EZRA, FOURTH BOOK (or APOCALYPSE) OF. This is the most profound and touching of the Jewish Apocalypses. It stands in the relation of a sister work to the Apocalypse of Baruch, but though the relation is so close, they have many points of divergence. Thus, whereas the former represents the ordinary Judaism of the r st century of the Christian era, the teaching of IV Ezra on the Law, Works, Justification, Original Sin and Free Will approximates to the school of Shammai and serves to explain the Pauline doctrines on those subjects.
In the Latin version our book consists of 16 chapters, of which, however, only iii.–xiv. are found in the other versions. To iii.–xiv., accordingly, the present notice is confined. After the example of most of the Latin mss. we designate the book IV Ezra (see Bensly-James, Fourth Book of Ezra, pp. xxiv.–xxvii.). As the numerous Graecisms indicate, the Latin version has obviously been derived from a Greek original.
The book consists of seven visions. (i.) iii.–v. 19.—"In the thirtieth year after the ruin of the city I Salathiel (the same is Ezra) was in Babylon and lay troubled upon my bed." In a long prayer Ezra asks how the desolation of Sion and the prosperity of Babylon can be in keeping with the justice of God. The angel Uriel answers that God's ways are unsearchable and past man's understanding. When Ezra asks when the end will be and what are the signs of it, the angel answers that the end is at hand and enumerates the signs.
(2.) v. 14–vi. chief of the people, reproaches Ezra for forsaking his flock. Ezra fasts, and in his prayer asks why God had given up his people into the hands of the heathen. Uriel replies : "Lovest thou that people better than He that made them?" Man cannot find out God's judgment. The end is at hand ; its signs are recounted.
(3.) vi. 35–ix. 25.—Ezra recounts the works of creation, and asks why Israel does not possess the world since the world was made for Israel. The answer is that the present state is a neces sary stage to the coming one. Then follows an account of the Messianic age and the resurrection , the punishment of the wicked and the blessings of the righteous. There can be no intercession for the departed. Few will be saved—only as it were a grape out of a cluster or a plant out of a forest.
(4.) ix. 26–x. 6o.—Ezra eats of herbs in the field of Ardat, and sees in a vision a woman mourning for her only son. Ezra re minds her of the greater desolation of Sion. Suddenly she is transfigured and vanishes, and in her place appears a city. The woman, Uriel explains, represents Sion.
(5.) xi. I–xii. 39.—Vision of an eagle with three heads, twelve wings and eight winglets, which is rebuked by a lion and de stroyed. The eagle is the fourth kingdom seen by Daniel, and the lion is the Messiah.
(6.) xiii.—Vision of a man (i.e., the Messiah) arising from the sea, who destroys his enemies who assemble against him, and gathers to him another multitude, i.e., the lost ten tribes.
(7.) xiv.—Ezra is told of his approaching translation. He asks for the restoration of the Law, and is enabled by God to dictate in 40 days 94 books (the 24 canonical books of the Old Testament that were lost, and 7o secret books for the wise among the people).
While there is diversity of opinion as to whether all these separate pieces are the work of one author, on two points there can hardly be any difference of view: (a) The book contains a great deal of traditional material, especially the eschatological portions ; written sources were in all probability drawn upon for this, but the excerpts which were made from such writings have been so interwoven with what the writer himself composed that to indicate precisely how much belongs to a particular source is an extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, task. (b) The final form of the work is due to a redactor who has brought these various pieces into a more or less connected whole.
Since the writer used traditional material much of the essence of the book goes back to a time long before he lived ; moreover, the book in its present form, having been worked over by a re dactor, must be of later date than that of the original form. But indications in the component parts of the book themselves prove that they were written at different times, though these may all have been within the lifetime of one writer. Details cannot be given here, but there are good reasons for dating the various component parts, as they left the writer's hands, as follows : the first four Visions (iii.–x.), known also as the "Salathiel Apoc alypse" (Salathiel = Ezra in iii. I) belong to about A.D. ioo; the "Eagle Vision" (xi.–xii.) to A.D. 96 ; the "Vision of the Man rising from the Sea" (xiii.) and the "Ezra Legend" (xiv.) to A.D. Ioo.
See G. H. Box, The Ezra-Apocalypse (1912).
(R. H. CH.; W. O. E. 0.)