What Is the First Book of Esdras?

The book of 1 Esdras consists mostly of content that overlaps with 2 Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah. It opens with Josiah's Passover celebration and the fall of the Kingdom of Judah (taken from 2 Chronicles) and goes on to narrate the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylonia and the reestablishment of their Temple and society (recapitulating Ezra-Nehemiah). Most of 1 Esdras is identical to the book of Ezra, but there is some variation. A distinctive feature is its glorification of leaders, especially Zerubabel, a governor of Judah who traced his lineage to King David, and Ezra the priest and scribe. The work is preserved only in Greek, and it is unclear whether it was translated from a Hebrew or Aramaic original or was from the outset a Greek translation and adaptation of the earlier biblical books. It is not in the Jewish Bible and is not considered canonical by the Catholic or Protestant Chruches, but it is included in Eastern Orthodox canons, and it appears in the Apocrypha in many Christian Bibles. In the Vulgate, which divides Ezra-Nehemiah into 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, the book is called 3 Esdras and appears as an appendix after the New Testament.