Site links: Christianity Q & A | Orthodoxy | Protestantism | Roman Catholicism |Comments| Prayer Requests|

1 Esdras

About the Book of 1 Esdras.





books The Book:

1 Esdras is a deuterocanonical book accepted by all Orthodox Christians, but rejected as apocryphal by most mainstream "Orthodox" Jews, Catholics, and most Protestants. In large part it parallels the action of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Books of Chronicles, with some sections being translations of those books.

books Naming and Numbering:

The book now called 1 Esdras presents various problems of naming. In most editions of the Septuagint, the book is titled in Greek: Εσδρας Α′ (in Latin: Esdrae I) and is placed before the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which are together titled in Greek: Εσδρας Β′ (in Latin: Esdrae II).

However, Jerome, in his translation of the Vulgate, rejected Esdrae I as apocryphal, and titled the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as 1 and 2 Esdras, giving the current book (Esdrae I) the title 3 Esdras. Since most modern translations use the more Hebrew spelling of "Ezra" for the undoubtedly canonical book, Jerome's 3 Esdras is styled 1 Esdras and his 4 Esdras, an apocalyptic book rejected by most Christian canons [and so far existing only in Latin translation, 2 Arabic translations, a Syriac translation, an Ethiopian translation, and a Slavonic translation], becomes 2 Esdras.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which considers both this book and Ezra's apocalypse canonical and list them in the Slavonic Bible, counts the proto-canonical Ezra and Nehemiah as 1 Esdras, with the 3 and 4 Esdras of Jerome being labelled 2 and 3 Esdras, respectively.

books Contents:

The majority of the content of 1 Esdras completely parrallels Ezra, Nehemiah, and II Chronicles. In particular:


Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence.
View this article at Wikipedia.org



printer iconPrint this page

arrow up Top of page