King of kings Artaxerxes to Ezra the priest, etc. He names him the most learned scribe of the law of the God of heaven, because even to the king himself the fame of divine virtue had reached, through which he had renewed the Law, burned by the Chaldeans, in the same words as before, although in a different character of letters. He also names the God of heaven, to distinguish from those whom he knew that the foolish madness of wretches had instituted among dead men, or certainly some. I beseech, however, that it may not be burdensome to the reader to briefly run through the text of the letter, and to see how much it fits the persons of Christian kings.
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 7:12