A Skilled Scribe and Chronicler
Ezra, a skilled scribe and priest devoted to God’s law, likely played a key role in compiling and completing the Old Testament Scriptures, including the books of Chronicles.
Which skilled author did God use to complete the writing and compilation of the Old Testament Scriptures?
“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, who was also a priest, compiled and inscribed both 1 and 2 Chronicles—the concluding books in the Hebrew arrangement of the Old Testament Scriptures. Most conservative scholars agree that the internal biblical evidence supports this conclusion. Note that there is a 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 Jewish 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 kingdoms of Judah and Israel right up to the time of Cyrus’ 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.
