Which skilled author did God use to complete the Old TestamentThose books that make up the Hebrew Bible generally accepted by Christians, Jews and to some extent Muslims. It contains a threefold division: the Law (the five books of Moses), the Prophets and the Writings. ScripturesThe divinely inspired writings of both the Old and New Testaments. The term Scripture is used in the New Testament to refer to both the Hebrew Bible (Luke 24:44-45) and the new apostolic writings accepted as inspired (2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18).?
"This Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses . . ." (Ezra 7:6).
"For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel" (verse 10).
Jewish tradition says that Ezra compiled and inscribed both 1 and 2 Chronicles—the concluding books in the Hebrew arrangement of the Old TestamentThose books that make up the Hebrew Bible generally accepted by Christians, Jews and to some extent Muslims. It contains a threefold division: the Law (the five books of Moses), the Prophets and the Writings. scriptures. Most conservative scholars agree that the internal biblical evidence supports this conclusion. Note the marked similarity between the end of 2 Chronicles (36:22-23) and the beginning of Ezra (1:1-3). Shimshai and Zadok were also scribes at that critical point in Hebrew history (Ezra 4:8; Nehemiah 13:13) and may have assisted Ezra.
By compiling an essential history drawn from national records, Ezra most probably produced an inspired contemporary analysis of the fortunes of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel right up to the time of Cyrus's edict authorizing the Jews to rebuild and restore God's temple in Jerusalem. Recall that Ezra was a man with a right attitude toward the law of God.
