Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Dear Ian,

I'm not sure what you are trying to prove here. But your method does 
not say anything about the dating of Ezra or any other Hebrew text. 
Surely the most obvious explanation is that Josephus, writing in Rome 
(is that right?) in Greek, used the version of the story of Ezra which 
was most easily available to him and convenient for his work, 2 Esdras 
as in the Septuagint - which I guess was more easily available in Rome 
than any Hebrew texts. If elsewhere he was closer to the Hebrew, 
perhaps it just means that he better remembered the Hebrew (or 
Aramaic?) form of those passages. It does not mean that he did not 
know the Hebrew of Ezra (or that he did) but rather that he used the 
source in front of him.

Peter Kirk