Esdras

Es'dras (Εσδρας; Vulg. Esdras), the Graecized form, used throughout the Apocrypha (1 Esd. 8:1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 19, 23, 25, 91, 92, 96; 9:1, 7, 16, 39, 40, 42, 45, 46, 49; 2 Esd. 1:1; 2:10, 33, 42; 6:10; 7:2, 25; 8:2, 19; 14:1, 38), of the name of the scribe EZRA SEE EZRA (q.v.). In several manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate, as well as in all the printed editions anterior to the decree of the Council of Trent, and in many since that period, there will be found four books following each other, entitled the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th books of Ezra. The first two are the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the 3d and 4th form the subject of the articles below. They are the same which are called 1st and 2d Esdras in the English Authorized Version. For their use and relation to the canonical books see Josippon ben-Gorion (ed. Breithaupt, 1710), page 47 sq.; Trendelenburg, in Eichhorn's Biblioth. 1:180 sq.; Eichhorn, Einleit. in d. Apocr. page 335 sq.; Herzfeld, Gesct. d. Israel, page 320 sq.; Ewald, Gesch. Isr. 4:131 sq.; Keil, Einleit. in d. A. T. (ed. 1859), page 677 sq.; Davidson, Text of O.T. page 937 sq. SEE APOCRYPHA.