," says the author of his life.
But even though this opinion may seem probable on account of the great authority of the Fathers, yet far more probable, and based on certain reason, is the contrary opinion — namely, that neither were all the sacred books burned by the Chaldeans, nor were they restored from memory by Ezra. This is proved first because we nowhere read that the Chaldeans burned these books; and even granting that they burned all those that were in Jerusalem (which is incredible), they could not have burned those that were continually handled throughout all Judea, indeed throughout the whole world, by the hands of Jews, especially scribes and Rabbis, and were read in the synagogues.
Secondly, because Daniel, chapter IX, says that in the first year of Darius he understood the number of seventy years about which Jeremiah the Prophet had written. He therefore possessed the prophecy of Jeremiah and of the other prophets, and read it regularly.
Thirdly, because Josephus, Book XI, chapter I, testifies that the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter XLV, concerning Cyrus was shown to him by the Jews, and thereby made him well disposed toward them: "This," he says, "Cyrus learned from the reading of the book that contains the prophecies of Isaiah, written two hundred and ten years before his own time."
To the book of IV Ezra I reply that it is apocryphal. Moreover, in that book nothing is said about the sacred books of Moses or the Prophets being restored, but only that in 40 days 204 books were written down by five men, of which seventy were to be preserved and handed over to the wise, while the rest were to be published openly so that they might be read by worthy and unworthy alike — matters which have nothing in common with the books we are discussing. See more in Bellarmine, volume I, Book II, chapter I, and in Pererius, preface to Genesis, chapter VII.
To the Fathers I reply that most of them meant nothing other than that Ezra arranged the sacred books, which were in disorder, into their proper order, and divided them into lessons (which the Hebrews call Parasioth, and read successively in the synagogues). Furthermore, that he corrected the errors which had crept in through the fault of copyists, and restored the books to their original purity and polish — and this by knowledge not so much acquired as divinely infused. Hence in Ezra chapter VIII, 8, the Septuagint says that Ezra read what was written in those books "in the knowledge of the Lord," that is, through knowledge infused by God.
Finally, Ezra supplied what was lacking in individual books. Hence many hold that, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, he added to Moses chapter XXXIV of Deuteronomy, thereby describing the death and burial of Moses; that he did the same for Joshua, last chapter, and for Jeremiah, last chapter, where the reign of Evil-Merodach and the exaltation of Jeconiah are narrated — for Jeremiah could not have written this, being already dead. In a similar manner he seems to have supplied the endings of Tobit and Judith, for the book of Judith is thought to have been written by the High Priest Joachim, who died before Judith. Likewise Ezra seems to have added the phrase "unto the present day" wherever it is used, which is inscribed and repeated so often; so say Salian at the year of the world 3621, number 10, and Bede, Book II of the Allegories on Ezra.
St. Jerome in the Prologus Galeatus, and Eusebius in his Chronicle at the year of the world 4740, add that Ezra devised new Hebrew letters, which we still use today, and left the old ones to the Samaritans, so that the Jews would have no dealings with them, not even in matters of writing.
Others add that the vowel points (which serve the Hebrews in place of vowels) were invented by Ezra, but they err: for these did not exist in the time of the Seventy Translators, who came two hundred years after Ezra, nor in the time of St. Jerome, who came nine hundred years after; but they were devised by the Rabbis shortly after him in Tiberias, a city of Galilee, in the year 476 after the birth of Christ, as Genebrard teaches from Elias in the Massorah, at the year of the world 4573.
You ask fourthly, at what time did the history of Ezra and Nehemiah take place? I reply: at the time when, after the 70 years of captivity were completed, the Jews were freed from Babylon by Cyrus. The book of Ezra therefore contains what happened around this liberation from the first year of Cyrus's monarchy up to the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, when Ezra returned from Babylon to Jerusalem with other priests and Levites, as is clear from chapter VII — a span of 73 years. The book of Nehemiah covers the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem from year 7 to year 32 of the same Artaxerxes, as is clear from chapter XIII, 6 — a span of 25 years. Hence these two books were written in Hebrew, but with many Chaldean words intermixed. For the Hebrews in Babylon corrupted their Hebrew language and mixed it with Chaldean. He also records the letters of the kings of Babylon in the same language in which they were written, namely Chaldean, in chapters IV, V, VI, VII; for the same reason Daniel also wrote his book partly in Hebrew, partly in Chaldean.
From this it is clear that Ezra was very long-lived and extended his life to 132 years. For he lived until the seventh year of Artaxerxes, as is clear from chapter VII, verse 8. Since his father Seraiah was killed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, he must have been born at least in that same year, or was posthumous. Now from the eleventh year of Zedekiah to the first year of Cyrus, 60 years elapsed. Add to these three years of Cyrus, six of Cambyses, 36 of Darius Hystaspis, 27 of Artaxerxes, and you will have 132 years, which Ezra must have lived — and perhaps he lived even longer. For we do not know how long he extended his life afterward, nor do we know how many years before his father's death he was born.
Contemporaries and coeval with Ezra and Nehemiah were, among the prophets: Jeremiah, Baruch, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; from the royal line: Jeconiah, Shealtiel, and Zerubbabel; from the High Priests: Seraiah the father of Ezra, Jozadak his brother, and Joshua his nephew.
At this time was assembled the Synagogue or Great Synod, in which the canon of the books of Sacred Scripture was established. Presiding over it were Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Mordecai, Zerubbabel, and Joshua the son of Jozadak. In it was also decided the matter of correcting the books of Sacred Scripture and dividing them into their sections and chapters, the care of which was entrusted to Ezra. So the Hebrews report.
In the time of Ezra, the Chaldean monarchy flourished under Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-Merodach, and Belshazzar; in Media reigned Cyaxares and Astyages; in Persia, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. At Rome, when the kings had been expelled, the first consuls were appointed: Junius Brutus and Lucius Collatinus. In Greece flourished historians, poets, and philosophers — Herodotus, Pindar, Simonides, Anacreon, Aristoxenus, Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Arion, Sophocles, Euripides, Parmenides, Empedocles, Socrates — and among the Sibyls, the Cumaean and the Hellespontic. So say Eusebius, Torniellus, Genebrard, Salian, and others.
Moreover, because frequent mention must be made in these books, as also in the books of Judith and Esther, of the kings of Persia, to whom the monarchy was transferred by Cyrus upon the capture of Babylon, I shall here subjoin their succession and dates — for it sheds great light on these books.
Series of the Ancient Kings of Persia
The first was Cyrus, grandson of Astyages king of the Medes through his daughter Mandane, and son of Cambyses king of Persia, says Xenophon. He reigned for thirty years, but was monarch for only the last three, during which he freed the Jews from Babylon; as monarch, therefore, he reigned three years.
Second: Cambyses, son of Cyrus, who while his father Cyrus was setting out against the Scythians (where he also perished), ruled in Persia for two years; after his father's death, he reigned for six years. Ezra in chapter IV calls him Ahasuerus, and in verses 7 and 8, Artaxerxes. He obstructed the building of the temple that had been permitted by Cyrus, chapter IV, verse 23.
Third: Smerdis the Magus, who reigned seven months.
Fourth: Darius, son of Hystaspes, made king by the neighing of a horse, who reigned 36 years. He gave the Jews permission to complete the temple, Ezra VI, 7. Some think that this Darius was the husband of Esther, and therefore that the history of Mordecai and the hanging of Haman took place under him; but I shall examine this in the proem to Esther.
Fifth: Xerxes, son of Darius, who reigned 20 years. Under him many think the history of Judith took place, which I shall discuss in its place.
Sixth: Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus ("Long-hand") because one hand was longer than the other, son of Xerxes, who in the seventh year of his reign sent back Ezra, and in the twentieth year Nehemiah, to restore Jerusalem. From him begin the 70 weeks of Daniel, chapter IX, which end with Christ. He reigned 40 years.
Seventh: Darius, the illegitimate son (Nothus) of the aforementioned Artaxerxes. He reigned 19 years.
Eighth: Xerxes the Second, who reigned two months.
Ninth: Sogdianus, who reigned eight months.
Tenth: Artaxerxes, surnamed Mnemon, that is, "mindful," from the excellence of his memory. He was the son of Darius Nothus, and reigned 43 years.
Eleventh: Artaxerxes Ochus, 23 years.
Twelfth: Arses or Arsames, son of Ochus, three years.
Thirteenth: Darius, son of Arses, surnamed Codomannus, six years. For in the seventh year he was stripped of his kingdom and his life by Alexander the Great, who transferred the monarchy from the Persians to the Greeks.
These kings therefore reigned in Persia for 227 years, but only 200 from the monarchy of Cyrus. For Cyrus became monarch in the 27th year of his reign.
Allegorically, in this liberation of the Jews by Cyrus was signified the liberation of the human race from the captivity of the devil accomplished by Christ; tropologically, the liberation of Christians oppressed by pagans, accomplished by Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne, etc.; likewise the liberation of the faithful and penitent soul, which is effected daily by apostolic men. See Bede in volume three, who wrote an allegorical commentary on both Ezra and Nehemiah.
Receive now the series of the High Priests of the Jews, who were contemporaries of the kings just mentioned.
Series of the High Priests of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity to Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Philadelphus
1. Seraiah, or as Josephus has it, Sareas, son of Azariah the High Priest. When Jerusalem was taken, Nebuchadnezzar killed him along with 70 leading men, IV Kings, last chapter, verse 18.
2. Jozadak, son of Seraiah, carried away to Babylon, served as High Priest there for the entire time of the captivity until Cyrus, I Chronicles VI, 45.
3. Joshua or Jesus, son of Jozadak. He brought back the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem under Cyrus with Zerubbabel, and rebuilt the temple, Ezra III, 2.
4. Joiakim, son of Joshua, served as High Priest under Darius Hystaspes and Xerxes, Nehemiah XII, 10.
5. Eliashib, son of Joiakim, was High Priest under Artaxerxes Longimanus, Nehemiah III, 1, and last chapter, verses 4 and 6.
6. Joiada, son of Eliashib, High Priest under Darius Nothus, son of Longimanus, Nehemiah XII, 10.
7. Jonathan, son of Joiada, High Priest under Artaxerxes Mnemon, son of Darius Nothus, Nehemiah XII, 11.
8. Jaddua or Jaddo, son of Jonathan, Nehemiah XII, 11. He met Alexander the Great and reconciled him when he was offended with the Jews, as Josephus testifies, Book XI of the Antiquities, at the end. Jaddua's brother was Manasseh, the first High Priest of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim. See Josephus, Book XI of the Antiquities, chapter VII.
9. Onias the First, son of Jaddua, High Priest under Ptolemy Lagus, the first king of Egypt after Alexander, as attested by Josephus, Eusebius, and others.
10. Simon, son of Onias, surnamed "the Just," whose praises are described in Sirach, chapter L.
11. Eleazar, brother of Simon and son of Onias. He sent the 70 Translators to Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt, who translated Sacred Scripture from Hebrew into Greek, as attested by Josephus, Aristeas, Eusebius, and others.