Although the figure of Ezra appears in only six chapters in the Hebrew Bible, he has sparked the imagination of writers, scholars, and tradents for almost two and a half millennia. Ezra’s activities are described in chapters 7–10 of the Book of Ezra and in chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah. He also makes a cameo appearance in Nehemiah 12. These two biblical books deal with the period of the return of Judeans to Judah under Cyrus the Great and tell how the returnees rebuilt Jerusalem and their temple. Ezra is described in these books as bringing the Torah (the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses) to Judah and reading it to the populace there. The biblical story of Ezra inspired later writers and scholars. Fourth Ezra, written after the fall of the second temple, portrays Ezra as having dictated the entire Bible from memory since the original had been destroyed in the fire that destroyed the temple. Rabbinic traditions hail Ezra as a hero, the equal of Moses himself, and as the last prophet, the prophet Malachi. In contrast, several Church Fathers, as well as many medieval Samaritan and Muslim scholars, argue that Ezra falsified the text when he rewrote it and that the Bible we have now is not the same text that Moses had written but another. Modern biblical scholars attribute to Ezra the creation of Judaism and assert that without him Judaism would not exist. Who was the real Ezra? What did he actually do? And how and why did all these conflicting and some rather unflattering views of him develop over the ensuing 2,400 years? After a brief introduction, I present in chapter 2 the man whom I believe to be the real historical Ezra. This man would not be recognized in any of his other portrayals, not even in the Ezra depicted in the Hebrew Bible! In subsequent chapters I describe each of the other views of him and discuss how each originated and why. Each chapter discusses one ancient understanding of God, of his laws, and of the path toward salvation. It describes a journey of more than two thousand years that wends its way from ancient Judea and Arabia to modern Europe and the United States.