Introduction
Preface
Title of the Book
Contents of the Book
Time of Composition
Author of the Book
Place of Composition
Purpose of the Book
Text of the Book
Merit of the Book
Bibliography
Preface
Title of the Book
The last Old Testament book in the Slavonic and Russian Bible bears the name of the great priest Ezra. In the Latin Bible it is called the 4th Book of Ezra, since in that Bible the Book of Nehemiah is also attributed to Ezra and called the second book of Ezra. But it is clear that this name was given to the book not because Ezra was its author, but chiefly because he is the person through whom, via an Angel, revelations about the fate of the Hebrew people are received here.
Contents of the Book
The first two chapters constitute a prologue or preface, in which God commands Ezra to point out to the Hebrews their sins and sorrows and to comfort them with predictions of future joys. From the III to the XIV chapters are seven visions. In the first three of these visions (ch. III–IX:25) the author depicts a conversation between the Angel Uriel and Ezra. This conversation addresses the question of why the chosen people suffer while their pagan oppressors enjoy peaceful prosperity. It becomes clear that here, as in the basis of all suffering, the cause lies in the guilt of man himself, and comfort is given through the prediction of Israel’s imminent triumph and the destruction of those who break the law. In the following three visions of an apocalyptic character, the future fate of Zion is depicted symbolically in the image of a woman (IX:26–X:60), the judgment upon the pagan monarchy ruling over the chosen people (XI:1–XI:51), and the activity of the Messiah, liberating the scattered ten tribes of Israel from captivity and appearing in the form of a man coming out of the sea (XIII:1–58); here too are depicted the cosmic—physical and political catastrophes. The seventh vision contains a legend of the miraculous restoration by Ezra of the lost books of the Old Testament (XIV:1–48). In the last two chapters—XV and XVI (epilogue)—there is a prophecy of the calamities threatening sinners, particularly the destruction threatening Egypt, Babylon, Asia, and Syria, as well as an exhortation to the chosen to preserve truth amid the trials that lie ahead.
Time of Composition
It is beyond doubt that the main component part of the book—ch. III–XIV—represents an older work, while chapters I, II, XV, and XVI are of later origin. When did the main part of the book arise? The religious worldview of the author of this section reveals the typical characteristics of post-exilic Judaism. In Israel, according to the author’s conception, the whole meaning of world history is concentrated. For the sake of Israel the world was created, and exclusive possession of the good of the future age will be its own (VI:55; VII:11). For all the hopelessness of his view of the sinfulness of human nature, the author never for a moment abandons faith in the significance of the law of Moses (IX:37) and places lawful righteousness very high (XII:7). The author considers the task of the Messiah to be only the liberation of the chosen people from foreign domination, the destruction of enemies of the Hebrew people, and the establishment of a four-hundred-year kingdom in Jerusalem, where the righteous will enjoy not only spiritual but also sensual blessings. The Messiah is subject to the law of mortality like any man, and his death has no significance for mankind in general (VII:29). The last judgment is the exclusive work of the Creator of the universe (V:56–VI:6). In view of all this, it can be said with certainty that the section under examination appeared in pre-Christian times.
As for chapters I–II and XV–XVI, familiarity of the writer with New Testament sacred books is evident in them (expressions encountered also in the Gospel—“Kingdom of Heaven,” “Gehenna,” and others are met) and therefore it is more probable to attribute the origin of this part to the beginning of the Christian era—the first century A.D.
Author of the Book
That Ezra was not the author of the main component part of the book is beyond doubt. This section contains many anachronisms and other errors which the priest Ezra could not have committed in his book. Thus here it is said that Ezra received a revelation in the 30th year after the destruction of Jerusalem (III:1), while from the indisputably authentic first book of Ezra it is clear that he was only born some fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezra 7:7). Then, according to 3 Esdras, Jerusalem is still ruled by the “inhabitants of Babylon” (III:28–31), while according to 1 Esdras—Jerusalem was under the dominion of the Persians (Ezra 1:1) and other places.
Thus, the author of chapters III–XIV was not Ezra, but some unknown Hebrew. Some scholars attribute him to the Essenes, others to the Pharisees, but the grounds for such conclusions are too weak. It is more probable to suppose that he was a simple, piously inclined Hebrew from among the people, drawing his material not from learned treatises but from current views, free from the fanaticism and exclusivity of the school. Regarding the preface and conclusion to the book, one can say that they owe their origin to two different persons: the preface—to a Hebrew already somewhat acquainted with Christian teaching, and the conclusion—to an ordinary Hebrew standing on a narrowly Jewish point of view. But who combined all three parts into one book—is completely unknown.
Place of Composition
The question of the place of composition of the book cannot be resolved with certainty. According to some scholars, the main component part of the book was written in Alexandria, according to others—in Palestine, and by still others—in Rome. However, the second supposition appears more probable to researchers—concerning the Palestinian origin of chapters III–XIV of the book: the symbolism and apocalyptic character of this section remind us of certain monuments of Palestinian Judaism. “A Palestinian Jew would naturally understand the frequent mentions of Zion and Jerusalem, the sorrow over their destruction, and prayers for their restoration” (Yungerov, p. 261). In the same way, the preface with the epilogue can more readily be attributed to a Palestinian author, because a Jew living in Palestine in the 1st century could more readily become acquainted with Christian sacred books than a Jew living somewhere outside Palestine.
Purpose of the Book
The purpose of the author of the book, taking the book in its complete form, was to comfort his own people in the misfortunes which it had suffered at the time the book appeared. If one presumes—which is quite probable—that the 3rd book of Esdras in its final form appeared in the 1st century A.D., then the author’s purpose could have been the desire to calm the Jewish people, stricken by the fall of Jerusalem at the invasion of Judea by the forces of Titus.
Text of the Book
The main component part of the book—ch. III–XIV—exists in a Latin translation, which scholars recognize as the best reproduction of the lost original Greek text of the book, and in Syrian, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Armenian translations. Only fragments of this part have been preserved in Greek and Coptic. Its prologue and epilogue are known only from the Latin text. That the book was originally written in the Greek language is evidenced by the variants in the Latin, Syrian, and Ethiopic texts of the book, the origin of which is easily explained by different readings of the Greek text. This is also indicated by the fact that, for example, the Latin translator places adjectives and pronouns in the same gender in which they were used in Greek (e.g., saeculum, qui… IX:2). Moreover, many Greek words are left completely untranslated (plasma, thalamus, etc.). Our Slavonic and Russian translations were made from the Latin text.
Merit of the Book
In the Book of Esdras there are many strange thoughts and unsupported statements, for example, the tales of two monsters—the behemoth and the leviathan (VI:49–52), of the miraculous forty-day writing by Ezra of 204 books, including 70 secret ones (XIV:21–48), and so forth. One can agree with blessed Jerome that this book would better be reckoned among the apocrypha. But in it there is also something worthy of attention—for instance, an explanation of why the righteous Hebrew people suffer while sinful pagans rule over them (chapters III and IV), or the writer’s effort to turn the attention of readers away from the pleasures of earthly life and concentrate this attention on the future judgment and retribution in the life beyond.
Bibliography
Fabricias. Codex pseudoepigraphus Vetens Testamenti. Vol. I, II (1713, 1723). Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti (1719). – Corrodi. Kritische Geschichte des Chiliasmus. Bd. I (1781). – Gfrorer. Geschichte des Urchristenthums. Das Jahrhundert des Heils. Bd. I-II (1638). – Lucke. Versuch einer wollstandigen Einleitung in die Offenbarung des Johannes (2 Aufl. 1852). – Hilgenfeld. Die judische Apokalyptik (1857). Die Propheten Esra und Daniel (1863). Messias Judaeorum (1869). – Gutschmid. Kleine Schriften Bd. II (1890). – Dillmann. Herzog’s Real Encyklopedie. Bd. XII (2 Aufl. 1883). – Volkmar. Handbuch der Einleitung in die Apokryphen. II Abth. Das vierte Buch Esra (1863). – Ewald. Geschichte des Volkes Israel. Bd. VII (3 Aufl. 1868). – Langen. Das Judenthum in Palastina (1866). – Weseler. Das vierte Buch Esra nach Jnhalt und Alter untersucht (Studien und Kritiken. 1870). – Hausrath. Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte. Bd. W (1877). – Renan. L’Apocaljpse de l’an 97 (Revue de deux Mondes, 1875). Les evangiles (1877). – Drummond. The Jewisch Messiah (1877). – Thomson. Books, which influenced Our Lord and His Apostels (1891). – Zockler. Die Apokryphen des Alten Testaments (1891). – Bissell. The apokrypha of the Old Testament (1880). – Baldensperger. Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu (2 Auf 1892). – Kabisch. Das vierte Buch Esra auf seine Quellen untersucht (1889). – James. Introduction to the 4 Book of Ezra (Robinson’s Texts and Studies. Vol. III, № 2 (1895). – Clemen. Die Lisammenhang des Buches Enoch, der Apokalypse des Baruch und des IV Buchs Ezra (Studien und Kritiken, 1898). – Wellhausen. Skizzen und Vorarbeiten. Bd. VI, 1899). – Gunkel. Das 4 Buch Esra (Kautzsch’s Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments. Bd. II, 1900). From later works known are: Lagrange. Notes Sir le Messianisme au temps de Jesus (Revue Biblique, 1905). – Schürer. Geschichte des Judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi (4 Aufl. 1909). – Bertholet. Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen (Buddé’s Geschichte der althebraschen Literatur. Bd. VII, I Abth. 1906).
From Russian works known are: Shavrov. On the Third Book of Esdras (1861). – Bukharev. Study on the merit, integrity, and origin of the third book of Esdras (1864). – Ananinsky. The condition of enlightenment among Palestinian Jews in the last three centuries before A.D. (Works of the Kiev Theological Academy, 1865). – Smirnov. Messianic expectations and beliefs of Jews around the time of our Lord (1899). – Glubokovskii. The Gospel of the Holy Apostle Paul in its origin and essence (1905). – D. Yungerov. A special historical-critical introduction to the sacred Old Testament books (1907).
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Notes
This book exists neither in Hebrew nor in Greek. Both the Slavonic and Russian translations were made from the Vulgate. In the latter it is divided into two parts: the first consists of chapters 3–14 (according to the Slavonic translation); the second contains chapters 1, 2, 15, and 16. In the Russian translation the order of chapters from the Slavonic translation has been retained.