person · P0049
Ezra עזרא הסופר
The scribe who refounded Torah life in the Land after the return from Bavel — "a scribe fluent in the Torah of Moshe." His beit din is, per the Rambam, the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah itself, making him the head of the twenty-second link in the chain and the pivot from prophecy to the age of the sages.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- עזרא הסופר
- Also known as
- Ezra HaSofer, Ezra the Scribe
- Era
- second-temple
- Received the mesorah from
- Baruch ben Neriah
- Transmitted the mesorah to
- Shimon HaTzaddik
- Teachers
- Baruch ben Neriah
- Colleagues
- Nechemiah
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3380–3448 AM (aliyah to Jerusalem 3413 AM)
- Academic
- mission dated 458 BCE (7th year of Artaxerxes I) or 398 BCE (Artaxerxes II); debated
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈68 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ezra and his court received the Oral Torah from Baruch ben Neriah and his court; and "the court of Ezra — they are the ones called the Men of the Great Assembly."
Confidence is for the chain as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| "He was a scribe fluent in the Torah of Moshe... for Ezra had set his heart to seek out the Torah of God, and to do it, and to teach statute and law in Israel."
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| "Ezra was worthy that the Torah be given to Israel through him, had Moshe not preceded him" — the Gemara's measure of his stature. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| Traditional dating puts his aliyah at 3413 AM; academic dating puts his mission at 458 BCE (7th year of Artaxerxes I), with a minority arguing 398 BCE (Artaxerxes II). Because traditional and academic chronologies diverge by roughly 166 years across the Persian period, the two systems are stated separately and never merged.
Schematic traditional dating; academic date itself debated. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |