The scribe Ezra, according to the Bible, is sent to Jerusalem from the Persian court in 458 BCE.

The purposes of his mission are (according to one view of the Book of Ezra) apparently to introduce stricter observance of the Law and to dissolve marriages with foreigners.

Other scholars date Ezra’s arrival at 428 BCE or 397 BCE.

Ezra, with the Book of Nehemiah, were originally one work in the Hebrew canon, and scholars disagree on whether the two books were written by the same hand.