Tradition says that Ezra, the scribe and scholar, is the author although the book doesn’t say so. He appears once in chapter 7 and the writing switches then to the first person. The book was probably written between 460 and 440 BC and covers events occurring in Israel at the time of the return from captivity in Babylon. It could not have been completed before 450 BC when the events in 10:17-44 are thought to have taken place. It also covers a period of approximately 100 years from 538 BC. The rebuilding of the temple is emphasised. Haggai was prophesying at the time of Ezra.
The book gives hope and assurance of restoration to a people who were flagging. Their numbers had decreased by a long way as only a remnant of 50,000 return from Babylon to Judaea.
Ezra himself seems to play a major role in the second half of the book, as well as in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is a sequel to the book of Ezra and in the Hebrew Bible, the two books were considered one, even though some evidence suggests they were written separately and joined together in the Hebrew canon (and separated again in English translations).
Ezra was a descendant of Aaron (7:1–5), thus a priest and scribe. His zeal for God and God’s Law spurred him to lead Jews back to Israel during King Artaxerxes’s reign over the Persian Empire (which had replaced the Babylonian Empire that originally exiled the people of Judah). Ezra assures the Jews that they are still God’s people, and He had not forgotten them.
God keeps His promises. Through the prophets, God had ordained that His chosen people would return to their land after a seventy-year exile. Ezra’s account proclaims that God kept His word, and it shows that when God’s people remained faithful to Him, He would continue to bless them.
Two time periods appear to be covered in the book. Chapters 1-6 deals with the first return of Jews, led by Zerubbabel, from captivity, a period of twenty years which begins with the edict of Cyrus (Persian ruler) in 538 BC, up to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem in 515 BC. Chapters 7-10 seem to commence more than 60 years later when Ezra led the second group of exiles in 458 BC. God moved the hearts of secular rulers (Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes) to allow, even encourage and help, the Jewish people to return home.
Together with the book of Nehemiah it represents the final chapter in the historical narrative of the Hebrew Bible.
