Persian Authorization of the Law
About This Entry
The first book of Esdras (called 3 Esdras in the Latin Vulgate) largely overlaps in content with the biblical book of Ezra, with some variations. The work is usually dated to the second century BCE. This selection—a parallel of Ezra 7:26—is an excerpt of a letter from King Artaxerxes (most likely Artaxerxes I, r. 465–424 BCE) authorizing Ezra the priest and scribe to establish a local legal system for the returnees from Babylonia according to the “law of your God.”
23“And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of God, appoint judges and justices to judge all those who know the law of your God, throughout all Syria and Phoenicia; and you shall teach it to those who do not know it. 24All who transgress the law of your God or the law of the kingdom shall be strictly punished, whether by death or some other punishment, either fine or imprisonment.”
Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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Ezra Reads from the Law of Moses
1 Esdras 9:37–47
Hasmonean Champions of Torah
1 Maccabees 1:52–57; 2:19–22
Torah at Qumran
Damascus Document 5:2–6|Rule of the Community 5:7–10