Editing Ezra (section)

===Timeline===
Scholars debate the dating of Ezra’s mission due to textual emendations and lack of extrabiblical evidence, with proposed timelines placing his activity either during the reign of [[Artaxerxes I]] or [[Artaxerxes II]], complicating the historical context and relationship with Nehemiah.<ref name="Frevel 2023"/> Ezra came to Jerusalem "in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the King".<ref>{{bibleverse||Ezra|7:7|131}}</ref> The text does not specify whether the king in the passage refers to Artaxerxes I (465–424 BCE) or to [[Artaxerxes II of Persia|Artaxerxes II]] (404–359 BCE).<ref name="igb">{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=J.R. |title=The Illustrated Guide to the Bible |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7607-2278-7 |location=New York |pages=115–16}}</ref><ref>The dates of Nehemiah's and Ezra's respective missions, and their chronological relation to each other, are uncertain, because each mission is dated solely by a regnal year of an [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenian]] King Artaxerxes; and in either case we do not know for certain whether the Artaxerxes in question is [[Artaxerxes I]] (465–424 BCE) or [[Artaxerxes II]] (404–359 BCE). So we do not know whether the date of Ezra's mission was 458 BCE or 397 BCE' [[Arnold J. Toynbee]], ''[[A Study of History]]'', vol. 12 (1961) [[Oxford University Press]], 1964 pp. 484–85 n.2</ref> Most scholars hold that Ezra lived during the rule of Artaxerxes I, though some have difficulties with this assumption:<ref name="Britannica" /> Nehemiah and Ezra "seem to have no knowledge of each other; their missions seem to have no overlap".  These difficulties have led many scholars to assume that Ezra arrived in the seventh year of the rule of Artaxerxes II, i.e. some 50 years after Nehemiah. This assumption would imply that the biblical account is not chronological. The last group of scholars regard "the seventh year" as a scribal error and hold that the two men were contemporaries.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref name="Edwards Gadd Hammond Boardman 1970 p. ">{{cite book | last1=Edwards | first1=I. E. S. | last2=Gadd | first2=C. J. | last3=Hammond | first3=N. G. L. | last4=Boardman | first4=John | last5=Lewis | first5=David M. | last6=Walbank | first6=F. W. | last7=Astin | first7=A. E. | last8=Crook | first8=J. A. | last9=Lintott | first9=A. W. | last10=Rawson | first10=Elizabeth | last11=Bowman | first11=Alan K. | last12=Champlin | first12=Edward | last13=Garnsey | first13=Peter | last14=Rathbone | first14=Dominic | last15=Cameron | first15=Averil | last16=Ward-Perkins | first16=Bryan | last17=Whitby | first17=Michael | last18=Sollberger | first18=Edmond | author19=Cambridge University Press | title=The Cambridge ancient history | publication-place=Cambridge [England] | year=2002 | isbn=0-521-85073-8 | oclc=121060 | page=272}}</ref>
However, in Nehemiah 8, Nehemiah has Ezra read the Torah to the people. So, they clearly were contemporaries working together in Jerusalem at the time the wall and the city of Jerusalem were rebuilt in contrast to the previously stated viewpoint.<ref name="MaryJ2">{{cite book
 | last = Winn Leith
 | first = Mary Joan
 | editor = Michael David Coogan
 | title = The Oxford History of the Biblical World
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zFhvECwNQD0C
 | orig-year = 1998
 | year = 2001
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | location = [[Oxford]]; [[New York City|New York]]
 | isbn = 978-0-19-513937-2
 | oclc = 44650958
 | pages = 281
 | chapter = Israel among the Nations: The Persian Period
 | lccn = 98016042
}}
</ref> There is a much clearer problem with the timeline in a story from Ezra 4, that tells of a letter that was sent to Artaxerxes asking to stop the rebuilding of the temple (which started during the reign of Cyrus and then restarted in the second year of Darius, in 521 BCE). Clearly no such letter could have been sent to Artaxerxes, as he only became king in 465 BCE, so apparently some events detailing the resistance of leaders of nearby peoples against the works of Nehemiah must have been confused with events during the days of Zerubbabel.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}{{Relevance inline|date=September 2024|discuss=This claim has nothing to do with the timeline of Ezra's ministry.}}