The basic Jewish tradition, found in the Talmud and in later sources, is
that Ezra collected the earier books (and wrote a few of his own), perhaps
decided between different versions, and declared these books, and no others,
to be "Scripture" (in Christian terms, this would be called canonization).
He was able to do this because, in Jewish tradition, he had three "hats": he
was "Ezra the scribe", basically what later became known as a "rabbi", and
in Jewish tradition he was the head of the high rabbinical court (the
"Knesset Hagedolah" or Great Assembly, the later Sanhedrin). This gave him
the legal authority. He was also a prophet; the Talmud identifies him with
Malachi, the last of the prophets. So he also had the "inspiration" - and
yes, I think that that is a perfectly appropriate term. He was also High
Priest, so that he also had the "ritual authority". However, you should
remember that this is Talmudic tradition, written down almost 1000 years
after Ezra. The book of Ezra itself makes no such claims. ...
... From our sources
from the Second Temple period, including the DDS, the LXX, the Apocrypha,
Josephus, Philo etc., we know that the canonization of scripture in Judaism
was a long process, and that Ezra, whatever his role was, was the starting
point, not the conclusion. The Hebrew Bible achieved its more-or-less final
form only after the destruction of the Second Temple, probably in the 2nd or
even 3rd century.
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