Read this if you…
- want apocalyptic visions outside Revelation (angels, eagles, the end of the age)
- like Job-style arguments with God about why the righteous suffer
- curious about a book the Apocrypha kept but the Hebrew Bible didn't
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Depicted in Art
Ezra sits writing a manuscript on his lap before an open book cupboard holding a nine-volume Bible; nimbed, surrounded by scribal tools.
716
Uriel stands with the prophet Esdras in a pointed-arch panel of medieval stained glass, the angel instructing Ezra on his apocalyptic questions.
1350
An Orthodox icon pairing the prophet Esdras with the archangel Uriel in frontal poses, robed in the conventions of late-18th-century Moldavian icon painting.
1790
Close crop on Ezra at his writing desk with the open book cupboard behind him; the canonical Northumbrian portrait of the scribe-prophet at work.
716
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Notable Quotes
There be many created, but few shall be saved.
- T. Witton Davies, Welsh biblical scholar & Semitist, 1851–1923: "Of all the Jewish apocalypses this is the sublimest and most pleading."
- Roman Catholic liturgy (Requiem Mass), Standard liturgical canonization of the text: "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. (Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.)"
- Christopher Columbus, Genoese navigator, 1451–1506: Esdras the prophet says six parts of the world are dry land and only the seventh is water — so the sea is small.
- Bruce M. Metzger, biblical scholar, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1914–2007: The most theologically searching of the Jewish apocalypses — a sustained wrestling with the justice of God after the fall of Jerusalem.
- Michael E. Stone, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; scholar of Second Temple Judaism, b. 1938: A kernel of real visionary experience lies behind the frame — the seer's anguish over divine justice makes 4 Ezra among the most profound apocalypses.
- John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism, Yale Divinity School, b. 1946: One of the two great Jewish apocalypses of the generation after 70 CE — a profound reflection on the fate of Second Temple Judaism.
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