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On Esdras.—The story that the books were burnt with the temple proved false by Maccabees: "Jeremiah gave them the law."
The story that he recited the whole by heart. Josephus and Esdras point out that he read the book. Baronius, Ann., p. 180: Nullus penitus Hebræorum antiquorum reperitur qui tradiderit libros periisse et per Esdram esse restitutos, nisi in IV. Esdræ. [1]
The story that he changed the letters.
Philo, in Vita Moysis: Illa lingua ac character quo antiquitus scripta est lex sic permansit usque ad LXX.[2]
Josephus says that the Law was in Hebrew when it was translated by the Seventy.
Under Antiochus and Vespasian, when they wanted to abolish the books, and when there was no prophet, they could not do so. And under the Babylonians, when no persecution had been made, and when there were so many prophets, would they have let them be burnt?
Josephus laughs at the Greeks who would not bear…
Tertullian.—Perinde potuit abolefactam eam violentia cataclysmi in spiritu rursus reformare, quemadmodum et Hierosolymis Babylonia expugnatione deletis, omne instrumentum Judaicæ literaturæ per Esdram constat restauratum.[3]
He says that Noah could as easily have restored in spirit the book of Enoch, destroyed by the Deluge, as Esdras could have restored the Scriptures lost during the Captivity.
(Θεὸς) ἐν τῇ ἐπὶ Ναβουκοδόνοσορ αἰχμαλωσίᾳ τοῦ λαοῦ, διαφθαρεισῶν τῶν γραφῶν… ἐνέπνευσε Εσδρᾷ τῷ ἱερεῖ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Λευὶ τοῦς τῶν προγεγονότων προφητῶν πάντας ὰνατάξασθαι λόγους, καὶ ὰποκαταστῆσαι τῷ λαῷ τὴν διὰ Μωυσέως νομοθεσίαν.[4] He alleges this to prove that it is not incredible that the Seventy may have explained the holy Scriptures with that
- ↑ “Nothing is found within the ancient Hebrew writings which recorded that the books perished and were restored through Esdras, except in Esdras, IV.”
- ↑ “The same language and character in which the Law was written in ancient times remained till the Septuagint.”
- ↑ Tertullian, De cultu femin., ii. 3.
- ↑ Eusebius, Hist. lib., v., c. 8.
