While it’s already a little confusing trying to determine if everyone’s on the same page when they’re talking about the Book of Ezra, or Ezra-Nehemiah, or 1 and 2 Ezra, it gets even more complicated when you factor in that there are even more Books of Ezra in the mix. While these two books are not considered canon by Jews, their canonicity varies among different Christian churches. As the Jewish Encyclopedia explains, one of these texts, also known as the Greek Ezra, is often called 1 Esdras, using the Greek form of the name Ezra. In fact, in the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible), this book is placed before the Hebrew version of Ezra. As a result, in the Septuagint, the Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah is named 2 Esdras. However, in the Vulgate (i.e., the Latin translation of the Old and New Testaments), the apocryphal 1 Esdras is placed after the canonical Ezra (1 Esdras) and Nehemiah (2 Esdras) and is thus called 3 Esdras.
The other notable text is the so-called Apocalypse of Esdras, which, depending on the numbering scheme being employed, might also be called 2 Esdras, 3 Esdras, 4 Esdras, or even 1 Esdras in the Ethiopic church. For the sake of clarity, from now on, this article will use the standard English naming convention of Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Esdras, and 2 Esdras.
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