who wrote the book of ezra in the bible
Book of Ezra Twentieth-century views on the composition of Ezra revolved around whether the author was Ezra himself (and who may have also authored the Books of Chronicles) or was another author or authors (who also wrote the Chronicles).[22] More recently it has been increasingly recognised that Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles all have extremely complex histories stretching over many stages of editing,[23] and most scholars now are cautious of assuming a unified composition with a single theology and point of view.[24] As an indication of the many layers of editing which Ezra has undergone, one recent study finds that Ezra 1–6 and Ezra 9–10 were originally separate documents, that they were spliced together at a later stage by the authors of Ezra 7–8, and that all have undergone extensive later editing.[25]
Return to Zion The return to Zion (Hebrew: שִׁיבָת צִיּוֹן‎, Shivat Tzion, or שבי ציון‎, Shavei Tzion, lit. Zion returnees) refers to the event in the biblical books of Ezra-Nehemiah in which the Jews returned to the Land of Israel from the Babylonian exile following the decree by the emperor Cyrus the Great, the conqueror of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE, also known as Cyrus's edict. The term was first coined after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.[citation needed]