Ezra: Former or Writer of the Old Testament Books

Abstract

Our note is devoted to the study of the role of Ezra in the formation of the cor- pus of books of the Old Testament. Partly information about this hinted in the canonical Book of Ezra. As it found out, among Greek exegetes were opinion that Ezra was more likely a codifier of the Holy Scriptures, while in the East Syrian interpretation (especially, in the work of Išo‘dad of Merv) were think that Ezra wrote the burnt Scripture ‘from his heart’. The interpretation of Išo‘dad is based, as it evidence, on the Syriac version of the 4th Book of Ezra.