The University of South Carolina Press has released
Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition, by
Lisbeth S. Fried (visiting scholar in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the
University of Michigan; emeritus program lecturer at Washtenaw
Community College). Here's a description from the Press:
The historical Ezra was sent to Jerusalem as an emissary
of the Persian monarch. What was his task? According to the Bible, the
Persian king sent Ezra to bring the Torah, the five books of the Laws of
Moses, to the Jews. Modern scholars have claimed not only that Ezra
brought the Torah to Jerusalem, but that he actually wrote it, and in so
doing Ezra created Judaism. Without Ezra, they say, Judaism would not
exist.
In Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition,
Lisbeth S. Fried separates historical fact from biblical legend. Drawing
on inscriptions from the Achaemenid Empire, she presents the historical
Ezra in the context of authentic Persian administrative practices and
concludes that Ezra, the Persian official, neither wrote nor edited the
Torah, nor would he even have known it. The origin of Judaism, so often
associated with Ezra by modern scholars, must be sought elsewhere.
After discussing the historical Ezra, Fried examines
ancient, medieval, and modern views of him, explaining how each
originated, and why. She relates the stories told about Ezra by medieval
Christians to explain why their Greek Old Testament differs from the
Hebrew Bible, as well as the explanations offered by medieval Samaritans
concerning how their Samaritan Bible varies from the one the Jews use.
Church Fathers as well as medieval Samaritan writers explained the
differences by claiming that Ezra falsified the Bible when he rewrote
it, so that in effect, it is not the book that Moses wrote but something
else. Moslem scholars also maintain that Ezra falsified the Old
Testament, since Mohammed, the last judgment, and Heaven and Hell are
revealed in it. In contrast Jewish Talmudic writers viewed Ezra both as a
second Moses and as the prophet Malachi.
In the process of describing ancient, medieval, and
modern views of Ezra, Fried brings out various understandings of God,
God's law, and God's plan for our salvation.
More information is available
here. Subscribers to Project Muse may access the full text
here.
