4. The Authorand Date of the Book. —The greatest divergency of opinion prevails about the- author and date of this book. He has successively been described as a true prophet who lived 336 B.C. ;* an impostor who flourished 160 A.D.; a Jew, a Christian, a converted Jew, and as a Montanist. The whole complexion of the book, however, in contestably shews that the author of it was a Jew. His personating Ezra, the contempt and vengeance which he breathes against the Gentiles (vi. 56, 57), the intense love he manifests for the Jews, who alone know the Lord and keep his precepts (iii. 30-36), declaring that for them alone was this world created (iv. 63, 66 ; vi. 55-59 ; vii. to, t 1), and reserving all the blessings of salvation for them (vii. 1-53) ; his view of righteousness, which con sists in doing the works of the Law, and that the righteous are justified and rewarded for their good works (viii. 33, 36), the purport of his questions, referring exclusively to the interests of this people (iv. 35 ; vi. 59) ; the Haodic legends about the Behemoth and Leviathan which are reserved for the great Messianic feast (vi. 49-52), the ten tribes (xiii• 39-47), the restoration of the Scriptures and the writing of Cabbalistic books for the sages or Rabbins of Israel (xiv. 2022 ; all this proves beyond doubt that the writer was a thorough Hebrew. Chapters i., ii., xv., and xvi., which contain allusions to the N. T. (comp. i. 3o with Matt. Min. 37-39 ; ii. I i with Luke xvi. 9 ; 12 with Rev. xxii. 2 ; xv. 8 with Rev. vi. so ; xvi. 29 with 7c att. xxxiv. to ; xvi. 42-44 with I COT.
29), and especially the anti-Jewish spirit by which they are pervaded, as well as the name of 7eszts in chapter viii. 28, which have been the cause why some have maintained that this book is the production of a Christian, are now generally acknowledged to be later interpolations made by some Christian, and are wanting both in the Ara bic and Ethiopic versions. The same dogmatic causes which dictated these additions also gave rise to the omission of a long and important pas sage between ver. 35 and 36 of chapter vii. in the English version, which is found both in the Ara bic and Ethiopic, and which was known to Am brose (De Bono llforgs, x., xi.) As to the date of the book, this has most un necessarily and most unsafely been made to depend upon the interpretation of the different wings and heads of the eagle in xi. and xii., since no two ex positors agree in their explanation of this vision, and every one finds in the three heads,' the twelve feathered and the eight counter feathers' such emperors, kings, and demagogues as will square with his pre-conceived notions what they shall describe. So, for instance, the learned Whiston makes the three heads to mean the king dom of France since Francis the Great, 1515 A.n. ; of Spain, since Ferdinand, the author of the In quisition, 1468 A.D. ; and the house of Austria since the Emperor Albert, 1438—all of whom per secuted the Protestants (Authen. Records, i. p. Si). The safest and most satisfactory data for determin ing its probable age, are—I. The quotations from it in the Epistle of St. Barnabas (c. xii. with 2 Ezra v. 3) and in Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. iii. 16), sheaving beyond doubt that the book was well known at the commencement of the Christian era, and must therefore have been written some time before to have obtained such general currency and accept ance ; and 2. The minute description which the writer gives of the pre-existence and death of Mes siah (vii. 29 ; xiv. 7), which no Jew would have given at the very outset of Christianity, to which we have traced the book, when these very points were the stumblingblock to the ancient people, and formedd, the points of contest between Judaism and Christianity,. thus. showing that it must have been written before Christ. We may, therefore, safely assign it to about so B. c.
5. The Canonicity and importance of the Book.— By many of the Fathers this book was undoubtedly regarded as canonical. The quotations from it ih the Epistle of St. Barnabas is described as the saying of a prophet (c. xii.), the quotation by Clemens Alexandrinus is introduced as "Ecapas 6 vpocp"rjrns At-yes (Strom. iii. 16), and Ambrose speaks of it as containing divine revelations (De Bono Mortis, x. xi.) The famous story about Ezra being
inspired to write again the Law, which was burnt (xiv. 2o-48), has been quoted by Irenmus (Adv. Har. iii. 21. 2) ; Tertullian (De Cult. fang. i. 3); Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. i. 22) ; Chrysostom (Ham. viii., in Heb.), and many others. The Ethiopian Church regards it as canonical, which may be seen from the manner in which it is alluded to in the Book of Devotions, called The Organon of the Blessed Virgin Mary' [written circa 124o), ' Open my mouth to praise the virginity of the mother of God, as thou didst open the mouth of Ezra, who rested not for forty days until he had finished writing the words of the Law and the Pro phets, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had burnt' (Prayer for Monday, see also Prayer for Tuesday). St. Jerome was the first who denounced it. In reply to Vigilantius, who, regarding this book as inspired, appealed to xii. 36-45, to prove that none would venture to intercede for others in the day of judgment,' this Father, playing upon the name Vigilantius; remarked, Tu vigilans dormis, et dormiens scribis, et propinas mihi librum apocry plum, qui sub nongine Esdru a to el similibus till legitur, ubi scriptum est, quod post mortem nul his pro aliis gaudeat deprecari,' quern ego librum nunquam legi, quid enim necesse est in manus sumere, quod Ecclesia non recepit. Nisi forte Bal samum et Barbelum, et thesaurum Manichmi, et ridiculum nomen Leusiborm proferas ; et quia radices Pyreniei habitus, vicinusque es Hiberim, Basilidis, antiquissimi hoeretici, et imperitze scien tite incredibilia portenta proscqueris, et proponis, quoaa' totius orbis auctoritate damnatur (Ep. ad Vigilant.) This is a most important passage, inasmuch as it shews that those of the primitive Church who, from their knowledge of Hebrew, had the best means of ascertaining what were the canonical Scriptures of the ancient Synagogue, repudiated this book as uncanonical. In the Council of Trent, the second Ezra, like the first, was excluded from the canon, and Luther de nounced it as worse than Esop's Fables [ESDRAS, FIRST BOOK OF]. But this is going too far. His torico-critical expositors of the Bible, and those who are engaged in Christological works, whilst regarding 2 Esdras as not belonging to the canon, yet see in it a most important record of Jewish opinion on some vital points. It shews that the Jews before the rise of Christianity most distinctly believed in the immortality of the soul, that the Messiah was denominated the son of God, that he existed in heaven previous to his appearance upon earth (xiv. 7), and that he was to die (vii. 29).
6. Literature on the .Book.—The Latin text is published in Walton's Polyglot, vol. iv., and in J. A. Fabricii, Codex. Apocr. Vet. Test. ii., p. 173, seqq., with the additions and variations of the Arabic version. An English translation of the important Arabic version made by Simon Ockley is given in Whiston's Primitive Christianity, vol. iv., Lond.
1711 ; the Ethiopic version, with a Latin and English translation and valuable remarks, was pub lished by Archbishop Laurence, entitled Priori Ezra Libri Versio ./Ethiopica, Oxon. 1820 ; comp. also Lee, Dissertation upon the second Book of Esdras, Lond. 1722 ; Whiston, Authentic Records, Lond. 1727, vol. i., p. 44, ff. ; Van der Vlis, Dz:rputatio Critica de Ezra Libra Apokrypha, Amstelodami, 1839 ; Gfrhrer. Das /ahrhundert des Hells, Stuttgart, 1838, vol. i. p. 69, ff. ; and by the same author, Prophetce veteres Pseudepigraphi, Stuttgart, 1840, p. 66, ff. ; Liicke, in d. Ofenbarung yohannis, zd ed., p. 138, ff. ; Davidson, The Old Testament Text Considered, Lond. 1856, p. 99o, ff. ; Hilgenfeld, Die jiidische Apokalyptik, Jena, 1857, p. 187, ff. ; Volkmar, Das vierte Buch Ezra, Zurich, 1858 ; Keil, Einlei tung in d. Alte Testament, 1859, p. 734, ff.— C. D. G.
Isaac to a well of springing water' dug by his ser vants, and about which they and the herdsmen of Gerar had a strife (Gen. xxvi. zo), whence the name, from ptty, to strive. The rendering of the LXX., and of the Vulg. calumnia, arose probably from the translators reading Nip for pin.—W. L. A.
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