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Appearance of the Angel Uriel (1). Condemning Ezra for the exorbitance of his claims (2). Man's powerlessness in unraveling the simplest mysteries of nature (3–12). Apologist about the forest and the sea (13–21). Ezra's prayer for an answer due to the importance of his questions for Israel (22–25). Regularity in the development of good and evil on earth (26–43). The nearness of the end, explained by the vision of the furnace and the cloud (44–50). Inability to determine the end time exactly (51–52). 3Ezra 4:1 Then the angel sent to me, whose name was Uriel, answered me, 1. The author in the briefest words notes the appearance of the Angel Uriel. This brevity is explained by the fact that in our book the foreground is not history, but a philosophical problem. The word uriel means “the light of God.” This name appears in the Old Testament twice: it was borne by a Levite, a contemporary of David (1 Chronicles VI:24; XV:5) and the maternal grandfather of the Judah king Abijah (2 Chronicles XIII:2). The Angel Uriel is mentioned in an earlier monument of the post-exilic period - the Apocalypse of Enoch. (XX, 2). Here he is called “An Angel placed above the host of angels and above the underworld” (Kautzsch, II, 250). In the prophetic book of Ezra, Angel Uriel is identified with God Himself from the second vision. Similar examples are not uncommon in the Old Testament books. In contrast to Ezra, torn by various doubts, the Angel constantly strengthens his interlocutor’s wavering faith in the justice of God’s judgments. He either tries to curb Ezra by pointing out the insignificance of human nature, or, to the extent possible, lifts the veil of mystery that envelops the most important needs of the human spirit. 3Ezra 4:2 and said, Thy heart has gone too far in this age, that thou thinkest to comprehend the way of the Most High. 3Ezra 4:3 I answered, Yes, my lord. He said to me: I have been sent to show you three ways and offer you three likenesses. 3Ezra 4:4 If you explain one of them to me, then I will show you the way that you want to see, and I will teach you where the evil heart comes from. 1Ezra 4:5 Then I said, Speak, my lord. He said to me: go and weigh the weight of the fire, or measure the blow of the wind for me, or return to me the day that has already passed. 3Ezra 4:6 What man, I answered, can do what you ask of me? 3Ezra 4:7 And he said to me: If I asked you how many dwellings are in the heart of the sea, or how many springs are in the very bottom of the deep, or how many dwellings are above the firmament, or what are the limits of paradise, 7. Latin manuscripts give the second half of the verse in a slightly different form: “How many lived in the very foundation of the abyss, or how many ways above the firmament, or what are the gates of hell, or what are the ways of heaven?” The modern reading is explained by the rearrangement of the words venae (veins) and viae (paths). The conversation about the veins of the firmament was possible because the existence of springs above the firmament was assumed based on the book of Genesis (I: 7). The paths above the firmament indicate the directions in which the stars move. The Vulgate omits the question of the gates of hell: such gaps in the second half of the verse are not uncommon there. 3Ezra 4:8 Perhaps you would say to me: “I never went into the abyss, nor into hell, nor did I ever ascend into heaven.” 8. In most eastern translations (ar. 2, eph., arm.), the answer completely exhausts all the questions posed above. To the last of them the Angel replies: “I have not seen heaven either.” 3Ezra 4:9 Now I asked you only about the fire, the wind and the day that you experienced, and about what you cannot be without, and to this you did not answer me. 3Ezra 4:10 And he said to me, “You cannot know what is yours and with you from youth; 10. Fire and wind grow and develop together with the human body: they are human peers (tecum coadulescentia). Vilyamovich (Gunkel, 355) sees here traces of the Eastern teaching about the composition of man. The microcosm consists of the same 4 elements as the macrocosm (cf. VIII:8). Of these, water and earth are omitted. 3Ezra 4:11 How could your vessel contain the way of the Most High and in this already noticeably corrupted age understand the corruption that is obvious in my eyes? 11. In the Latin text there is a rather extensive gap in the middle of the verse, as a result of which the meaning of this place is extremely confusing. Based on eastern translations (Eph., Sir., Arm.) it is presented in this form: “How could your vessel contain the way of the Most High, and corrupted (exteritus) by the corruptible age understand the imperishable. And when I heard this, I fell on my face.” The angel finds out to Ezra the reason why the ways of the Most High are inaccessible to man. Philo and Barnabas call the human body a vessel. Man belongs in his body to the perishable age. Because of this, everything that belongs to the imperishable age is a mystery to him. The doctrine of two worlds created by God is revealed further in greater detail. 3Ezra 4:12 To this I said: it would be better for us not to exist at all, than to live in wickedness and suffer without knowing why. 12. “It would be better for us not to appear (adesse) than, having come, (advenientes) to live in lawlessness.” The expressions used here about the coming of man into the world are explained by the Jewish teaching about the creation of souls before the creation of the visible world (cf. Wis VIII:20). 3Ezra 4:13 And he answered and said unto me, Behold, I went into the forest of the field, and found the trees holding council. 3Ezra 4:14 They said: “Come, let us go and declare war on the sea, so that it will retreat before us, and we will grow other forests for ourselves there.” 3Ezra 4:15 In like manner, the waves of the sea had a meeting: “Come,” they said, “let us rise up and conquer the forests of the field, so that we can acquire another place for ourselves there.” 3Ezra 4:16 But the plan of the forest was in vain, for fire came and burned it up. 3Ezra 4:17 In like manner the plan of the waves of the sea came to an end, for the sand became and hindered them. 1Ezra 4:18 If you were their judge, whom would you acquit or whom would you accuse? 3Ezra 4:19 Truly, I answered, their plans were vain, for the earth was given to the forest, and a place was given to the sea to carry its waves. 3Ezra 4:20 And he answered and said unto me, Thou hast judged justly; why didn't you judge yourself in the same way? 3Ezra 4:21 For as the earth is given to the forest, and the sea to its waves, so those who dwell on the earth can understand only what is on the earth; and those who dwell in heaven can understand that they are on the heights of heaven. 13–21. The apology about the forest and the sea closely resembles in form the apology of the book of Judges (IX: 8-15) about the trees who wanted to appoint a king for themselves. The encroachment of the water element on the land and the helplessness of the sea in front of the sand are an everyday phenomenon. In addition, they are found in legends about the creation of the world (cf. Jer. V:22). 3Ezra 4:22 And I answered and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, that sense of understanding may be given to me. 22. “I pray you, Lord, why (ut quid) was the ability of understanding given to me?” The author agrees that the questions that constitute the property of heaven are inaccessible to man. But he asks not about heavenly things, but about earthly things, which, moreover, concern him very closely. Even if the fate of his native people should remain a secret for him, then doubts about the usefulness of the human mind are involuntarily born. 3Ezra 4:23 I did not want to ask You about higher things, but about what happens to us every day: why was Israel given over to the pagans to reproach? Why is the people that You loved given over to wicked tribes, and the law of our fathers is reduced to insignificance, and written regulations are nowhere to be found? 23. By the law of our fathers, the author means the law of God, which entered so deeply into the flesh and blood of Israel that it completely merged with the folk custom inherited from the fathers. In exactly the same sense, Ap. Paul uses the expression: “traditions of the fathers” (Gal. I:14). The legend about the destruction of the sacred books in the Babylonian captivity is based on the incident of the burning of the scroll with the prophecy of Jeremiah by the king of Judah Joachim (Jer XXXVI:23) and the remark of the prophet Habakkuk (I:4) about the destruction of the law or its destruction. 3Ezra 4:24 We pass from this age like locusts, our lives pass in fear and horror, and we have become unworthy of mercy. 24. In Eastern translations, human life is compared to steam. “Our life is like steam” (ut vapor, sire., eff. ar. 1, 2). The origin of the Latin reading (pavor) is explained by the rearrangement of letters. 1Ezra 4:25 But what will He do with His name, which is called upon us? That's what I was asking about. 25. Israel bears the name of God (isra-el) Cf. III:24; X:22 ; Sir XXXVI:13; Dan IX:18–19. 3Ezra 4:26 And he answered me: The more you test, the more you will be amazed; because this age is quickly hastening towards its end, 26. When asked about the fate of the chosen people, the Angel replies that its decision is connected with the advent of the next century. It is close, so that in case of longevity (syr.) Ezra himself will have to experience it. “If you exist, you will see, and if you remain alive, you will continually be amazed that the age is quickly rushing to its end” (Cf. 1 Cor. VII:31). 3Ezra 4:27 and cannot contain what is promised to the righteous in future times, because this age is filled with unrighteousness and weaknesses. 3Ezra 4:28 But about what you asked me, I will tell you: evil has been sown, but the time has not yet come for its uprooting. 3Ezra 4:29 Therefore, until what is sown is uprooted, and the place where evil is sown is destroyed, the place where good is sown will not come. 3Ezra 4:30 For the grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much wickedness it has given birth to until now and will continue to give birth until the threshing comes! 3Ezra 4:31 Consider with yourself how much the grain of evil seed has given birth to the fruits of wickedness! 3Ezra 4:32 When its countless ears of grain are reaped, what a huge threshing floor will be needed for this! 27–32. The present age, in which evil reigns supreme, cannot accommodate the blessings promised to the righteous. This necessitates its destruction. It will be replaced by a new age, created by God like paradise, completely independent of the present age. Complete disappointment in the feasibility of an ideal order on earth was completely unknown to the Jewish people before the captivity. The future century was pictured in his imagination as a direct continuation of the present, limited to its transformation to the bright side. The heavy blows that fell on the Jews in captivity broke the previous optimism. Only faith in the advent of a new century, which represents the direct opposite of the present, gave strength to reverse the bleak situation under the yoke of Rome. The disasters experienced were now seen as the lot not of Israel alone, but of all mankind. Evil, which gives rise to all the misfortunes in the world, is compared to the seed sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning (ab initio). Comparing this passage with the teaching of our book about the evil heart, the bearer of which was Adam (III:21), we must admit that the sowing of evil is confined here to the creation of the first man, and not to his fall, which only revealed the evil inclinations inherent in human nature from time immemorial. A comparison of the final fate of people with the harvest is found in the prophet Jeremiah (LI:33), where the punishment that threatens Babylon is called that way. The Savior also uses it in the parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew XIII:30). 3Ez.4:33 How and when will this happen? I asked him; Why are our summers short and miserable? 3Ezra 4:34 Do not rush to rise, he answered, above the Most High; for in vain do you rush to be above Him: you go too far. 33–34. The author asks the impatient question how long (usque quo) to wait for the opening of a new century and when the present century should disappear. The Angel's statement that Ezra himself might survive him convinces him that the end is near. Human life is so short. Jacob also bitterly declared: “few and wretched are the days of my life” (Gen. XLVII:9). The angel calls Ezra to patiently await the end with devotion to the will of God. “Do you not show greater haste than the Almighty; but you hasten for your own sake (propter femet ipsum, Syr., Aeth, Ar. 1, 2, Arm.), and the Most High for the sake of many” (excelsus pro multis) 3Ezra 4:35 Did not the souls of the righteous inquire about the same thing in their seclusions, saying: “How long shall we hope in this way? And when is the fruit of our retribution? 35–36. The doctrine of the repositories (prumptuaria) or gates where the souls of the righteous reside represents a further development of the views of the Talmud. The basis for it was the book of the Proverbs of Solomon (VII:27), which mentions the inner dwellings of death, and the book of the prophet Isaiah (LVII:2), which predicts that the righteous will rest on their beds. Before putting on a body, or, as Pseudo-Ezra puts it, coming into this world (IV:12), souls remain under the throne of the Most High in special repositories (guph), called treasuries. As people are born, the treasuries become empty. The Son of David will not come until there is not a single soul left in the storehouses (Corrodi, 195. Fabricius. Codex Pseudepigraphus V. T. II, 211. Volkmar, 19). The teaching of the Talmud, shared by the author (IV:41; VI:23), is here extended to the fate awaiting the righteous beyond the grave. The repositories (Heb. mischcabot, Isa LVII:2. Zockler, 451) of the souls of the dead are placed in the underworld (in infoire IV:41). The future age will come only when the number of dead righteous people reaches a certain limit. The Apocalypse of John gives the exact number of those sealed from all the tribes of Israel, namely 144,000 (VII: 4). This answer is given to them (ad eas) by the Angel Jeremiel. Like Uriel, the name Jeremiel (ierahmeel, “mercy of God”) is found in canonical books: in the genealogies of the book of Chronicles (1 Chronicles II: 25–27, 42) and in the prophet Jeremiah (XXXVI: 26). According to the testimony of the Apocalypse of Elijah, the Angel Jeremiel guards souls in the underworld (Gunkel, 357), Lika (162) and Kabish (33) suggest here an excerpt from an apocryphal book. Volkmar (XIX, 400) sees borrowing from the Apocalypse of John (VI: 9–11), given without much accuracy, at second hand. In the Apocalypse, the souls of those killed for the word of God cry out loudly before the throne of the Most High: “How long, O Lord, Holy and True, do you not judge and avenge those who live on earth for our blood?.. And it is said to them that they should rest still for a little while, until their co-workers and their brothers, who will be killed like them, complete the number.” But the similarities between both books are purely superficial. In the Apocalypse, the souls of Christian martyrs cry out for revenge for the blood they shed. In our book, the souls of the dead righteous eagerly await their own glorification. The mention of seeds in Jeremiel’s answer does not fit well with the flow of speech. In the Latin text the word "similium" (Syr. Aeth. Ar. 2) was taken for the word “seminum”. The glorification of the righteous will come “when the number of those like you reaches fullness.” 3Ezra 4:36 To this Jeremiel the Archangel answered me: “When the number of seeds in you is fulfilled, for the Most High has weighed this age on the scales, 3Ezra 4:37 And he has measured the times by a measure, and numbered the hours by number; and he will not advance or speed up until the appointed measure is fulfilled.” 36–37. The doctrine of Divine predestination is expressed in a triple formula in the book of the Wisdom of Solomon (XI:21): “Thou hast ordained all things by measure, number and weight” (cf. Job XXVIII:25–26). This idea was expressed by the magicians (Hilgenfeld. Messias Judaeorum, 45). It stood in connection with the astronomical views of the East and was formed under the influence of the observed patterns in the movement of the heavenly bodies. The belief that God predetermined the course of world history underlies various divisions of it into periods and calculations of the demise of the world. As is customary in all apocalyptic literature, the author speaks in mysterious language. The measure intended for the existence of the world was determined by Judaism to be 7,000 years. 3Ezra 4:38 And in response I said to him: O Sovereign Lord! and we are all filled with wickedness. 3Ezra 4:39 And perhaps because of us the barns of the righteous are not filled, and because of the sins of those living on earth. 3Ezra 4:40 To this he answered me: go, ask a pregnant woman, whether, after the completion of the nine-month period, her pregnancy can hold the fetus in itself? 3Ez.4:41 I said: they cannot. Then he said to me: the abodes of souls in the underworld are like lies. 3Ezra 4:42 As a woman in labor hastens to give birth in order to be freed from the pains of birth, so these also hasten to give up what was entrusted to them. 3Ez.4:43 First, what you want to see will be shown to you. 42–43. Due to incorrect interpunction, the word “in the beginning” (ab initio) is attributed in the Vulgate to upcoming revelations. According to the Angel, the repositories strive to give to the world the souls entrusted to them at the beginning, before the creation of the world, with the same impatience with which a pregnant woman awaits the birth of a child. 3Ezra 4:44 If I have found grace in your sight, I answered, and if this is possible and I am capable of it, 1Ezra 4:45 Show me whether what is to come is greater than what has passed, or what is to come than what is to come? 3Ez.4:46 What has passed, I know, but what will come, I do not know. 1Ezra 4:47 He said to me: Stand on the right side, and I will explain to you the meaning by similitude. 3Ezra 4:48 And I stood and saw: behold, a burning furnace passed before me; and when the flame passed, I saw that smoke remained. 3Ezra 4:49 After this a cloud filled with water passed before me, and heavy rain came from it; but as soon as the rapidity of the rain stopped, drops remained. 3Ezra 4:50 Then he said to me: Think to yourself: just as rain is more than drops, and fire is more than smoke, so the measure of what has passed has been exceeded, but drops and smoke remain. 44–50. The author tries to know more accurately the coming of the end by comparing the time that has passed since the creation of the world with the period that remains until the end. The answer is given using two symbols. Ezra sees a blazing furnace; the stove passes before his eyes, and all that remains is smoke. After this, a cloud with heavy rain passes over him; when the rain began to weaken, only isolated drops fell from the sky. The vision of the furnace and smoke is taken from the book of Genesis (XV:17), which tells of the Epiphany that happened to Abraham at night. This Epiphany was discussed above (III:14). Both visions are meant to show that, compared with the past, the time remaining until the end is as short as smoke is insignificant in comparison with flames and raindrops in comparison with downpour. 1Ezra 4:51 Then I besought him and said, Do you think that I will live to see these days? and what will happen in these days? 3Ezra 4:52 He answered this and said: I can tell you in part about the signs that you ask me about, but about your life I was not sent to talk to you, and I do not know. 51–52. The author wants to know if he will live to see the end. The angel responds with ignorance (cf. Mark XIII:32). Post-exilic Judaism strives, on the one hand, to accurately determine the time of the end, and on the other, to highlight the idea that it is a mystery even to the angels and is known only to God. Events that happen before the end are called signs (signa). For a person who knows how to understand the meaning of the phenomena unfolding before his eyes, they will indicate the proximity of the end (IX: 1–2).