Guide to Ezra

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[edit] Book of Ezra

The Book of Ezra is an Old Testament book (one of the 11 Ketuvim) describing the last stages of Babylonian captivity and more importantly, the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. In literary structure, the Book of Ezra begins with the last section of Chronicles II and relates the historical events as they follow from there. The return from Babylon happened in two stages between 457 and 395. Much of the book is given to descriptions of the rebuilding of the temple. Ezra and Neimaha are one book in the Jewish TNK, but were split up from the Septuagint on.

[edit] Christian Editing

Other than being used to beat up gays but not lobster eaters, or being used to look foolish in the face of Science, for Christians, the Old Testament primarily acts as proof that Jesus is Super Cool™. To this end, Ezra had a 60 year gap in the text added by the Christian editors, which was necessary to make Jesus fulfill Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. An angel said to Daniel that Jerusalem cannot be restored until a period of 70 weeks has passed. Since the Jews return to Jerusalem finding the temple destroyed, rebuilding it before the 70 weeks are over, would not be sufficient for Daniel's New Jerusalem and the Anointed One to come. Therefore, Christian Theologians who believe Jesus was the Annointed One (Messiah or Christ), needed 70 years of peace to happen between the return of the Jews and the construction of the Temple. Hence the addition of the lapse in the Christian Ezra.