1 Esdras 3–4 · Featured Study · A Labeled Study Resource, Not Canon
“Great Is Truth” — the Three Guardsmen
After a royal banquet, three bodyguards of King Darius amuse themselves with a contest: each writes one answer to the question what is strongest?— and the king will reward the wisest. The first writes wine. The second writes the king. The third writes women— and then swerves into one of antiquity’s most quoted sentences: “but above all things Truth beareth away the victory.”The third guardsman turns out to be Zerubbabel; his prize, redeemed from the king’s own promise, is the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s temple. 1 Esdras is mostly a Greek retelling of Ezra’s history — but this one story is its own, and its closing shout has echoed for two millennia: Magna est veritas, et praevalet. This page tells the contest whole, and follows Truth to the person who claimed the noun.
Three Answers, One Swerve
— the contest, verbatimTHE FIRST GUARDSMAN
“Wine is the strongest.” (3:10)
It masters kings and orphans alike — for a night.
THE SECOND
“The king is strongest.” (3:11)
Men die at his word — while he lives.
THE THIRD — ZERUBBABEL
“Women are strongest: but above all things Truth beareth away the victory.” (3:12)
The swerve that wins the contest, and rebuilds a temple.
Each speech is a small masterpiece — wine’s tyranny over every rank, the king’s word that men die for, women who rule the rulers (the speaker dares to name the king’s own concubine lifting the crown off his head). But the third speaker will not let his joke stand as his answer. Wine passes, kings die, beauty fades: “As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore” (4:38) — and no bribe reaches her, “no accepting of persons or rewards” (4:39). His doxology gives the argument away: “Blessed be the God of truth” (4:40). And the whole court answers with the line the ages kept: “Great is Truth, and mighty above all things” (4:41).
- 3 answerswine · the king · women/Truth
- 4:41“Great is Truth” — the ages' quote
- Zerubbabelthe third guardsman revealed
- 1 templethe contest's prize
Truth with a Face
— where the guardsman's answer landsThe tale’s theology peaks in the doxology: truth is strongest because truth is God’s— “she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty, of all ages” (4:40). Five centuries later, a Roman governor asked the era’s weariest question — “What is truth?” (John 18:38, ASV) — while Truth stood before him in person, already having answered:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 (ASV)
The guardsman said truth conquers for evermore; the gospel says truth rose from the dead. 1 Esdras remains a labeled study resource beside the sixty-six books — and its most famous sentence remains true beyond its author’s knowing: great is Truth, and mighty above all things — and He has a name.
The Voices on the Contest
— relevance-gated — cited to the specific work, so you can go to itAn Introduction to the Apocrypha (Oxford University Press, 1957)
The standard introduction to 1 Esdras — a Greek retelling of Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah material whose one unique possession is this contest story, and whose Latin tag (Magna est veritas et praevalet) entered the world's proverbs.
Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context, and Significance (Baker Academic, 2002)
On the contest's literary craft — a Persian court-tale turned to Israel's purposes, with the praise of Truth rising into the praise of the God of truth.
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. I (Oxford, 1913)
The standard critical edition — 1 Esdras with introduction and notes.
Marcus Brown's own commentary leads above all; within a tier, all voices are equal.
Read the Great Books
— the works that carry this study — go further than this page1 Esdras 3–4
a labeled study resource, not canon
The whole contest — three speeches, one shout — in MannaFest’s own reader.
READ IT →Ezra 1–6
Scripture — read it in MannaFest’s own reader
The canonical history of the return and the temple — Zerubbabel’s real work.
READ IT →The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. I
R. H. Charles, ed. · 1913
The standard critical edition — 1 Esdras with introduction and notes.
READ IT FREE →