Of the sons also of Adin; Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty men.
All Commentaries on Ezra 8:6 Go To Ezra 8
Bede
AD 735
But I have also decreed what should be done by those presbyters of the Jews, that the house of God may be built, namely let the expenses be generously given to them from the king's treasury, that is from the revenues that are paid from the region beyond the river, so that the work will not be hindered. For indeed, who can describe how the Church throughout the world has been either aided or even enriched by the generosity of royal gifts? On the allegorical level, however, it can also be interpreted as meaning that the expenses are paid out from the royal treasury for the work of the temple when even some members of the household of secular rulers come, through the encouragement of these rulers, to faith in Christ. They were in the king's treasury, so to speak, since they were in the confidence of the king's secrets. But they are paid out to the presbyters (i.e. to the elders of the Jews) for the expenses of the work of the temple when they are entrusted to those teachers who have preceded them in the confession of Christ that they might be instructed and united with the members of the Church. Cassiodorus, the former senator who suddenly become a Doctor of the Church, is just such a person. For when he carefully examined in his outstanding commentary on the Psalms what Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Cyril, John, and the other Fathers have said, he showed beyond a doubt that he was educated by 'the elders of the Jews', i.e. by those who confessed and praised God. Similar to this are the words that follow:
