Ezra 4 Footnotes

4:3 Some people see an arrogant attitude at work in this rejection of help. However, the Jews were applying an important spiritual principle—service to God should be conducted by God’s people. They should be very wary of partnerships that involve unbelievers in fulfilling their service to God.

4:9 Some scholars have questioned the authenticity of the letters reproduced in the book of Ezra. Recent scholarship has reversed this negative assessment.

4:20 Some scholars doubt the Bible’s depiction of a once-powerful kingdom of Israel. However, the enemies used Israel’s glorious past as a principal argument to convince Artaxerxes to stop the rebuilding project. Artaxerxes’s principal motivation for complying with their request was his discovery in Persia’s historical archives that this was indeed part of Israel’s past.