Death of Ezra the Scribe
by
Damien F. Mackey
Razis
was a “Father of the Jews”.
This
is our first connection with Ezra,
who is called, in Jewish tradition,
“Father
of Judaïsm”.
Introduction
It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic and gory death than that which
befell the elder, Razis, as narrated in 2 Maccabees 14 (in Catholic bibles).
Highly theatrical, and even comedic would it have been, were it not for the
seriousness of the incident and its grim circumstances.
Here is the full description of the man’s demise (vv. 41-46):
Being
surrounded, Razis fell upon his own sword, preferring to die nobly rather than
to fall into the hands of sinners and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble
birth. But in the heat of the struggle he did not hit exactly, and the crowd
was now rushing in through the doors. He courageously ran up on the wall, and
bravely threw himself down into the crowd. But as they quickly drew back, a
space opened and he fell in the middle of the empty space. Still alive and
aflame with anger, he rose, and though his blood gushed forth and his wounds
were severe he ran through the crowd; and standing upon a steep rock, with his
blood now completely drained from him, he tore out his entrails, took them in
both hands and hurled them at the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and
spirit to give them back to him again. This was the manner of his death.
One could easily be so distracted by the details of this most gruesome
incident (as I have been) and thereby fail to pick up on the singular
importance of this man, as detailed just prior to the account of his death.
Thus I have found myself asking: Who was
this Razis? without my being properly sensitive to the vital clues about
him as provided by the Maccabean text.
Who was Razis?
The name itself, Razis (Greek: ραζις), does not appear (at least immediately) to offer much assistance, as we
commonly read of it something along the lines of John L. Mackenzie’s: “Razis
(Gk razis,
Hb ?, meaning uncertain)
…” (The Dictionary Of The Bible, p. 721).
Far more useful to us is the Maccabean account of the status of this
extraordinary man, a glorious and heroic martyr in the opinion of the author(s)
of the Maccabean narrative, but denounced for his act of suicide by some
commentators as a madman, or proud, or a coward. For instance, we read this
terse estimate of Razis as written by Forbes Winslow: “The
self-destruction of Razis is full of horror, and can only be quoted as an
evidence of the act of a madman”: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50907/50907-h/50907-h.htm
William Whitaker, for his part, has written: “And in 2 Macc. chap,
xiv., the fortitude of Razis is commended, who laid violent hands upon himself. Yet Razis deserved no praise for his fortitude. For
this was to die cowardly rather than courageously, to put himself voluntarily
to death in order to escape from the hands of a tyrant” (A
Disputation on Holy Scripture: Against the Papists, especially Bellarmine, p. 95).
Here is what 2 Maccabees tells us about the high status of Razis, “called
Father of the Jews” (vv. 37, 38-39):
…
Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem … a man who loved his compatriots and was
very well thought of and for his goodwill was called Father of the Jews. In
former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused
of Judaism, and he had most zealously risked body and life for Judaism. Nicanor
… sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him ….
This crucial information, I believe, provides us with sufficient
information to identify, in biblical terms, just who was this major character,
Razis.
“Razis” of 2 Maccabees
likely to be an aged Ezra
“… Ezra came up from Babylon. He
was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The
king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. …. the gracious
hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and
observance of the Law of the Lord,
and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel”.
Ezra 7:6, 9-10
We read in Part One of this series, the Introductory section:
(https://www.academia.edu/36726532/Ezra_Father_of_the_Jews_dying_the_death_of_Razis._Part_One_Introductory_section) that the Jewish elder, Razis,
whose spectacular but gory death is narrated in 2 Maccabees 14, has been described
by one commentator as a “madman”, and his suicidal manner of death has been deemed
“cowardly”.
But, whatever one may conclude about the manner of his death, this Razis
was no coward.
The Maccabean account tells that Razis “bravely
threw himself down into the crowd”.
And, a few verses earlier, it had recalled how this man had, in bygone
days, sacrificed himself fearlessly for his people: “In former times,
when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism,
and he had most zealously risked body and
life for Judaism”. Owing to this, Razis, “a man who loved his compatriots
and was very well thought of”, was, “for his goodwill … called Father of the
Jews”.
Hebrews 5:10. προσαγορευθεἱς) called. His name was the Son of God; His surname,
His appellation was Priest: προσηγορία, His being called a priest, not only followed the perfecting of Jesus,
but also preceded His passion at the period mentioned in Psalms
110:4. The same word occurs 2
Maccabees 14:37, where it is said that Razis was called (προσαγορευόμενος) the father of the Jews.
Connecting Razis to Ezra
Razis was a “Father of the Jews”.
This is our first connection with Ezra, who is called, in Jewish
tradition, “Father of Judaïsm”.
Jewish Talmudic writers viewed Ezra both as ‘a second Moses’ (because
Ezra, too, had led his people out of exile) and as the prophet Malachi. On this
last, see my article:
"By the hand of Malachi ... whose name is called Ezra the scribe"
I have expanded Ezra further by identifying him as Nehemiah in my article:
Ezra the Scribe Identified as Nehemiah the Governor
“Nehemiah
stands out as one of the noble men in the Old Testament. As he fulfilled a
necessary mission in his day, he demonstrated the highest level of dedication
and courage, both in the practical matter of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem
and also in the spiritual matter of rebuilding the religious life of his people”.
https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-student-manual-kings-malachi/chapter-32?lang=eng
This was no “madman”.
Nor was he a coward, since “he demonstrated the highest level of
dedication and courage …”.
The second connection with Ezra is the name itself, Razis (Greek: ραζις) - of which commentators have been able to make very little sense - but
which becomes intelligible as a Greek version of the name, Ezra (Hebrew:
עזרא). In the Greek-Latin version, “Esdras” (Ἔσδρας), or Esras, we find the very two elements of Razis
(Ras-es).
The third connection with Ezra is to
be found in the statement in 2 Maccabees, as already quoted: “In former times,
when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism,
and he had most zealously risked body and life for Judaism”.
This needs to be explained a bit.
The First and Second (1 and 2) books of
Maccabees have enabled us further to reduce those conventional chronological
time spans, both backwards, to the
Persian era, via governor Nehemiah (my Ezra):
Nehemiah bridges Persia and Greece
and forwards,
to the Herodian era:
A New Timetable for the Nativity of Jesus Christ
“In
former times”. So Razis had earned his high reputation even before the Maccabean
era.
Now, traditionally,
Ezra is considered to have lived a very long life, to 120 years of age (although
this figure could be based upon the attribution to him of the epithet, ‘a
second Moses’, for Moses himself had lived that long (Deuteronomy 34:7).
According to Chuck
Robertson (A Simple Man’s Study of Ezra): “Tradition says that [Ezra] settled the Canon of
Jewish Scripture (the books of the Jewish Bible) and began
the building
of synagogues in Jewish provincial (rural) towns. Ezra lived to be 120
years old”.
Razis, likewise,
is described as “one of the elders of Jerusalem”.
Ezra-Nehemiah
was most zealous, as apparently was Razis, that there should be “no
mingling with the Gentiles”, no racial inter-marriages.
Compare this with Ezra and his ‘anger and
shock’ over the matter (Ezra 9:1-4):
Later the Jewish leaders came to me and said:
Many
Israelites, including priests and Levites, are living just like the people
around them. They are even guilty of some of the horrible sins of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
Some Israelite men have married foreign women and have let their
sons do the same thing. Our own officials and leaders were the first to commit
this disgusting sin, and now God’s holy people are mixed with foreigners.
This news made me so angry that I ripped my clothes and tore hair
from my head and beard. Then I just sat in shock until
time for the evening sacrifice. Many of our people were greatly concerned and
gathered around me, because the God of Israel had warned us to stay away from
foreigners.
and with
Nehemiah and his ‘cursing and beating’ over the same matter (Nehemiah 13:23-25):
Also in
those days I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Half of
their children spoke Ashdodite and could not speak Judean, but only the
tongues of other nations. So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat
some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: ‘Do
not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or
for yourselves’.
That Razis was a most important person amongst the Jews is
evidenced by the fact that “Nicanor … sent
more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him …”.
I
consider Razis to be Ezra-Nehemiah.
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