Ezra 7:1-2

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. Ezra 7:1 At the beginning of the fourth century, or even earlier, Ezra was concerned to create a solid organization of his countrymen who had again settled in Palestine, in order to protect them against pagan influences. In his person a new kind of biblical personage makes his appearance: the scribe. The scholar, as servant of the royal court, had existed since David’s time, but now he becomes more important; as an expert in the law, he gradually replaces the priest (who henceforth deals almost exclusively with the ritual performance of worship) and becomes an influential personage. His often disturbing presence will be seen throughout the gospel story.
   The main element in Ezra’s reform has to do with the marriages of Jews to women of the local population and reaches the point of dismissing these foreign wives. To understand this resolution of the problem, we must look to the setting. Infidelity had brought the nation into exile; therefore only an intransigent fidelity could safeguard it against a new disaster. Furthermore, as the entire past showed, beginning with Solomon’s harem, infidelity made its way in through mixed marriages.
2. Ezra 7:1 Artaxerxes: this would seem to be Artaxerxes II (404–358 B.C.). Therefore, the seventh year of his reign is 398 B.C.