Chapter Fourteen

A command heard by Ezra from a bush concerning the bestowal of the writing of the visions granted to him (1–8). A prophecy of Ezra’s near removal from the earth into the fellowship of the Son of God (9) in view of the approaching end (10–12) and command to set all earthly affairs in order (13–17). Ezra’s prayer for the bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon him to restore the burned law (18–22). God’s command concerning the division of sacred books into those accessible to all and hidden ones (23–26). Ezra’s farewell address to the people (27–36). The miraculous restoration of sacred books with the aid of the Holy Spirit (37–48). A note about Ezra’s death (48–50 according to the eastern translation).

2 Esdras 14:1. And it came to pass after three days, I sat under an oak, and behold, a voice came forth from the bush toward me and said: Ezra, Ezra! 2 Esdras 14:2. I said: Here I am, Lord. And I rose up on my feet. 1–2. Since Ezra in the eyes of post-captivity Jewry was a second Moses, the setting of the last vision wholly reproduces the circumstances of the first revelation received by Moses in the bush. The author adds only the detail that Ezra sat under an oak. The oak, like the cedar, was considered a sacred tree. Like Moses (Exod 3:2-4), Ezra hears a voice from the bush calling him twice by name. Ezra’s response presents a full parallel to the words of Moses.

2 Esdras 14:3. Then He said to me: in the bush I was revealed and spoke to Moses, when My people were enslaved in Egypt; 3. To Moses, Jehovah appears as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to Ezra, the new lawgiver of the Hebrew people, as the God of the ancient lawgiver Moses.

2 Esdras 14:4. and sent him and brought My people out of Egypt, and led him to Mount Sinai and held him with Me for many days, 4. Exod 34:28.

2 Esdras 14:5. and revealed to him many wonders and showed him the mysteries of the times and the end, and commanded him, saying: 2 Esdras 14:6. “These words proclaim, but the others keep hidden. 5–6. Post-captivity Jewry was inclined to attribute many customs to ancient times, connecting their origin with the name of Moses. Hence arose a legend that Moses wrote a whole series of books hidden from the people (cp. Deut. V:1), where were set forth prophecies about the last days of the world. The author cites it in order to show that Ezra, having written besides the canonical books a whole series of apocrypha, was merely a continuator of Moses.

2 Esdras 14:7. And now I say to you: 2 Esdras 14:8. the signs which I have shown you, and the dreams which you have seen, and the interpretations which you have heard, lay in your heart; 2 Esdras 14:9. for you will be taken from among men and will dwell with My Son and with those like you, until the times are ended. 9. In the Slavonic Bible instead of the Son of God it speaks of counsel. The error is explained by the fact that in the Vulgate the words cum filio meo were read as cum consilio meo.

2 Esdras 14:10. For the age has lost its youth, and the times are approaching old age, 2 Esdras 14:11. for the age is divided into twelve parts, and nine parts of it and half of the tenth part have already passed, 2 Esdras 14:12. and what remains after the half of the tenth part. 11–12. The Latin translation is quite obscure. “The age is divided into 12 parts, and 10 parts of it have already passed, and also half of the tenth part; two parts remain after the middle of the tenth part.” The text contains obvious contradictions. If the world remains to exist for 2 1/2 parts, then evidently 9 1/2, not 10 1/2 parts have elapsed until that time. In the Syriac and Armenian translations, the division of the world into periods was omitted due to its obscurity. In one of the Arabic texts it was replaced by a general indication that the time remaining until the end of the world is insignificant compared to the time elapsed. In the Ethiopic translation the age is divided into 10 parts; it has entered the tenth part; 1 1/2 parts remain. In another Arabic text there is mention of the division of the world into 12 1/2 parts, of which 10 have passed. The teaching about the division of world history into 12 parts was widespread among the Magi, who borrowed it from the division of the year into 12 months (Hilgenfeld. Das Judenthum in dem Persischen Zeitalter. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1666, S. 402–403; Esra und Daniel, 63). It is found among Christian writers: Origen (In Matthaeum Tom. XV, 32. Opera, III, 700), Hilary (Commentarius ad Matthaeum, XX, 6; XVII, 2) and Jerome (In Mich. IV. Opera, VI, 474 sq.). The extent of these periods prompts the supposition that the author calculates the time remaining until the end of the world not from his epoch, but from the epoch of the historical Ezra. Lücke (182) gives preference to the Ethiopic text, which counts only 10 periods. Basing himself on the book’s teaching about the four-hundred-year Kingdom of the Messiah (VII:28), he defines each period as 400 years. In this case the elapsed 9 1/2 parts yield 3,800 years and fall approximately on the epoch of Pompey and Caesar, to which Lücke ascribes the appearance of the book. Hilgenfeld in his first work (Jüdische Apokalyptik, 224–225) like Lücke accepts periods of 400 years, but in his opinion the twelfth period encompasses the Kingdom of the Messiah. From 558 B.C. to 30 B.C., when in his view the present book was written, about 1 1/2 parts elapsed. Along with the time of the messianic Kingdom until the last judgment, exactly 2 1/2 parts remain. Subsequently, Hilgenfeld expressed the view that the author has in mind periods embracing 7 jubilee years, i.e., 343 years. Such a count is found at the end of the book (XIV according to the eastern translation). The fulfilled 10 parts and the beginning of the eleventh fall precisely on the time of the historical Ezra’s life. Then 3,500 1/2 years elapsed from the creation of the world. All 12 parts end around 30 B.C. Volkmar (199–201) recognizes the duration of each period as equal to the number of days in a year, i.e., 360 or 365 years. Two contradictory indications regarding elapsed and remaining time he reconciles by proposing to take the mean between these two limits. On the mean between 10 1/2 and 9 1/2 periods (3780–3420 years), or 3600 years from the creation of the world, falls approximately 30 years from the first destruction of Jerusalem (558 B.C.). The coming of the new age is expected between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 periods elapsed since 30 years of the Babylonian captivity, or between 18 B.C. and 342 A.D., at the very beginning of the 1st century B.C. Around this time the prophetic book of Ezra appeared. Wizelius (286–288) accepts the phoenix periods of 500 years. He supposes the author refers the end of the world to the sixth thousand years. The twelfth period encompasses the four-hundred-year reign of the Messiah, to which is added 100 years, when the world returns to ancient silence (VII:28–29). In the first half of the eleventh period lived Ezra according to the data of the book itself (XIV:48). From Ezra to Domitian more than 400 but less than 500 years elapsed. In the 5500th year the author expects the manifestation of the Messiah. None of these interpretations can be considered convincing. There are not even sufficient grounds to consider the periods equal, since in the Apocalypse of Enoch an opposite phenomenon is found. Gunkel corrects the contradictory Latin text by means of the Ethiopic in the following form: “for into 12 parts is divided the age, it has come already to the tenth, to the half of the tenth part; two parts remain after the half of the tenth part.” He proposes that in the Latin translation there could stand nine parts instead of ten elapsed from the creation of the world until Ezra. In the time remaining until the coming of the end he sees an echo of the apocalyptic number determining the duration of trials (3 1/2 times; cf. Rev 11:9). The author, shortening this term, wishes to say that for the world there have long since come those difficult days which will precede its end.

2 Esdras 14:13. Therefore now set in order your house and instruct your people, comfort the afflicted, and renounce corruption, 2 Esdras 14:14. and put away from you mortal thoughts, lay down the burdens of mankind, put off the weaknesses of your nature, and set aside the troublesome thoughts for you, and prepare yourself to pass away from these times. 14. Cf. 2 Cor 5:4.

2 Esdras 14:15. For hereafter there will be more adversities than how much you now see. 2 Esdras 14:16. As much as the age will weaken from old age, so much will evil be multiplied for those living. 16. “Already the eagle hastens, which you beheld in the vision” (XI:1; XII:35).

2 Esdras 14:17. Yet further truth will depart and lie will draw near; already the vision you saw hastens to come. 2 Esdras 14:18. Then I answered and said: Behold, I am before You, Lord; 2 Esdras 14:19. I will go as You have commanded me and instruct the present people; but who will teach those who are born after? 2 Esdras 14:20. For the age lies in darkness, and those living in it are without light; 2 Esdras 14:21. because Your law is burned, and therefore no one knows what has been done by You or what they ought to do. 21. IV:23. The legend of the destruction of the Old Testament books by Nebuchadnezzar rests on the case of the burning of a scroll with Jeremiah’s prophecy by the Jewish king Jehoiakim (Jer 36:23) and the remark of the prophet Habakkuk (I:4) about the perishing of the law, as well as the destruction of sacred books and persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes. Due to the lack of sacred books, no one knows either the past history of the Hebrew people or its future.

2 Esdras 14:22. But if I have found favor with You, send the Holy Spirit upon me, so that I may write all that has been done in the world from the beginning, what was written in Your law, so that people might find the way, and that those who wish to live in the last times might live. 2 Esdras 14:23. And He answered and said to me: Go, gather the people and tell them that they must not seek you for forty days. 23. Cf. Exod 24:18; Deut 9:9.

2 Esdras 14:24. And you prepare yourself much wood and take with you Saraiah, Davrias, Salemiah, Eehan, and Asiel, these five, able to write quickly. 24. The names of the five men are found in the Old Testament books. This is Seraiah (Ezra 2:2; Neh 10:2), Davri (Lev 24:11), Shelemias (Ezra 2:46), Ethan (in Syriac and Armenian, Elkanah, 1 Chr 9:16) and Aziel (Tob 1:1; cf. Neh 3:8; Num 3:27).

2 Esdras 14:25. And come here, and I will kindle in your heart a lamp of understanding, which will not go out until what you begin to write is finished. 2 Esdras 14:26. And when you have finished this, reveal some things and hide others in secret. Tomorrow at this hour you will begin to write. 2 Esdras 14:27. Then I went as He commanded me and gathered all the people and said: 2 Esdras 14:28. Hear, Israel, these words: 2 Esdras 14:29. our fathers were sojourners in Egypt, and were delivered from there, 2 Esdras 14:30. and received the law of life, which they did not keep, and which you have transgressed after them. 2 Esdras 14:31. And the land of Zion was given to you as an inheritance, and the land itself; but you and your fathers committed lawlessness and did not keep the ways that the Most High commanded you. 2 Esdras 14:32. And He, as a righteous judge, has now taken away from you what He gave you. 2 Esdras 14:33. And now you are here and your brothers are among you. 33. Hilgenfeld (100), Zöckler (471) and Gunkel (400) transmit this passage in the form: “And now you are here, and your brothers are in the most inward places of the earth” (introrsum, Greek ἐνδότερον). The author speaks of the ten tribes of Israel (XIII:41–46).

2 Esdras 14:34. If you direct your senses and form your heart, you will preserve life and after death will receive mercy. 2 Esdras 14:35. For after death judgment will come, when we are revived; and then the names of the righteous will be declared and the deeds of the ungodly shown. 2 Esdras 14:36. No one come to me now and do not seek me for forty days. 2 Esdras 14:37. And I took five men as He commanded me, and we went into the field and remained there. 2 Esdras 14:38. And behold, on the next day a voice called to me: Ezra! open your mouth and drink what I give you. 2 Esdras 14:39. I opened my mouth, and behold, a full cup was offered to me, which was filled as if with water, but its color was like fire. 39. Cf. Acts 2:3. The cup offered to Ezra is filled as if with water, but the color of this water is like fire. These are symbols of the Divine Revelation, pure as water, and acting on the heart of man with the same irresistible and purifying force as fire.

2 Esdras 14:40. And I took it and drank; and when I had drunk, my heart poured forth understanding and in my breast wisdom grew, for my spirit preserved memory; 40. The author gives a most detailed analysis of the spiritual state of a man upon receiving Divine revelation. “And behold I took it and drank, and when I drank, my heart brought forth understanding, in my breast wisdom grew, and my spirit retained memory.” The action of the Holy Spirit on the heart of man is depicted in accordance with the psalmist (XLIV:2). The remark that the spirit of the prophet in a state of spiritual illumination retains memory is intended to distinguish true revelation from false. While in simple states of ecstasy a man acts unconsciously and can remember nothing about them, Ezra, inspired by the Holy Spirit, retains full consciousness and can reproduce in his mind everything that happened to him.

2 Esdras 14:41. and my mouth was opened and ceased to close. 2 Esdras 14:42. The Most High gave understanding to the five men, and they wrote in order what was said and which they did not know. 42. The men “wrote in order” what was said to them by signs (notis, eastern translation) which they did not know. Evidently here is an echo of the replacement by Ezra of the ancient square script with a new one.

2 Esdras 14:43. By night they ate bread; and I spoke by day and was not silent by night. 43. In a state of spiritual illumination Ezra does not fall silent day or night, not feeling even the need for food. Even when the scribes sustain themselves with water, he does not cease to pour forth his feelings in hymns of praise to the Creator.

2 Esdras 14:44. And ninety-four books were written in forty days. 44. In Latin manuscripts and the Vulgate the number of books restored by Ezra is named incorrectly (904, 974; in the Vulgate 204). The eastern translations speak of 94 books, consisting of 24 books of the Hebrew canon and 70 apocrypha. The author counts 24 canonical books according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet, following later tradition, which departed from the count of Flavius (Contra Appionem, I, 8). This division of books with minor changes was accepted by Epiphanius of Cyprus (De mensuris et ponderibus, 10). According to his testimony, the Jews sent Ptolemy II 22 books included in the canon and 72 apocrypha. The legend transmitted in the 3rd book of Ezra about the restoration of sacred books by Ezra found an echo in patristic literature. The burning of them during captivity is accepted by Leontius of Byzantium (De sectis, p. 428), Photius of Constantinople (Angel Meier. Scriptores Veteres T. I, p. 171), Isidore of Seville (Origines VI, 3; De officiis Ecclesiasticorum II, 12; De vita et morte Sanctorum LXI) and Optatus of Milevis (De schismate donatistarum. Edit. Dupin. Liber VII, p. 110). Most of the fathers and teachers of the church speak only of the corruption of books. These are Irenaeus (Adversus haereses, III, 21, 2), Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, I, 22; cf. I, 21), Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Ecclesiastica V, 8; Chronica Angel Meier. Scriptores Veteres. T. VIII, p. 344), Chrysostom (Homilia VIII in Epistolam ad Hebraeos. Montaucon T. XII, p. 90) and Theodoret (Praefatio in Psalmos; Praefatio in Cantica Canticorum). The restoration of sacred books was, in the opinion of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, Basil the Great (Epistola ad Chilonem), Theodoret and Isidore of Seville, accomplished by Divine inspiration without the aid of any copies. Origen (Hexapla. Monfaucon. T. I. Praeliminaria, p. 85), Leontius of Byzantium, and Optatus of Milevis affirm that Ezra restored the sacred books from memory, not mentioning Divine illumination. Chrysostom accepts the presence of Divine illumination in the revision of corrupted books. The Synopsis of Athanasius and James of Edessa (Epistola XIII. Ed. Wright. The Journal of Sacred Literature for January 1867) deny not only the restoration of the books but even their correction, attributing to Ezra only the publication of the surviving copies he had. Jerome (Adversus Helvidium, 7) and Tertullian (De cultu feminarum I, 3) speak of the restoration of sacred books in general terms, regardless of their former condition. The legend found an echo even in Islam (Calmet. Dictionnaire historique de la Bible. T. II, 426).

2 Esdras 14:45. And when the forty days were fulfilled, 2 Esdras 14:46. The Most High said: The first that you have written, reveal openly, so that the worthy and unworthy might read; 2 Esdras 14:47. but the last seventy keep hidden, to give them to the wise of the people; 2 Esdras 14:48. for in them is the guide of understanding, the source of wisdom and the river of knowledge. So I did. 48. The apocalypses in certain circles of Jewry were valued higher than the canonical books. The eastern translations briefly note after the account of the miraculous restoration of books the year of Ezra’s death. Here is this passage according to the Syriac text: “48. And I did so in the seventh year of the sixth week, after 5,000 years, 3 months, and 12 days from the creation of the world. 49. And then Ezra was taken and received into the land of those like him, after he had written. 50. And he himself was called the scribe of the knowledge of the Most High forever and ever.” All other translations indicate the time of Ezra’s death in the same way as the Syriac with minor changes (Armenian 5,000 years, 2 months; Ethiopic 5,000 years, 3 months, 10 days; one Arabic 5,025 years, 3 months, 12 days; another 5,000 years, 3 months, 22 days). In the 3 months and 12 days Gunkel sees an apocalyptic term, for which the Apocalypse (XI:9, 11) uses the expression “three and a half days.” According to Julius Africanus, the Jews reckoned from the creation of the world to A.D. 5,500 years. The time of the historical Ezra’s life under such chronology falls precisely on the years indicated in the eastern translations.