Ezra begins where 2 Chronicles ends, with the decree of Cyrus. Some scholars have argued that the repetition indicates that the books were once united. It’s said that the doubling is an ancient literary device to knot together two sections of a text. Whether that is the case or not, the links between Chronicles and Ezra go beyond the repetition of Cyrus’s decree. In the first volume of his Anchor Bible Commentary on 1 Chronicles 1-9 (77-80), Gary Knoppers sums up the… Read more













