📖 Biblical Definition
The book of Ezra recounts in two movements the great post-exilic return. Chapters 1-6 record the first return under Zerubbabel (538 BC) and the rebuilding of the temple — laying the foundation, encountering Samaritan opposition, halting under Persian decree, resuming under Haggai and Zechariah’s preaching, and completing the second temple in 516 BC. Chapters 7-10 narrate Ezra’s later return (458 BC) as priest-scribe-teacher, his commission from Artaxerxes, his journey, and his reform of the people — confronting the scandal of mixed marriages with pagan women (Ezra 9-10). The book opens with one of Scripture’s most striking lines: "The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" (Ezra 1:1). Pagan kings serve covenant purposes.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Ezra — priest, scribe, reformer; the book of the post-exilic return.
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The first six chapters cover the return under Zerubbabel and the rebuilding of the temple (538–516 BC). The last four chapters describe Ezra's return some sixty years later to teach the law and confront the scandal of mixed marriages.
📖 Key Scripture
Ezra 1:1 — "The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom."
Ezra 7:10 — "Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments."
Ezra 3:11 — "They sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD… he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel."
Ezra 8:22 — "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Ezra's reforms are condemned as ethnocentric exclusion rather than covenant fidelity.
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Modern commentators frequently denounce Ezra's dissolution of mixed marriages as racism and proto-nationalism. The book's emphasis on covenant separation is read as prejudice rather than holiness.
Scripture frames Ezra's reform as recovery of covenant identity: a remnant just released from seventy years of exile (caused largely by syncretism) cannot survive another generation of compromise. The issue is the gods of the spouses, not the ethnicity.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Sopher (scribe) and torah (law) define Ezra's ministry.
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Usage
"A scribe who set his heart to do the law before he taught it."
"God moved a Persian emperor's heart to release His people."
"A returning remnant rebuilt the altar before they laid the temple foundation."