Karl Randolph wrote:
> Yitzhak:
>
> Ezra 4:7 looks like it was originally written by someone who did
> not know Hebrew very well, therefore used Aramaic loan words as
> well as Aramaic spelling for the name. Ezra, the educated one,
> did not arrive on the scene until chapter 7.
Karl,
I don't know how you decide this is the "Aramaic" spelling. Further,
I don't know how you decide that Ezra 4:7 was written by someone
who did not know hebrew very well. Every language has loan words
and it is to be expected that during the Persian period, there will
be a lot of loan words, from Old Persian and Official Aramaic. The
fact that Ezra is described only in chapter 7 has nothing to do with
the dating of the earlier chapters.