The Strength of Women and Truth: The Tale of the Three Bodyguards and Ezra's Prayer in First Esdras

Abstract

Most commentators believe the Tale of the Three Bodyguards in 1 Esdras 3–4 serves, simply and primarily, to enhance the status of Zerubbabel, the early leader of the returned exiles. A consideration of a number of thematic and rhetorical links between the Tale of the Three Bodyguards (1 Esdras 3:1–4:41[63]) and Ezra’s prayer-sermon recounted later in the book (1 Esdras 8:65–87; Eng.=8:74–90), however, demonstrates that the story also functions to undergird the response of Ezra and his associates to the intermarriage crisis recounted in 1 Esdras 8:65–87 (Eng.=8:68–90). The rhetoric of especially Zerubbabel’s speeches on women and Truth (1 Esdras 4:13–41) effectively anticipates and mitigates the reader’s possible moral objections to the expulsion of the foreign women. This suggests that a major reason 1 Esdras was composed was to weigh in on Jewish debates in the Hellenistic period regarding intermarriage with Gentiles.