1 Esdras

Bird (New Testament, Highland Theological College, Scotland) contends that 1 Esdras, part of the Septuagint and of the Christian Apocrypha, has been neglected relative to the canonical books of the Masoretic Text and the apocalyptic 2 Esdras, which is appended to the Latin Apocrypha.

Sara Japhet's commentary on 1 Esdras appropriately avoids a full history of research on the relation of this text to Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah, but she still provides readers with a very useful overview.

Was 1 Esdras first?; an investigation into the priority and nature of 1 Esdras.

He alters his Vorlage in 1 Esdras 2: 18, which reads "the 'Iov[delta][alpha]ioi who came up from you to us" to read "the 'Iov[delta][alpha]ioi which were carried off to Babylon.

1 Esdras: A Text Critical Commentary, by Zipora Talshir.

The texts of Ezra, the Elephantine documents, 2 Maccabees, and 1 Esdras provide evidence for tactics of cooperation with authorities as well as deflection of their attention.

Of special interest is the paper by Sara Japhet, "Periodization: Between History and Ideology: The Neo-Babylonian Period in Biblical Historiography," She reviews Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles, and 1 Esdras and finds that these four historiographical works had different views of the Neo-Babylonian period (for instance, Kings gives some sparse historical data while Chronicles understands the time of exile theologically as a Sabbatical hiatus), but all four share a general indifference to defining it as a distinct era in the history of ancient Judah, in contrast to modern scholars.