Editing Zerubbabel (section)

===1st Esdras===
1 Esdras 3–4 tells the story of a speech-writing competition between three bodyguards of Darius I known as the ''Tale of the Three Guardsmen'', in which the winner would receive honor and riches from the King.
Scholars have long debated the source of the competition and the Praise of Truth. Cook says that the competition story could be either "a secondary insertion or part of the original compilation.<ref name= Cook>{{cite book
 | title=The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English
 | chapter=1 Esdras: Introduction | year=1913
 | author=S. A. Cook  | editor=R. H. Charles
 | url=https://archive.org/details/apocryphapseudep01charuoft
}}</ref>{{rp|5}} The argument for wine conflicts with Proverbs xxiii.29–35 and [[Sirach]].xxxi.25–30. Cook mentions other views of the Praise of Truth: "may be a specimen of Palestinian wisdom ([[Leopold Zunz|Zunz]]),and although Volz (1493) thinks it shows contact with Alexandrian religious philosophy, Torrey (46 seq.) fails to find anything 'hellenistic' or suggestive of the influence of Greek literature or philosophy".<ref name= Cook/>{{rp|5}}

Torrey (1910) disagrees with German critics: "But if any student of the Greek Bible will look closely at the idiom of these two chapters, he will find it precisely the same which elsewhere results from a close rendering of a Hebrew or Aramaic original. … All those who are familiar with Semitic modes of thought and literary forms will recognize here a characteristic Semitic product".<ref>{{cite book
 | title=EZRA STUDIES
 | author=Charles C. Torrey |year=1910 | publisher=University of Chicago Press
 | url=https://archive.org/details/ezrastudies00torruoft
 }}</ref> Dancy (2001) supports Torrey: "And the praise of truth is clearly an insertion (4.34–41). It differs totally from the other three in being not a courtly speech but a lofty hymn. In particular, Egyption Ma'at and Persian Arsha were deities of order, representing both truth and (as here) justice. The hymn is unlikely to be Jewish in origin, otherwise the praise would have been of Wisdom, but its elevated tone clearly appealed to the Jewish editor."<ref>{{cite book
 |title=The Divine Drama: The Old Testament as Literature
 |author=John C. Dancy  |page=694 |year=2001 |publisher=James Clarke & Co. | isbn=978-0-7188-2987-2
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5KpJfZiJJJ0C&q=%22Praise+of+truth%22+Esdras&pg=PA694
 }}</ref>

The first two spoke about the strength of wine and the strength of kings, respectively, but the winner was the third bodyguard, who spoke about the strength of women and truth:

{{blockquote|"If she smiles at him, he laughs; if she loses her temper with him, he flatters her so that she may be reconciled with him. Gentlemen, why are not women strong, since they do such things?" (1 Esd 4:31–32).}}

This speaker is told (in parentheses) to be Zerubbabel, but this detail was likely tacked onto a secular, [[Hellenized]] tale about the power of [[wine]], [[king]]s, [[truth]], and [[women]].<ref name= Cook/>{{rp|29}} The author of 1 Esdras might have done so to glorify the power of Zerubbabel, the description of which is unparalleled in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai, as the aforementioned books all discuss the power of Zerubbabel in accordance to the power of the high priest [[Joshua the High Priest|Joshua]]. After Zerubbabel wins the competition, he is given sanction to rebuild the Temple and return the sacred Temple vessels that [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] had preserved after the conquest of Babylon.

It is also probable that the author of 1 Esdras included this reference to Zerubbabel to alleviate any confusion about the difference between Zerubbabel and Sheshbazzar that was apparent in the original book of Ezra.<ref>Tollington, 131–134.</ref>

The account of Zerubbabel in 1 Esdras is almost identical to the account of Zerubbabel in the [[Book of Ezra]], included in the [[Kethuvim]]. This is because many scholars believe that 1 Esdras is a [[Greek language|Greek]] version of the Book of Ezra. However, there are a few details that appear in 1 Esdras and not in the Book of Ezra. The first discrepancy is that 1 Esdras refers to Zerubbabel's son as Joakim (1 Esd. 5:5). However, this is not one of the sons included in the genealogy included in 1 Chronicles and the Book of Ezra makes no mention of Zerubbabel's son.

The second discrepancy is that the author of 1 Esdras claims that it was "Zerubbabel who spoke wise words before King Darius of Persia" (1 Esd. 5:6). However, there is no passage similar to this in the Book of Ezra. Finally 1 Esdras mentions a person called Sanabassar as the Governor of Judah and that it was he who laid the foundation for the first temple (1 Esd. 6:18–20). Sanabassar may refer to Shashbazar. According to the Book of Ezra, Shashbazar was a governor of Judah (Ezra 5:14) who receives credit for laying the temple's  foundation(Ezra 5:15). The difference in the names is likely due to the rendering of the Hebrew name in Greek.

He was given sanction to rebuild the Temple and return the sacred Temple vessels that [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] had preserved after the conquest of Babylon.