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In 1 Esdras, Zerubbabel wins the contest at Darius's court by arguing that truth is stronger than wine, the king, and women. Josephus follows 1 Esdras rather than Ezra for this period, retelling the contest and the speech about truth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Esdras 4:35
Esdras A, 3 Esdras
Deuterocanon
33 Then the king and the nobles looked at one another; and he began to speak about truth: 34 “Gentlemen, are not women strong? The earth is vast, and heaven is high, and the sun is swift in its course, for it makes the circuit of the heavens and returns to its place in one day. 35 Is he not great who does these things? But truth is great, and stronger than all things. 36 The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses her. All God’s works quake and tremble, and with him there is nothing unrighteous. 37 Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all the sons of men are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they will perish. 38 But truth endures and is strong for ever, and lives and prevails for ever and ever. 39 With her there is no partiality or preference, but she does what is righteous instead of anything that is unrighteous or wicked. All men approve her deeds, 40 and there is nothing unrighteous in her judgment. To her belongs the strength and the kingship and the power and the majesty of all the ages. Blessed be the God of truth!” 41 He ceased speaking; then all the people shouted, and said, “Great is truth, and strongest of all!”
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 11.3.6
Classical
6 And when the princes and rulers looked one upon another, he began to speak about truth: and he said: “I have already demonstrated how powerful women are. But both these women themselves, and the King himself are weaker than truth. For although the earth be large, and the heaven high, and the course of the sun swift, yet are all these moved according to the will of God, who is true and righteous. For which cause we also ought to esteem truth to be the strongest of all things; and that what is unrighteous is of no force against it. Moreover all things else that have any strength are mortal, and short lived, but truth is a thing that is immortal, and eternal. It affords us not indeed such a beauty as will wither away by time, nor such riches as may be taken away by fortune; but righteous rules and laws. It distinguishes them from injustice, and puts what is unrighteous to rebuke.”
Date: 93-94 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Josephus made use of 1 Esdras in his Antiquities (10.70-83; 11.1-157), including the narrative of the three bodyguards (Ant. 11.33-68). Whether Josephus can be taken as a trustworthy witness to the text of 1 Esdras has occasioned some debate (§ V above). ...”
Patmore, Hector M.
"1 Esdras" in Aitken, James K. (ed.) 1 Esdras, in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint
(p. 191) Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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