Fourth Revelation (ix. 26-x. 59 A. V.; ix. 28 x. 74 Eth.) After appealing again to God in be half of his brethren (26-37), Ezra suddenly saw a woman in the deepest mourning for her only son, who had been born to her after being married thirty years, and who died on the day of his nup tials (3S-x. 1), and would not be comforted (2 4). He rebuked her for being so disconsolate about the loss of one son, when Sion was bereaved of all her children (2-14), and recommended her to submit to the dealings of God (15-24), her face speedily shone very brightly, and she disappeared (25.27) ; whereupon Uriel appeared to Ezra, and told him that the woman is Sion, the thirty years of her barrenness are ' the thirty years wherein no sacrifice was offered in her,', her first-born is the temple built by Solomon, his death on the day of his marriage is the destruction of Jerusalem, and the extraordinary brightness of the mother's face is the future glory of Sion (28-59).
Fifth Revelation (xi. 51 A. V; xi.
58 Eth.) Ezra in a dream had a revelation of the latter days under the figure of an eagle coming up from the sea with three heads and twelve wings, which afterwards produced eight smaller wings spread over all things, and reigning over all the world (1-7). These wings, beginning from the right side, according to a voice which proceeded from the body of the eagle, reigned successively over all the earth, and perished, so that there re mained six small wings (8-23), which, however, in attempting to rile, also perished, and the three heads only were left on the eagle's body (24-31). These now reigned, one after the other, and perished, so that a single head remained (32-35). A lion (Messiah) declared unto the eagle that all his wings and heads were destroyed because he ruled the earth wickedly (36-46), when the body and whatever was left of the eagle were burnt in fire (xii. I, 2). Ezra awoke, and having prayed for the interpretation of this vision (3.9), was told by the angel that the eagle was the fourth mon archy which Daniel saw, and was admonished again to fast and pray (10-51).
Sixth Revelation (xiii. 1-58 A. V.; xiii. Eth.) Ezra then had another dream, in which he saw a mighty rvefina arise from the sea re sembling a man, who destroyed all his enemies with the blast of his mouth, and gathered around him large multitudes (1-13). On awaking, Ezra was told by the angel that it was the Messiah, who shall gather together the ten tribes, lead them to their holy land, and give them Sion prepared and builded for them' (14-58).
Seventh Revelation (xiv. 1.48 A. V.; xiv. 1-52,
Eth.) Three days later the voice which spoke to Moses in the bush tells Ezra that the latter days are at hand (I42), bids him set his house in order, reprove those that are living (13-IS), and write down, for the benefit of those who are not yet born, ninety-four books, i.e., the twenty-four in spired books of the 0. T. which have been burnt, and seventy books of divine mysteries, which he duly did with the help of scribes (19-44), the re covered Scriptures to be communicated to all, and the Cabbalistic books only to the sages 3. The Unity and Original Language of the Book. —Despite the arbitrary division into chapters in our English version which sometimes interrupts a vision in the middle of a sentence, few readers will fail to see the intimate connection and the beautiful adjustment of these angelic revelations, and how every one of them forms an essential part in leading us further and further, till we reach the climax of the apocalypse. It is owing to this re markable unity which the whole work displays, that the numerous interpolations made for dog matic purposes have so easily been detected.
The idea of a Hebrew original has now been pretty generally given up by scholars, despite the positive assertion of Galatinus (De Arcanis Catho lien Veritatis), that a copy of it was reported to exist among the Jews at Constantinople in his day, and it is commonly believed that it was written in Greek. Although the Greek is lost, yet there can be no doubt that the Old Latin version, through which alone this book has been known to us till lately, was a translation from that lan guage. This is evident from the fact that it imitates the Greek idiom in making the adjective in the comparative degree govern a genitive case, and not, as in Latin, an ablative, and introduces other Gre cisms, which are barbarous in the version (comp. ii. 24 ; v. 13, 39 ; vi. 25, 31, 46, 57 ; vii. 5 ; viii. 7, 8, 38, 44 ; ix. 14 ; xi. 42). This is, more over, corroborated by the Arabic and Ethiopic versions discovered in modern days, the one by the learned Gregory of Christ Church, Oxford [GRE GORY], translated into English by Simon Ockley, and the other by Archbishop Laurence, both of which are made directly from the Greek, as well as the quotation from this book in the Fathers (see below, sec. 5), which prove. the very early ex istence of it in Greek. It is, however, equally certain that many of the things contained in this book are of Palestinian origin, and are still to be found in Hebrew or Aramaic dispersed through the Talmud and Midrashim.