Ezra

It were better that we were not at all, than that we should live still in wickedness, and to suffer, and not to know wherefore.

Ezra Reads the Law to the People, one of Gustave Doré's illustrations for La Grande Bible de Tours

Ezra (fl. 480–440 BCE) was a Jewish scribe and priest.

Quotes

Book of Ezra

• Truth is great, and stronger than all things. The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses it. All God’s works quake and tremble, and with him there is nothing unrighteous. Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all human beings are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they will perish. But truth endures and is strong forever, and lives and prevails forever and ever. With it there is no partiality or preference, but it does what is righteous instead of anything that is unrighteous or wicked. Everyone approves its deeds, and there is nothing unrighteous in its judgment. To it belongs the strength and the kingship and the power and the majesty of all the ages. Blessed be the God of truth!
  • 1 Esdras 4:35-40 NRSV.

Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra

The author of the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra adopts Ezra as a pseudonym in order to draw on the authority of the ancient scribe. The work was written after the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD.

• I have gone here and there through the heathen, and I see that they flow in wealth, and think not upon thy commandments.
  • 3:33

• It were better that we were not at all, than that we should live still in wickedness, and to suffer, and not to know wherefore.
  • 4:12