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2 Esdras

Ezra’s visions confront Israel’s suffering and reveal an eagle from the sea and books reserved for the wise.^{5 sources}5 sources1. Souvay 2. 2 Esdras 14:44–46 3. 2 Esdras 11:1 4. 2 Esdras 12:11–12 5. Daniel 7:7

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At a glance

Form: Chapters 3–14 form the Ezra Apocalypse; chapters 1–2 and 15–16 are Latin additions (Box).⁶
Written: Core: AD 90–96 (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1903); Box (1913) places final editing about AD 120 or later.^{7 8 1}
Setting: Ezra in Babylon, after Jerusalem’s destruction.^{9 10 1}
Genre: Seven visions of Ezra in Babylon.¹
Also known as: 4 Esdras in the Vulgate appendix; the core is called 4 Ezra.^{11 12 6}

Summary

Why does Israel suffer, and how much can a human understand of God’s purposes? Ezra puts those questions to the angel Uriel in 2 Esdras. Visions follow: a grieving woman becomes a city, an eagle rises from the sea, and Ezra dictates books for public or reserved reading. The English book combines several works. G. H. Box (1913) distinguishes the core, chapters 3–14, from the Latin form’s added chapters 1–2 and 15–16. The core is commonly called 4 Ezra; the additions are called 5 and 6 Ezra.^{6 sources}6 sources1. Souvay 3. 2 Esdras 11:1 4. 2 Esdras 12:11–12 5. Daniel 7:7 2. 2 Esdras 14:44–46 6. Box

An opening address
2 Esdras 1:1–2:48
God turns from Israel toward another people. The Jewish Encyclopedia (1903) reads these opening chapters as Christian; the Catholic Encyclopedia (1909) also sees Christian features.^{13 12 14}
Ezra and Uriel
2 Esdras 3:1–9:25
Ezra laments Israel’s suffering. Uriel challenges his attempt to understand matters beyond human reach; the first three visions wrestle with religious questions.¹
A city, an eagle and a man from the sea
2 Esdras 9:26–13:58
A mourning woman becomes a city. Ezra also sees an eagle and a man from the sea.¹
Books restored through dictation
2 Esdras 14:1–48
Ezra’s scribes produce books over forty days. Some are to be made public, while seventy are reserved for the wise.²

Stories

The eagle from the sea
2 Esdras 11:1–12:51
The interpretation names Daniel’s kingdom vision as its reference point. Box and the Jewish Encyclopedia identify the eagle with Rome and its three heads with Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.^{5 sources}5 sources3. 2 Esdras 11:1 4. 2 Esdras 12:11–12 5. Daniel 7:7 15. Box 12. Gottheil
Public books and hidden books
2 Esdras 14:44–46
Box and the Jewish Encyclopedia identify twenty-four public books as the Hebrew Bible and seventy hidden books as apocalyptic writings. The WEB gives a total of ninety-four; the KJV gives two hundred and four.^{16 12 17}

Connections to the Bible

Echoes and allusions

Revelation 13:1 · 2 Esdras 11:1medium confidence
Box reads the sea creatures in 2 Esdras and Revelation as interpretations of Daniel’s fourth beast applied to Rome.^{15 18 19}

Expansions

Daniel 7:7 · 2 Esdras 12:11–12
2 Esdras explicitly refers back to Daniel’s kingdom vision when interpreting the eagle.^{3 4 5}

Where each church stands

2 Esdras Full table →

Protestant: Read, not for doctrine ('The IV Book of Esdras')
Anglican Article VI.
^{20 21}
Catholic: Appendix (4 Esdras)^{22 23}
Greek Orthodox: Not included
NRSV: 'not found in the Greek'.
^{23 24}
Russian (Slavonic) Orthodox: Varies (3 Esdras (3-я книга Ездры))
In the Slavonic and Synodal Bibles, marked 'non-canonical'.
^{23 25 26}
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo: Scripture (Ezra Sutu'el (Ezra Apocalypse) = chapters 3–14 only)
Chapters 1–2 and 15–16 (5 and 6 Ezra) are not included.
²⁷

Why some kept it, why others left it out

Box reports that Clement of Alexandria quoted the book as the work of a prophet and that Ambrose used it freely. The Latin text was preserved in the Vulgate appendix, and Article VI allowed reading for instruction without doctrinal authority. Cowley lists the Ezra Apocalypse as fully canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, without the added chapters of the English book.^{6 sources}6 sources28. Box 29. Box 1. Souvay 30. Waterworth 1848 31. Thirty-Nine Articles, Article VI (Bicknell 1919)32. Cowley

Kept

Orthodox

R. W. Cowley (1974) documents the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s reception of the core Ezra Apocalypse as fully canonical. His list does not equate that core with all sixteen English chapters.^{32 6}

Catholic

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1909) traces wording about lasting rest and light in the Office of the Dead to chapter 2. The book contributed to worship despite its appendix placement.^{1 33 31}

Left out

Early church: Latin

In Against Vigilantius, Jerome says he has not read the apocryphal Esdras cited by his opponent and asks why he should read what the Church does not receive.^{34 35}

Protestant: Anglican

Article VI names the fourth Esdras among books read for instruction, but excludes their use in establishing doctrine; the article invokes Jerome.^{31 1 36}

Misconceptions

Myth The missing passage tells us why someone removed it.
Actually: The WEB includes seventy verses absent from the KJV. Bensly reports evidence of a cut leaf in one Latin manuscript. His suggestion of doctrinal suppression concerns a later copyist’s failure to fill the gap; it does not explain why the leaf was removed.^{4 sources}4 sources38. this site's data 39. this site's data 40. Bensly 41. Bensly

Sources

41 sources from 34 works

Charles L. Souvay, “Esdras”
- 1
  Catholic Encyclopedia (1909), IV Esdras↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f ↩^g ↩^h ↩ⁱ ↩^j ↩^k
- 14
  Catholic Encyclopedia vol. 5 (1909), IV Esdras↩
2
2 Esdras 14:44–46↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
3
2 Esdras 11:1↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
4
2 Esdras 12:11–12↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
5
Daniel 7:7↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
6
G. H. Box, IV Ezra, General Introduction, in R. H. Charles (ed.), APOT vol. 2 (Oxford, 1913), §1, p. 542↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
Richard Gottheil, Enno Littmann, “Esdras, Books of”
- 7
  Jewish Encyclopedia (1903), II Esdras: Date and Value↩
- 11
  Jewish Encyclopedia (1903), II Esdras: Name and Versions↩
- 12
  Jewish Encyclopedia (1903)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
- 13
  Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 5 (1903), II Esdras: Additions↩
G. H. Box, IV Ezra, General Introduction, APOT vol. 2 (1913)
- 8
  §8, p. 552-553↩
- 10
  §8, p. 552↩
- 28
  §2, p. 543↩^a ↩^b
- 29
  §3, p. 544↩^a ↩^b
9
2 Esdras 3:1↩
15
G. H. Box, IV Ezra, notes on 11:1, APOT vol. 2 (1913), p. 610↩^a ↩^b
16
G. H. Box, IV Ezra, notes on 14:45-46, APOT vol. 2 (1913), p. 624↩
17
2 Esdras 14:44↩
18
Daniel 7:3↩
19
Revelation 13:1↩
20
Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (1571), Article VI, as printed in E. J. Bicknell, A Theological Introduction to the Thirty-Nine Articles (1919)↩
21
Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter I.2–3↩
22
Sixto-Clementine Vulgate (1592), preface to the Appendix (Prayer of Manasseh, 3–4 Esdras)↩
23
NRSV with Apocrypha, 'The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament' (To the Reader)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
24
Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, online Old Testament (Septuagint text)↩
25
Russian Synodal Bible, as published by Azbuka Very (azbyka.ru): contents and chapter notes↩
26
The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church (St Philaret of Moscow), 'Examined and Approved by the Most Holy Governing Synod'; English as in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom vol. 2↩
27
R. W. Cowley, 'The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Today', Ostkirchliche Studien 23 (1974) 318–323↩
30
Council of Trent (tr. J. Waterworth, 1848), Session IV, Decree concerning the canonical Scriptures, Hanover Historical Texts Project (1848)↩^a ↩^b
31
“Thirty-Nine Articles, Article VI (Bicknell 1919)”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
32
R. W. Cowley, “The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Today”, Ostkirchliche Studien 23 (1974)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
33
2 Esdras 2:34–35↩^a ↩^b
34
Jerome, Against Vigilantius (NPNF2 vol. 6), §6↩
35
Jerome, Prologue on the Book of Ezra, tr. Mark DelCogliano↩
36
Church of England, Articles of Religion (1571), as printed in E. J. Bicknell, A Theological Introduction to the Thirty-Nine Articles (1919), newscriptorium.com (1919), Article VI↩^a ↩^b
37
Jerome (tr. W. H. Fremantle), Preface to Samuel and Kings (NPNF2 vol. 6), via Wikisource (1893)↩
38
Checked in this site's verse database: Missing-fragment verses in the WEB↩
How this was derived
SELECT count(*) FROM verses WHERE work_id='web' AND std_ref LIKE '2Esd.7.35!%'
39
Checked in this site's verse database: Verses in 2 Esdras 7 by edition↩
How this was derived
SELECT work_id, count(*) FROM verses WHERE book='2Esd' AND chapter=7 GROUP BY work_id ORDER BY work_id
40
R. L. Bensly, The Missing Fragment of the Latin Translation of the Fourth Book of Ezra (Cambridge, 1875), p. 5↩
41
R. L. Bensly, The Missing Fragment (1875), addenda, note to p. 31↩

2 Esdras

At a glance

Summary

Contents

An opening address

Ezra and Uriel

A city, an eagle and a man from the sea

Books restored through dictation

Stories

The eagle from the sea

Public books and hidden books

Connections to the Bible

Echoes and allusions

Expansions

Where each church stands

2 Esdras Full table →

Why some kept it, why others left it out

Kept

Orthodox

Catholic

Left out

Early church: Latin

Protestant: Anglican

Misconceptions

Sources

Report a problem

At a glance

Summary

Contents

An opening address

Ezra and Uriel

A city, an eagle and a man from the sea

Books restored through dictation

Stories

The eagle from the sea

Public books and hidden books

Connections to the Bible

Echoes and allusions

Expansions

Where each church stands

2 Esdras Full table →

Why some kept it, why others left it out

Kept

Orthodox

Catholic

Left out

Early church: Latin

Protestant: Anglican

Misconceptions

Related books

Sources

Report a problem