Böcker av Scriptural Research Institute

The two books of Ezra were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint before 200 BC when a large number of refugees fled the ongoing wars in Judea and settled in Egypt. 2ⁿᵈ Ezra became in the Masoretic Texts' version of Ezra, and by the year 100 AD the Apocalypse of Ezra was also in circulation as 3ʳᵈ Ezra. The original 2ⁿᵈ Ezra was later divided into two books in Latin translations, making a total of four books of Ezra, although one was later renamed Nehemiah. The two books of Ezra found in the Septuagint, are variously divided into two or three books, depending on the religious denomination. 2ⁿᵈ Ezra is equivalent to the Masoretic Ezra, which is used by Jews, however, there is no Hebrew version of 1ˢᵗ Ezra. Christian Orthodox, Coptic, and Tewahedo Bibles continue to use translations of the Septuagint, and therefore the books continue to be 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra. Catholic Bibles call 1ˢᵗ Ezra 3ʳᵈ Esdras, and have 2ⁿᵈ Ezra divided into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Most Protestant Bibles do not include 1ˢᵗ Ezra, and have 2ⁿᵈ Ezra divided into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The book called 4ᵗʰ Ezra in Catholic Bibles was never in the Septuagint and is about a different Ezra who lived earlier during the Babylonian Captivity.The Septuagint's 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra are thematically similar, telling generally the same story, however from two different points of view. They tell the story of the fall of Jerusalem, first to the Egyptians, and then the Babylonians, followed by Babylon's fall to the Persians, and the Judahites to Judah to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. 1ˢᵗ Ezra was written from a non-spiritual viewpoint, common among the Sadducees, and repeatedly makes it clear that the author, Ezra, and various kings, viewed the Lord as the Judahite version of other gods, including the Egyptian creator and Sun-god Atum, and the Zoroastrian 'god of truth' and 'King of the Sky' Ahura Mazda. These views are inconsistent with the view of the Pharisees, which developed under the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty after Judea broke free from the rule of the Greeks, and the Lord became a separate god from all others.Both the Greek translations of 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra, and the Hebrew translation of Ezra, contain relics of an Aramaic source-text, unfortunately, the Aramaic Book of Ezra-Nehemiah is lost. The difference in the surviving Aramaic words within the Greek 1ˢᵗ Ezra, and Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah (Greek 2ⁿᵈ Ezra), it appears that the two versions of Ezra already existed in the Aramaic versions. The differences between 2ⁿᵈ Ezra and Masoretic Ezra-Nehemiah are minimal and could be accounted for as scribal notes, and the redaction of Simon the Zealot, who added the name Yahweh extensively to the ancient texts when he translated them into Hebrew. 1ˢᵗ Ezra, the less spiritual of the two versions of the Septuagint's Ezra, clearly dates to the end of the Persian era, as it treats the Judahite Lord of the Temple in Jerusalem as another version of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian God. Several Zoroastrian titles of Ahura Mazda are applied to the Judahite Lord, including King of Truth, and King of the Sky. Letters from the Persian Kings Cyrus II, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II, as included in the book, all of which were closely associated with Zoroastrianism, yet, referred to the Judahite Lord using titles generally associated with Ahura Mazda. In the Greek 1ˢᵗ Ezra and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra, as well as Masoretic Ezra, the temple is described as being a Zoroastrian fire-temple, containing an eternal fire, which 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees even referred to as being burning naphtha in the time of Nehemiah, like the other fire-temples across the Persian Empire.

The Words of Ahikar is the oldest surviving Israelite story, with known copies in Aramaic dating back to the 5th century BC, making it a couple of centuries older than the oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Amarna Letters are a collection of clay tablets found in the ruins of El Amarna, Egypt, in the 1880s. The city of El Amarna was built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, during his religious reforms in the 1340s BC, but was then abandoned after he died and Egypt reverted to worshiping the old gods. These letters provide a unique glimpse into a period of Egyptian history, that the Egyptians themselves attempted to erase. After Akhenaten's heir Tutankhamen died, his successor Ay was only able to hold the throne for a few years before Horemheb seized it, and attempted to reunited the Egyptians by erasing all records of Akhenaten's reforms, which included erasing Akhenaten's name from almost every record in Egypt. By this period, El Amarna appears to have already been mostly abandoned, and therefore Egyptologists were able to reconstruct the strange story of Akhenaten's reign, in the middle of the New Kingdom era.The Amarna letters were recovered from the royal archives in El Amarna, where they appear to have been archived after having been translated for the royal court. The letters are inscribed on clay tablets in Cuneiform, the dominant form of writing in Mesopotamia, Canaan, and the neighboring cultures in Anatolia and Cyprus at the time. The shape of the Cuneiform logograms used are Akkadian, the parent form of the later Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Ugaritic forms of Cuneiform, however, the language used in the Letters is not pure Akkadian. The Letters are between various members of the Egyptian royal court, and many different cities and nations across the Middle East, including Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni, and Cyprus, and therefore the language within the Letters is not consistent. Within the letters from Canaanite cities, all of which were subject to Egypt at the time, several transliterated names are also used, which appears to be a direct precursor to the later development of Ugaritic Cuneiform by 1200 BC, which was an abjad similar to the Canaanite script that was developed by 1000 BC, however, used Cuneiform logograms instead of alphabet-like letters.The surviving letters were mostly about trade and diplomacy, however, do include a great deal of information about what was happening in the Middle East at the time. In particular, they demonstrate how limited Egypt's actual control of its Canaanite holdings were, where the governors of cities were constantly requesting military help to defend themselves against each other, the marauding Habirus, and the Hittite-backed Amorites in northern Canaan. The Amarna Letters were written during the mid-1330s BC, during the reigns of the Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, although it is not always clear when in their respective reigns the letters were written, or even which pharaoh was on the throne at the time.

The Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira was an independently translated early Jewish collection of wisdom proverbs translated in 132 BC, and added to the Septuagint. According to the prologue by the author, he claimed to be the grandson of Joshua ben Sira, who had moved to Egypt, and found that there were no books of minor wisdom among the Septuagint, and so translated his grandfather's collection. In later centuries, additional books were sometimes added as appendixes, including the Book of Odes. The book is mostly a collection of older songs and prayers found in the Septuagint, however, it was not made from the Septuagint's translations, but from Theodotion's translation of circa 200 AD. Theodotion's translation was not from the Aramaic texts, but the Hasmonean Dynasty's Hebrew translation, resulting in some textual differences between the songs in Odes and the versions of them in the older books of the Septuagint, especially in Exodus.There is a great deal of debate about who the translator and original author of the the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira were, and some Jewish scholars have suggested the book was not written in Jerusalem, but in Egypt. The debates regarding who these people were are largely based on the Hebrew translations of the book, which all appear to have been done after the Greek translation. Hebrew and Aramaic fragments of the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira were in circulation during the Herodian Dynasty, and fragments have survived among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the 2QSir, 11QPsa, and MasSir scrolls, however, the fragments may not have been part of a book called the Wisdom of Joshua Ben Sira. The 2QSir and MasSir scrolls are so damaged that they are barely recognizable as being excerpts from Joshua ben Sira, and the 11QPsa scroll, while being one of the best-preserved scrolls found in the Qumran caves, includes random psalms and proverbs from multiple sources, including excerpts from Joshua ben Sira.

The version of Job found in the Septuagint, Masoretic Text, and Peshitta, all appear to be copies of a standardized version of the Book of Job that was circulating in Judea under Greek rule, and during the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties. Fragments of it have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, written in Paleo-Hebrew (Hebrew written in the Phoenician), Hebrew, and Aramaic, dated to between 330 BC and 44 AD. The Phoenician texts appear to be the oldest, generally dated to between 330 and 140 BC, while the Hebrew and Aramaic fragments date to later times, generally dated to between 140 BC and 44 AD. Unlike most of the books in the Septuagint, the Septuagint's translation of Job appears to have been made from a Phoenician (Paleo-Hebrew) version of Job, as it uses transliterations of words based on their Canaanite spelling instead of their Aramaic spelling.Nevertheless, the surviving Hebrew translation of Job includes many Aramaic loanwords, which indicates the Paleo-Hebrew (Phoenician script) version of Job was translated from an Aramaic text. One of the more obvious pieces of evidence of the Aramaic source text is the name of Elihu (אליהוא), whose name is Aramaic for 'God is Yahw, ' the Aramaic form of Yahweh. Elihu is considered by some scholars to be the author of the Book of Job, however, others believe that his speech in chapters 32 through 37 was added later. He is notable in that he was not mentioned at all previously in this book, and disappears after the Lord starts speaking to the other three kings in chapter 38. In the Book of Job, Elihu takes the contrary view to the three kings that are berating Job, and ultimately the Lord punishes them. This is the exact opposite outcome from the Testament of Job, where Elihu is the one berating Job, and punished by the Lord. The Testament of Job contains the Song of Eliphaz, which appears to have been composed before 1800 BC, and claims to have been written by Nahor, the brother of Abraham, and father of Elihu, which seems to be an attempt by the author of the Testament of Job to give it priority over the Book of Job. If Elihu produced the redacted version of Job, adding himself and his opinion to the story, then it was likely when the book was translated into Aramaic.The Aramaic translation of Job was likely produced sometime between 747 and 656 BC, during the Nubian 25th Dynasty of Egypt, as Egypt is not mentioned, however, Kush is. At the time, the Empire of Kush, based in modern Sudan, ruled Egypt, and so the land of Egypt would have been included in any reference to Kush. During this era, the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Samaria in 720 BC, and relocated the Israelite population. The Assyrians then attacked the Kingdom of Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem in 701 BC, but the Kushites attacked the Assyrians in support of Judah, and the Assyrians withdrew. This Assyrian invasion of Judah was during the reign of King Hezekiah, who initiated the first major overhaul of the religion of Judah, destroying the statue of Ba'al that Solomon had placed in the Temple in Jerusalem, along with Moses' bronze serpent statue, in favor of promoting the god Yhwh. Hezekiah was one of the better-documented kings of Judah, partly because Judah was pulled into the imperial intrigue of the Neo-Assyrian and Kushite Empires, and partly because he was a prolific builder. The Siloam Tunnel and part of the Broad Wall he built in Jerusalem still exist. Sennacherib's Prism, a document discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, and dating back to the siege of Jerusalem confirms the siege from the Assyrian perspective, and names Hezekiah as the king of Judah.