Chapter Nine

The time and signs of the end (1–13). The corruption of morals as the cause of the small number of the saved, those chosen by God beforehand (14–22). The promise of a new revelation (23–25). The fourth vision. Ezra’s perplexity regarding the preservation of the law despite the destruction of the chosen people (29–37). A vision of a woman and the account of her about the birth of a son and his marriage (38–47).

2 Esdras 9:1. And he answered me and said: Measure the time for yourself carefully, and when you see that a certain part of the signs mentioned before has passed, 2 Esdras 9:2. then you will understand that this is the time in which the Most High will begin to visit the age, created by him. 2 Esdras 9:3. When unsteadiness is revealed in the age, disturbance of peoples, 3. In the printed text the list of signs of the end is given in brief form. In the Latin manuscripts five are named: “And when troubles are observed in the age in countries, disorderly movement of peoples, encroachments of tribes, instability of leaders, and confusion among rulers, then you will understand that the Most High spoke of this.” The mentioned violations of the usual order of political life are a necessary attribute of all eschatological pictures. Historical interpretation does not have grounds in its favor. Gutschmid (272–275) sees in the first sign an echo of an earthquake that occurred in the year of the Battle of Actium and buried 30,000 people and many cattle. By encroachments of tribes he understands the invasion of the Parthians into Palestine (40 B.C.); by the defilement of peoples, mentioned in the Ethiopian text, the bloody war between the supporters of Antigonus and Herod, the siege of Jerusalem by Sossius, the bloody reprisal of Herod against patriots (37 B.C.), and finally the murder of Aristobulus, which his youth did not save him from (36 B.C.). The absence of unity of power, according to Gutschmid, indicates the quarrels that broke out between Antony and Octavian; the hopeless situation of the toparchs indicates the horror experienced by Herod at the news of the Battle of Actium. Going to Octavian, he killed the elder Hyrcanus and, in case of failure in his attempt, ordered his wife and her mother from the house of the Maccabees to be killed. Hilgenfeld sees here a reference to the murder of Caesar, which caused extraordinary turmoil in the state (44 B.C.), ended only with the accession of Octavian. Volkmar (365–367) with equal success selects a whole series of facts that took place after the death of Domitian. The peoples, just tamed by him, the Sarmatians, Dacians, Marcomanni, Parthians, and Germans, rose again under Nerva and prevailed over the Roman legions. Confusion in the rulers, according to Volkmar, indicates the mutiny that occurred at court and ended with Nerva’s abdication.

2 Esdras 9:4. then you will understand that the Most High spoke of this from the days that were before you, from the beginning. 4. The author means apocalypses similar to his book inscribed with the names of ancient patriarchs, Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and others.

2 Esdras 9:5. As all that is created in the age has a beginning, likewise also an end, and an ending is evident: 2 Esdras 9:6. so also the times of the Most High have beginnings, revealed by wonders and powers, and endings, shown by actions and signs. 5–6. Volkmar puts into this place the sense that the last time, like everything existing in the world, will have its beginning and its end. But it is more correct to see here a comparison of the present age with the future one. It is most clearly developed in the Ethiopian text. “Just as everything that appears in the light has a beginning in the word (i.e., in the creative word), and an end in its manifestation outwardly, so also the world of the Most High has its beginning in speech (i.e., in the revelation given to the prophets, v. 4), in signs and in power, and its end in action and wonder.” The comparison of the creative word with its action is found in Justin (Apology I, 12, 10). “As soon as everything that is newly arising, the appearance of which he previously foretold, manifests itself in action, we are confirmed in all that he taught us, namely, that what is the work of God was spoken of before it appeared in the light, and what appeared is revealed in the way it was foretold.” In order to more sharply emphasize the difference between the present age and the future, the author dwells on the beginning and end of everything existing in the world. The generation of new beings, having its source in the creative word (Gen 1:22), is covered by mystery; their death all the surrounding see. Similarly, mankind lived on earth under the guidance of prophetic word and miracles incomprehensible to man; in the future age all mysteries will be removed; mankind will possess wisdom that penetrates into the essence of the phenomena occurring before it; everything that was predicted by the prophets in words will be accomplished in action in signs far exceeding the miracles that took place by the word of the prophets. In the Latin manuscript text there is an obvious gap. With the words: “all that appeared in the light has a beginning due to an end, and an end is evident,” the Latin scribe, perhaps, connected the sense that the generation of new creatures is caused by the destruction of the preceding generation, therefore birth and death are an inevitable law of all world life, in view of this the author extends the analogy to the plans of Divine Providence regarding the present and future age.

2 Esdras 9:7. Whoever is saved and will be able through his deeds and faith, which you believe, to escape from the aforesaid evils, 7. The righteousness of which the author spoke before is righteousness under the law. Man, in his conviction, is justified by his own deeds (VIII:33); God’s mercy is necessary only for sinners, whose transgressions can be forgiven if they observe the law (VII:132–139). The law stands foremost both in the present and in the future life. It is eternal. Despite the destruction of the sacred books where it was expressed (IV:23; XIV:21), it retains its former force (IX:37). Its observance is the condition for the acquisition of blessedness in the future life (VII:127–131). The law is a powerful instrument in the hands of the Messiah. Through the law he destroys the entire pagan world (XIII:38). From this it is evident that the faith of which there is discourse here occupies in the worldview of the author far from the place which the Apostle Paul assigns to it. Faith is not an independent principle of justification. “It is merely a specific matter among the other deeds of the law” (Wieseler, 293). It is faith in the law (VII:24), as the source of eternal life (VII:127–131). After what was said with the expressions in the book about the preservation by the righteous of faith as a treasure (VI:5), or about the flourishing of faith in the future age, or, finally, about salvation through deeds and faith (IX:7–8; XIII:23), one cannot unite the New Testament sense. Faith was proclaimed as a justifying principle already by the prophet Habakkuk (II:4). But only Christianity revealed the full significance of faith in the work of salvation. Hilgenfeld unfairly sees in the prophetic book of Ezra a renunciation of the former view of righteous-law and a noticeable step forward from the Mosaic law of deeds to Paul’s law of faith (Die Judische Apokalyptik. 235). Post-exilic Judaism was permeated only with the consciousness of the impossibility of the law, but the main step — the denial of the law as the sole source of justification — had not yet been taken.

2 Esdras 9:8. shall remain, and shall see my salvation on my land and in my borders, which I have sanctified for myself from of old. 2 Esdras 9:9. Then those who have departed from my ways will repent, and those who rejected them with contempt will remain in torments. 9. “Then those who transgressed my ways will regard them with admiration” (mirabuntur — translation of the Greek θαυμάσουσι. Hilgenfeld. Gunkel).

2 Esdras 9:10. Those who did not know me, receiving benefits in life, 2 Esdras 9:11. and abhorred my law, did not understand it, but despised it, while they still had freedom and while repentance was still open to them, 2 Esdras 9:12. they will know me after death in torment. 2 Esdras 9:13. Do not be curious any longer about how the impious will be tormented, but inquire how the righteous will be saved, to whom the age belongs and for whom the age exists, and when. 13. The salvation of the righteous is the subject of the next three visions.

2 Esdras 9:14. I answered and said: 2 Esdras 9:15. I said before, and I say now, and I will say hereafter, that more are those who perish than those who are saved, as a wave is greater than a drop. 15. VII:47.

2 Esdras 9:16. And he answered me and said: 2 Esdras 9:17. As is the field, so are the seeds; as are the flowers, so are the colors; as is the worker, so is the work; as is the farmer, so is the cultivation; for it was the time of the age. 17. The fate of sinners is sad, but they have fully deserved it. The world, as a creation of God, should have existed eternally. Such is the worker, such is his work. But as soon as people appeared on earth, evil arose through them in the world, requiring restraint. However, in his mercy God does not destroy all people, but keeps for himself Israel, as a chosen planting or berry.

2 Esdras 9:18. When I prepared the age before it was, for the habitation of those who now live in it, no one contradicted me. 2 Esdras 9:19. But now, when this age was created, the morals of the creatures were corrupted in the unending harvest, in the unsearchable law. 18–19. In the printed text of the Vulgate there is incorrect punctuation that obscures the thought. “For it was the time of the age, when I prepared for the present people before their appearance the age in which they were to live, and no one contradicted me then, nor was anyone there. Now those who were created in this world and were destined (parati) for the unending table (mensa, Syr, Aeth.) and virgin pastures (habitationes, quae non possunt comprehendi, Ar.) have become corrupt in morals.” In the Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic translations, it is said of the destiny of people for the unsearchable law (lege investigabili). This thought arose due to an incorrectly read stress in the Greek text: νομός (pasture) was taken for νόμος (law). Clearly, the author has in mind paradise with its tree of life, the fruits of which the righteous will eat.

2 Esdras 9:20. And I considered the age, and behold, danger appeared from the thoughts that arose in it. 20. Gen 6:12.

2 Esdras 9:21. I saw and spared it, and kept for myself one berry from a grape cluster and one planting from a multitude. 21. In the Eastern translations there is discourse about God’s choice of one planting from a great forest. The Latin translator confused the word ύλη (forest) with the word φυλή (tribe), seeing here an allusion to an infinite multitude of plant species, from which God chose only one.

2 Esdras 9:22. Let the multitude perish that was born in vain, and may my berry and my planting be preserved, which I have cultivated with great effort. 2 Esdras 9:23. And you, when seven other days have passed, not fasting however in them, 2 Esdras 9:24. you will go out into the flowering field, where there is no built house, and you will eat only from the field flowers and you will not eat meat, nor drink wine, but only flowers, 2 Esdras 9:25. pray to the Most High without ceasing, and I will come and will speak with you. 23–25. Seeing that the further visions have a bright character, depicting exclusively the blessings of the future age, the author, at the command of the Angel, ceases fasting. He now eats vegetables growing in the field, from which he receives the fourth revelation, abstains from meat and wine. The use of flowers as food as a religious institution took place both in the pagan world, in the schools of Pythagoras and Plato, and in Jewish sects, among the Essenes, Therapeutae, and Ebionites, in short, in those systems where metaphysical opposition between dark earth and bright heaven was affirmed. In their conviction, flowers are less than other products of nature subject to matter and closest approach to heavenly substance. By consuming them, man prepares his body for communion with the unearthly world. In the fourth vision, indeed, Ezra beholds the heavenly Jerusalem.

2 Esdras 9:26. And I went, as he said to me, into the field called Ardath, and sat there in the flowers and ate from the field plants, and food from them was given to me for satisfaction. 26. The fourth vision takes place in the field of Ardath (Ardat). Lücke (174) on the basis of the Ethiopian text, where the name Arphad is used, brings it close to the Hebrew word arabah (steppe desert). Under the desert, where the prophet withdrew, according to Lücke, is meant the Judean desert, to the right of which he sees Jerusalem. From here he sees the view of the Mediterranean Sea, over which the eagle hovers in the fifth vision. But the text of the book clearly states that the prophet prays not in the midst of a lifeless desert, but in a field scattered with flowers and overgrown with grass. Moreover, the author sees directly only the heavenly Jerusalem, and the earthly one he beholds under the symbol of a woman. This symbol did not at all require the author to be transported even in imagination to Judea. Volkmar sees in the entire setting of the fourth vision a hint at Palestine, which indeed presented a true virgin meadow, speckled with flowers, but in the author’s time lay in ruins and lacked signs of human dwelling. Such interpretation clearly contradicts the text of the vision, where it is asserted that there were no buildings in the field (IX:24; X:51). According to the author’s own explanation, the absence of traces of man testifies to the fact that the heavenly Jerusalem will appear without human involvement. In view of this, it is far more natural to consider the place of the fourth vision a field in the vicinity of the apocalyptic Babylon (Hilgenfeld, Gutschmid, Kabisch, Gunkel). Gunkel brings the Latin name of the field close to the Eastern measure of dry goods (ardab). Probably this is such a purely eschatological name as the name of the land of Arsareth (XIII:45).

2 Esdras 9:27. After seven days I lay on the grass, and my heart was troubled again, as before. 2 Esdras 9:28. And my mouth opened, and I began to speak before the Most High and said: 2 Esdras 9:29. O Lord! showing yourself to us, you appeared to our fathers in the impassable and barren desert, when they came out of Egypt, 2 Esdras 9:30. and said: “Listen to me, Israel, and heed my words, seed of Jacob. 2 Esdras 9:31. Behold, I sow my law in you, and it will bear fruit in you, and you will be glorified in it forever. 2 Esdras 9:32. But our fathers, having received the law, did not keep it and did not preserve your ordinances, and although the fruit of your law did not perish and could not perish, because it was yours, 32. VII:24.

2 Esdras 9:33. but those who received the law perished, not keeping what was sown in it. 2 Esdras 9:34. It is usually the case that if the earth received seed, or the sea a ship, or some vessel food or drink, and if what is sown will be destroyed, or what is placed in it, 2 Esdras 9:35. then the very thing sown or placed or received perishes, and what was received no longer exists before us. But with us it is not so. 34–35. The Vulgate notes the everyday phenomenon that in case of destruction of a vessel the contents also disappear. In contrast to this, Judaism, which was the bearer of the law, perished, but the law itself remained and retains all its force. But the destruction of the earth and sea is not at all an ordinary phenomenon and fits poorly with the author’s intention to illuminate his thought with examples from surrounding life. Therefore, the manuscript text should be preferred. “And behold, it usually happens so that when the earth receives seed, or the sea a ship, or some vessel food or drink, and when it happens to perish what is sown, or sent, or placed, then it perishes, and that in which they were placed remains; with us it is not so.” In everyday life the contents perish, but the container continues to exist. With mankind and the law given to it things are the opposite. Israel, the keeper of the law, perishes, but the very law entrusted to the chosen people remains. The law is eternal, as it proceeds from God (IX:31). Because of this it is spiritual (Rom 7:14) and remains in eternal glory (2 Cor 3:7-11). Its fruit also is eternal (IX:31): for the righteous the law brings eternal blessedness, for sinners eternal torment.

2 Esdras 9:36. We, having received the law, sinned and perished, as also our heart which received it; 2 Esdras 9:37. but the law did not perish and remains in its force. 2 Esdras 9:38. When I spoke this in my heart, I lifted my eyes and saw on the right side a woman; and behold, she wept and grieved with a great cry, and was deeply grieved in her soul; her garment was torn, and there was ashes on her head. 38. The ancients connected with the right side the significance of a good omen. The priest Zacharias sees the Angel who came to announce the birth of a son on his right side (Luke 1:11), and the myrrh-bearing women see a young man sitting in the grave of Christ after the resurrection on his right side (Mark 16:5).

2 Esdras 9:39. Then I left the meditations in which I was occupied, and turned to her and said to her: 2 Esdras 9:40. Why do you weep, and why do you grieve so in your soul? 2 Esdras 9:41. She said: Leave me, my lord, that I may weep for myself and increase my sorrow, for I am very grieved in soul and very humiliated. 41. Cf. 1 Sam 1:10.

2 Esdras 9:42. I asked her: What have you suffered? Tell me. And she answered me: 2 Esdras 9:43. I was barren, your servant, and did not bear children, having a husband, for thirty years. 2 Esdras 9:44. Every hour, every day in these thirty years I prayed to the Most High without ceasing, 44. The woman prayed to God night and day (nocie ас die) for the gift of a son. The author follows the Hebrew reckoning of days. Each day begins in the evening.

2 Esdras 9:45. and God heard me, your servant, after thirty years, saw my humility, heeded my sorrow, and gave me a son, and I greatly rejoiced in him, and my husband, and all my fellow citizens, and we greatly glorified the Most High. 45. Barrenness was considered a shame among the Hebrews (Luke 1:25). The wife’s account of the gift to her of a son after many years of prayer, and of his sudden death at the wedding, is not independent. The author used for his purpose a touching story from family life, resembling in character the book of Tobit (Clemen, 241. Gunkel, 344). The opinion of Kabisch, that the material for the fourth vision came directly from the book of Tobit, has no foundation, as the content of both books has too great a difference. The content of the vision is much broader than its interpretation, which satisfies itself with comparatively few details, passing over the majority in silence. Thus, the personality of the son, occupying a prominent place in the story, is left in shadow in the interpretation. It is incomprehensible why the son dies at the wedding night, why all the feast participants extinguish the lamps, why all citizens take such close part in the woman’s grief, why, finally, she flees to the field and desperately seeks her own hungry death there. All these details could not have taken place if the wife’s account belonged to the pen of the author himself and played exclusively a service role in illuminating the past and future fate of Jerusalem.

2 Esdras 9:46. I reared him with great labor, 2 Esdras 9:47. and when he grew up and came to take a wife for himself, I arranged the day of the wedding feast.