EZRA, BOOK OP

of Chronicles. The entire work — ChronicleB-Ezra-Nehemiah — is a compilation made by the Chronicler. See, further, Nehemiah [Book of], § 1.

1. Analysis of the book. — The Book of Ezra falls into two main divisions: (a) chs. 1-6; (6) chs. 7-10.

(a) Chs. 1-6 give an account of the Return and the re-building of the Temple. Ch. 1 tells how Cyrus, after the capture of Babylon in B.C. 538, issued an edict permitting the exiles to return; of the latter about 40,000 availed themselves of the opportunity and returned to Judaea under Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel, a member of the royal Davidic family, who was appointed governor (pechah) by Cyrus (b.c. 538-537). Ch. 2 contains a list of those who returned and their offerings for the building of the Temple. Ch. 3 describes how in October 537 the altar of burnt-oflering was re-erected on its ancient site, the foundation-stone of the Temple laid (May 536), and the work of re-building begun. Ch. 4 tells that, owing to the unfriendly action of neighbouring populations, the building of the Temple was suspended during the rest of the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses. It contains the correspondence between Rehum, Shimshai, and their com-panions, and king Artaxerxes. In 6«-'2 we are informed that, as a consequence of the earnest exhortations of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the building of the Temple was energetically resumed in the second year of Darius i. (b.c. 520). In 6»-6'* we have the correspond-ence between the satrap Tattenai and Darius. We read in 6^3-22 of how the Temple was successfully completed on the 3rd March 515 b.c. [An interval of silence, lasting nearly sixty years, ensues, of which there seems to be little or no record elsewhere.]

(6) Chs. 7-10 deal with Ezra's personal work. In ch. 7 the silence of nearly sixty years is broken in the year B.C. 458, when Ezra, the tmcher of the Law, at the head of a fresh band of exiles, leaves Babylonia bearing a commission from Artaxerxes r. to bring about a settle-ment in the reUgious condition of the Judsean community. Ch. 8 gives a list of the heads of families who journeyed with him, and tells of their arrival in Jerusalem. Ch. 9 describes the proceedings against the foreign wives, and contains Ezra's penitential prayer. In ch. 10 we read that an assembly of the whole people, in December 458, appointed a commission to deal with the mixed marriages. The narrative abruptly breaks off with an enumeration of the men who had married strange women.

2. Sources of the book. — In its present form the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah is, as has been pointed out, the work of the Chronicler. The compilation, however, embraces older material. The most important parts of this latter are undoubtedly the autobiographical sections, which have been taken partly from Ezra's, partly from Nehemiah's, personal memoirs.

FABLE

(a) Extracts from Ezra's memoirs embodied in the Book of Ezra.— The long passage Ezr 7"-9« (except 8^- ^) is generally admitted to be an authentic extract from Ezra's memoirs. The abrupt break which takes place at 9" must be due to a compiler. 'The events of the next thirteen years were clearly of too dismal a character to make it desirable to perpetuate the memory of them ' (Cornill). [It is probable that an even larger excerpt from these memoirs is to be seen in Neh 9«-10".]

It seems probable that these memoirs were not used by the Chronicler in their original form, but in a form adapted and arranged by a later hand, to which Ezr 10 is due. This latter narrative is of first-rate importance and rests upon extremely good information. It was probably written by the same hand that composed the main part of Neh 8-10 (see Nehemiah [Book of], § 2).

The Imperial finnan — an Aramaic document (712-26) — t^g essential authenticity of which has now been made certain — is_ an extract from the memoirs preserved in the same com-piler's work, from which Ezr 2 ( = Neh 7^-'3)was also derived. The introductoiy verses (71 -n) are apparently the work of the Chronicler.

(6) Other sources of the book. — The other most im-portant source used by the Chronicler was an Aramaic one, written, perhaps, about b.c. 450, which contained a history of the building of the Temple, the city walls, etc., and cited original documents. From this authority come Ezr 4«-k 51-616 (cited verbally).

The CThronicler, however, partly misunderstood his Aramaic source. He has misconceived 4^, and assigned a false position to the document embodied in 4'-2*.

(c) Passages written by the Chronider. — The following passages bear clear marks of being the actual composi-tion of the Chronicler: Ezr 1. 32-4' 424 6i«-7" 8^- "6.

3. Separation of Ezra from Chronicles. — It would appear that after the great work of the Chronicler had been completed (1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah), the part which contained narratives of otherwise un-recorded events was first received into the Canon. Hence, in the Jewish Canon, Ezra-Nehemiah precedes the Books of Chronicles. In the process of separation certain verses are repeated (Ezr n-3» = 2 Ch 3622- 23); V.22 seems to have been added in 2 Ch 36 to avoid a dismal ending (v.21).

For the historical value of the book of. what is said under Nehemiah [Book of], § 3. G. H. Box.

EZRAH.— A Judahite (1 Ch 4").

EZRAHITE.— A name given to Heman in the title of Ps 88, and to Ethan (wh. see) in Ps 89. It is used of Ethan also in 1 K 4=1.

EZRI. — David's superintendent of agriculture (1 Ch 2726).

EZRIL.— 1 Es 9M=Azarel, 4 (Ezr 10!').

F

FABLE. — For the definition of a fable, as distinct from parable, allegory, etc., see Trench, Parables, p. 2 ff. Its main feature is the introduction of beasts or plants as speaking and reasoning, and its object is moral instruction. As it moves on ground common to man and lower creatures, its teaching can never rise to a high spiritual level. Worldly prudence in some form is its usual note, or it attacks human folly and frailty, sometimes in a spirit of bitter cynicism. Hence it has only a small place in the Bible. See Parable.

1. In OT. — There are two fables in the OT, though the word is not used; it is perhaps significant that neither is in any sense a message from God. (1) Jotham's fable of the trees choosing their king illustrates the

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folly of the men of Shechem (Jg Qs). (2) Jehoash's fable of the thistle and the cedar (2 K 14') is his re-buke of Amaziah's presumption — a rebuke in itself full of haughty contempt, however well grounded. Ezk 173-1" is not a fable, but an allegory. In Bar 323 'authors of fables' occurs in the list of wise men of the earth who have not yet found Wisdom. Sir 13" would seem to be a reference to jEsop's fables; so Mt 71'. This type of literature was freely used by later Jewish teachers, and jEsop's and other fables are frequently found in the Talmud.

2. In NT. — ' Fable' occurs in a different sense. It is used to translate the Gr. 'myth,' which has lost its better sense as an allegorical vehicle for truth, whether