Writer: Ezra

4. What evidence favors Ezra as the writer of Chronicles?

⁴ What is the evidence that Ezra wrote Chronicles? The closing two verses of Second Chronicles 36:22, 23 are the same as the opening two verses of Ezra 1:1, 2, and Second Chronicles ends in the middle of a sentence that is finished in Ezra 1:3. The writer of Chronicles must therefore have been the writer also of Ezra. This is further borne out in that the style, language, wording, and spelling of Chronicles and Ezra are the same. Some of the expressions in these two books are found in no other Bible books. Ezra, who wrote the book of Ezra, must also have written Chronicles. Jewish tradition supports this conclusion.

5. What were Ezra’s spiritual and secular qualifications?

⁵ No one was better qualified than Ezra to compile this authentic and accurate history. “For Ezra himself had prepared his heart to consult the law of Jehovah and to do it and to teach in Israel regulation and justice.” (Ezra 7:10) Jehovah aided him by holy spirit. The Persian world-ruler recognized the wisdom of God in Ezra and commissioned him with wide civil powers in the jurisdictional district of Judah. (Ezra 7:12-26) Thus equipped with divine and imperial authority, Ezra could compile his account from the best available documents.