The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

162 The Aramaic Bible: Tar gums in their Historical Context
'commissioner (safra) for the law of the heavenly God' (Ezra 7,
12.21), and the author (probably the 'Chronicler') interpreted this as
'a scribe experienced in the law of Moses' (7.6), this latter had, by his
use of the term sofer, a scholar of the law in mind. This is accurate
enough because Ezra, the priest, would never have become a royal
Persian commissioner 'for the law of God in heaven', if he had not
been an expert in this law already before.
It seems to me that historically Ezra's activity in Jerusalem falls in
the seventh year of Artaxerxes II, Mnemon 398/7. And I agree with
H.H. Schaeder where he writes that 'no important argument can be
made against the assumption that the Book of the Torah of Moses,
interpreted by Ezra, is identical with the Pentateuch'. 2 The work of
the Chronicler, which was finished about 100 years later at the beginning
of Ptolemaic rule, assessed correctly the importance of Ezra as
the first 'scribe'. The reception of the Torah in its final form, which is
the most important event between the return from exile and the persecution
of religion under Antiochus IV in 167 BCE, is bound up with
his person.
Ezra appears in this role at the reading of the Torah at the Feast of
Tabernacles in Neh. 8.2-8:
And Ezra read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and gave the
sense, so that the people understood the reading.
These proceedings, where the reader stood on a platform and a
prayer was followed by a reading, a translation into Aramaic, and an
exegesis of the law, have been compared to a service in the synagogue.
But the first synagogues appear in Judea only from about the middle
of the first century BCE. Furthermore there is mention of a reading
only for the seven days of Sukkot, not for a sabbath service. The
priests in the small province of Jehud had no interest in competing
with the Temple through regular services in a synagogue. I suggest
however, that after the introduction of the new Torah, regular
readings took place in Jerusalem, which, on the basis of the account of
Nehemiah 8-10, were intended as public readings and involved the
approval of the whole Jewish community.
.Further, it is important that Ezra was a priest and a descendant of
2. Esra, der Schreiber (BHT 5; Tubingen, 1930), p. 63 = Studien zur
orientalischen Religionsgeschichte (Darmstadt, 1968), p. 227.