Editing 2 Esdras (section)

===4 Ezra<!--'4 Ezra' redirects here-->===
Chapters 3–14, or the great bulk of 2 Esdras, is a [[Jew]]ish [[apocalypse]], also sometimes known as 4 Ezra<ref name="Char"/> or the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra.<ref name="Bergren">{{cite book|title=The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York, USA|isbn=9780195289619|pages=317–318|author=Theodore A. Bergren|author-link=2 Esdras|editor=Michael D. Coogan}}</ref> The latter name should not be confused with a later work called the ''[[Greek Apocalypse of Ezra]]''.

The [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian Church]] considers 4 Ezra to be [[Biblical canon|canonical]], written during the [[Babylonian captivity]], and calls it Izra [[Shealtiel|Sutuel]] (ዕዝራ ሱቱኤል). It was also often cited by the [[Church Fathers|Fathers of the Church]]. In the Eastern [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenian]] tradition, it is called 3 Ezra. It was written in the late {{CE|first century}} following the destruction of the [[Second Temple of Jerusalem|Second Temple]].{{r|Bergren}}

Among [[Greek language|Greek]] Fathers of the Church, 4 Ezra is generally cited as Προφήτης Ἔσδρας ''Prophetes Esdras'' ("The Prophet Ezra") or Ἀποκάλυψις Ἔσδρα ''Apokalupsis Esdra'' ("Apocalypse of Ezra"). Most scholars agree that 4 Ezra was composed in Hebrew,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pseudepigrapha.org/docs/intro/4Ezra|title=4 Ezra|last1=Wong|first1=A. C. K.|last2=Penner|first2=K. M.|year=2010|website=The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha|publisher=The Society of Biblical Literature|location=Atlanta|access-date=April 12, 2019|last3=Miller|first3=D. M.}}</ref> which was translated into Greek, and then to Latin, Armenian, Ethiopian, and Georgian, but the Hebrew and Greek editions have been lost.

Slightly differing Latin, [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Ethiopic]], [[Georgian language|Georgian]], and [[Armenian language|Armenian]] translations have survived in their entirety; the Greek version can be reconstructed, though without absolute certainty, from these different translations, while the Hebrew text remains more elusive. The modern [[Church Slavonic|Slavonic]] version is translated from the Latin.

[[File:Archangel Uriel with Esdras, St Michael and All Angels, Kingsland.jpg|thumb|left|180px|A medieval stained-glass panel depicting the Archangel Uriel with Ezra]]
4 Ezra consists of seven visions of [[Ezra]] the scribe. The first vision takes place as Ezra is still in [[Babylon]]. He asks God how Israel can be kept in misery if God is just. The [[archangel]] [[Uriel]] is sent to answer the question, responding that God's ways cannot be understood by the human mind. Soon, however, the end would come, and God's justice would be made manifest. Similarly, in the second vision, Ezra asks why Israel was delivered up to the Babylonians, and is again told that man cannot understand this and that the end is near. In the third vision, Ezra asks why Israel does not possess the world. Uriel responds that the current state is a period of transition. Here follows a description of the fate of evil-doers and the righteous. Ezra asks whether the righteous may intercede for the unrighteous on [[Judgment Day]], but is told that "Judgment Day is final".<ref>''2 Esd'' 7:102–104, GNB</ref>

The next three visions are more symbolic in nature. The fourth is of a woman mourning for her only son. She is transformed into a city when she hears of the desolation of Zion. Uriel says that the woman is a symbol of Zion. The fifth vision concerns an [[triple-headed eagle|eagle with three heads]] and 20 wings (12 large wings and eight smaller wings "over against them"). The eagle is rebuked by a [[lion]] and then burned. The explanation of this vision is that the eagle refers to the fourth kingdom of the vision of [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]], with the wings and heads as rulers. The final scene is the triumph of the [[Messiah]] over the empire. The sixth vision is of a man, representing the Messiah, who breathes fire on a crowd that is attacking him. This man then turns to another peaceful multitude, which accepts him.
[[File:Cassiodorus manuscript.png|thumb|Ezra produces the 94 books (''[[Codex Amiatinus]]'', eighth century)]]
Finally, a vision of the restoration of scripture is related. God appears to Ezra in a bush and commands him to restore the [[Torah|Law]]. Ezra gathers five scribes and begins to dictate. After 40 days, he has produced 204 books, including 70 works to be published last. 2 Esdras 14:44–48 KJV:

<blockquote>44 In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.

45 And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it:

46 But keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be wise among the people:

47 For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.

48 And I did so.</blockquote>

The "seventy" might refer to the [[Septuagint]], most of the [[apocrypha]], or the [[Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible|lost books that are described in the Bible]]. But it is more probable that the number is just symbolic.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ossandón Widow |first=Juan Carlos |title=The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible: An Analysis of Josephus and 4 Ezra |publisher=Brill |year=2018 |isbn=9789004381612 |pages=170–176}}</ref> 

Almost all Latin editions of the text have a large lacuna<ref>[http://earlyjewishwritings.com/2esdras.html Article from ''Early Jewish Writings'']</ref> of 70 verses between 7:35 and 7:36 that is missing because they trace their common origin to one early manuscript, ''[[Codex Sangermanensis I]]'', from which an entire page had been cut out very early in its history. In 1875 [[Robert Lubbock Bensly]] published the lost verses<ref>[https://archive.org/details/missingfragmento00bensuoft/page/n5/mode/2up The Missing Fragment of the Latin Translation of the Fourth Book of Ezra (Cambridge UP, 1875)]</ref> and in 1895 [[M.R. James]] oversaw a critical edition from Bensly's notes<ref>[https://archive.org/details/rulesoftyconius00tico/page/n245/mode/2up The Fourth Book of Ezra (Texts & Studies 3.2, ed by J.A. Robinson, Cambridge UP, 1895)]</ref> restoring the lost verses from the complete text found in the ''[[Codex Colbertinus]]''; this edition is used in the [[Stuttgart edition of the Vulgate]]. The restored verses are numbered 7:35 to 7:105, with the former verses 7:36–7:70 renumbered to 7:106–7:140.<ref>''Biblia Sacra Vulgata'', 4th edition, 1994, {{ISBN|3-438-05303-9}}.</ref> For more information, see the article ''[[Codex Sangermanensis I]]''.

Second Esdras turns around a radical spiritual conversion of Ezra in a vision, where he stops to comfort a sobbing woman who turns instantly into a great city (2 Esd. 10:25–27). On this pivotal event, one scholar writes that Ezra:

<blockquote>is badly frightened, he loses consciousness and calls for his angelic guide. The experience described is unique, not just in 4 Ezra, but in the whole Jewish apocalyptic literature. Its intensity complements the pressure of unrelieved stress evident in the first part of the vision, and it resembles the major orientation of personality usually connected with [[Born again (Christianity)|religious conversion]].{{r|Stone 1990|p=31}}</blockquote>

The following verses (10:28–59) reveal that Ezra had a vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, the true city of Zion, which the angel of the Lord invites him to explore. As the angel tells Ezra at the end of Chapter 10 in the [[Authorised Version]]:

<blockquote><poem>And therefore fear not,
   let not thine heart be affrighted,
but go thy way in,
   and see the beauty and greatness of the building,
as much as thine eyes be able to see;
   and then shalt thou hear as much as thine ears may comprehend.
For thou art blessed above many other
   and art [[Predestination|called]] with the Highest and so are but few.</poem></blockquote>

<blockquote>But tomorrow at night thou shalt remain here and so shall the Highest show thee [[Apocalypse|visions]] of the high things which the Most High will do unto them that dwell upon earth in the [[Eschatology|last days]].

So I slept that night and another like as he commanded me (2 Esd. 10:55–59).</blockquote>