Esdras

Esdras (Greek: Ἔσδρας) is a Greco-Latin variation of the name of the scribe Ezra. It is found in the titles of several books associated with the scribe that are in or related to the Bible.

Naming conventions

The books associated with the scribe Ezra are titled differently in different versions of the Bible. The following table summarizes the various names:

The Thirty-nine Articles that define the doctrines of the Church of England follow the naming convention of the Vulgate. Likewise, the Vulgate enumeration is often used by modern scholars, who nevertheless use the name Ezra to avoid confusion with the Greek and Slavonic enumerations: 1 Ezra (Ezra), 2 Ezra (Nehemiah), 3 Ezra (Esdras A/1 Esdras), 4 Ezra (chapters 3–14 of 4 Esdras), 5 Ezra (chapters 1–2 of 4 Esdras) and 6 Ezra (chapters 15–16 of 4 Esdras).

Historical development

The two books universally considered canonical, Ezra and Nehemiah (lines 1 and 2 of the table above), may have been originally one book titled Ezra (= Esdras). Perhaps as early as Melito's canon of the 2nd century, Jews began to refer to the "two books of Ezra," where the second was Nehemiah. Sometime thereafter the Christian church followed suit.

Esdras (given name)

Esdras is a given name, and may refer to:

2 Esdras

2 Esdras (also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra) is the name of an apocalyptic book in many English versions of the Bible (see Naming conventions below). Its authorship is ascribed to Ezra. It is reckoned among the apocrypha by Catholics, Protestants, and most Eastern Orthodox. Although Second Esdras was preserved in Latin as an appendix to the Vulgate and passed down as a unified book, it is generally considered to be a tripartite work.

Naming conventions

As with 1 Esdras, there is some confusion about the numbering of this book. Some early Latin manuscripts call it 3 Esdras, while Jerome and the medieval Latin manuscripts denoted it 4 Esdras, which to this day is the name used for it in modern critical editions, which are typically in Latin, the language of its most complete exemplars. Once Jerome's 1 and 2 Esdras were denoted Ezra and Nehemiah in more recent times, the designation 2 Esdras became common in English Bibles. It appears in the Appendix to the Old Testament in the Slavonic Bible, where it is called 3 Esdras, and the Georgian Orthodox Bible numbers it 3 Ezra. This text is sometimes also known as Apocalypse of Ezra (chapters 3–14 known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra or 4 Ezra, chapters 1–2 as 5 Ezra, and chapters 15–16 as 6 Ezra).