Commentary on the third book of Ezra

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 The last Old Testament book in the Slavic and Russian Bible bears the name of the great priest Ezra. In the Latin Bible it is called the 4th book of Ezra 1, since in this 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 mainly because he is the person who here receives revelations about the destinies of the Jewish people through the Angel. The first two chapters are a prologue or preface, in which God commands Ezra to point out the Jews to their sins and sorrows and to console them with a prediction of future joys. From chapter III to chapter XIV there are seven visions. In the first three of these visions (chap. III-IX:25), the author brings out the Angel Uriel and Ezra talking with each other. This conversation addresses the question of why the chosen people suffer, while their pagan oppressors enjoy serene prosperity. It turns out that here, as at the basis of all suffering, the reason lies in the guilt of the person himself, and consolation is given by the prediction of the imminent onset of the triumph of Israel and the death of the lawbreakers. The next three visions of an apocalyptic nature symbolically depict the future fate of Zion under the image of a woman (IX: 26-X: 60), the judgment of the pagan monarchy ruling over the chosen people (XI: 1-XI: 51) and the activity of the Messiah, freeing the scattered ten tribes of Israel from captivity and appearing in the image of a man emerging from the sea (XIII: 1-58); World physical and political catastrophes are also depicted here. The seventh vision contains the legend of Ezra’s miraculous restoration of the text of the lost books of the Old Testament (XIV: 1–48). The last two chapters - XV and XVI (epilogue) contain a prophecy of disasters threatening sinners, in particular, the destruction threatening Egypt, Babylon, Asia and Syria, as well as an exhortation to the elect to preserve the truth amid the upcoming trials. There is no doubt that the main component of the book is Ch. III-XIV is a more ancient work, and I, II, XV and XVI are chapters of more recent origin. When did the main part of the book come into being? The religious worldview of the author of this section reveals typical signs of post-exilic Judaism. In Israel, according to the author of the department, the whole meaning of world history is concentrated. For the sake of Israel the world was created, and the good of the next century will be its exclusive property (VI:55; VII:11). Despite all the bleakness of his view of the sinfulness of human nature, the author does not for a minute renounce faith in the meaning of the Law of Moses (IX:37) and places legal righteousness very highly (XII:7). The author considers the task of the Messiah only to be the liberation of the chosen people from the foreign yoke, the extermination of the enemies of the Israeli people and the establishment of a four-hundred-year kingdom in Jerusalem, where the righteous will enjoy not only spiritual, but also sensual benefits. The Messiah is subject to the law of mortality, like every man, and his death has no meaning for humanity in general (VII:29). The final judgment is the work of the Creator of the universe alone (V:56-VI:6). – In view of all this, we can reliably believe that the section of the book in question appeared in pre-Christian times. As for chapters I-II and XV-XVI, the writer’s familiarity with the New Testament sacred books is noticeable (there are expressions mentioned in the Gospel - “Kingdom of Heaven”, “Gehenna”, etc.) and therefore it is more likely to attribute the origin of this part to the beginning of the Christian era - to the first century AD. That Ezra was not the writer of the main part of the book is certain. In this section there are many anachronisms and other errors that the priest Ezra could not have allowed in his book. So here it is said that Ezra received a revelation in the 30th year after the destruction of Jerusalem (III:1), and meanwhile from the first book of Ezra, which undoubtedly belongs to him, it is clear that he was only born fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem (1Ezra VII:7; VIII:1-3). Then, according to the 3rd book of Ezra, Jerusalem was still owned by the “inhabitants of Babylon” (III:28–31), and according to 1 Ezra, Jerusalem was in the power of the Persians (1Ezra I:1) and other places. So, the author of Chapters III-XIV. It was not Ezra, but some unknown Jew. Some scholars classify him as an Essene, others as a Pharisee, but the grounds for such conclusions are too shaky. It would be more correct to assume that he was a simple, piously-minded Jew from among the people, who drew his material not from learned treatises, but from current views, alien to the fanaticism and exclusivity of the school. - About the preface and conclusion to the book, we can say that they owe their origin to two different persons: the preface - to a Jew, already somewhat familiar with the teachings of Christianity, and the conclusion - to an ordinary Jew, standing on a narrowly Jewish point of view. And who combined all three parts into one book is completely unknown. The question of where the book was written cannot be resolved with certainty. According to some scholars, the main part of the book was written in Alexandria, according to others - in Palestine, according to others - in Rome. However, the second assumption seems more likely to researchers - about the Palestinian origin of Chapters III-XIV. books: the symbolism and apocalypticism of this section are reminiscent of some monuments of Palestinian Judaism. “The Palestinian Jew understands the frequent references to Zion and Jerusalem, grief over their destruction and prayers for restoration” (Yungerov, p. 261). In the same way, the preface with the epilogue can most likely be attributed to the Palestinian author, because a Jew who lived in Palestine in the 1st century was more likely to become acquainted with the Christian priests. books than a Jew living somewhere outside the borders of Palestine. The goal of the author of the book, if we take the book as a whole, was to console his native people in the misfortunes that they suffered at the time when the book appeared. If we assume - which is very likely - that the 3rd book of Ezra appeared in its final form in the 1st century A.D., then the goal of its author could have been a desire to reassure the Jewish people, struck by the fall of Jerusalem during the invasion of Judea by Titus' troops. The main component of the book is chap. III-XIV - are available in the Latin translation, which is recognized by scientists as the best reproduction of the lost Greek original text of the book, and in the Syriac, Ethiopian, Arabic and Armenian translations. Only fragments of this part survive in Greek and Coptic. Its prologue and epilogue are known only from the Latin text. That the book was originally written in Greek is evidenced by the variants of the Latin, Syriac and Ethiopic texts of the book, the appearance of which is easily explained by different readings of the Greek text. This is also evidenced by the fact that, for example, the Latin translator puts adjectives and pronouns in the gender in which they were used in Greek (for example, saeculum, qui... IX: 2). In addition, many Greek words are left completely without translation (plasma, thalamus, etc.). – Our Slavic and Russian translations are made from the Latin text. In the book of Ezra there are many strange thoughts and unfounded statements, for example, legends about two monsters - a hippopotamus and a leviathan (VI:49-52), about the miraculous 40-day writing of 204 books by Ezra and among them 70 secret ones (XIV:21-48), etc. One can say with blessedness. Jerome, that this book would be better classified as apocrypha... But there is also something in it that deserves attention - for example, an explanation of why the righteous Jewish people suffer, while sinful pagans dominate over them (III and IV chapters), or the writer’s desire to turn the attention of readers away from the pleasures of earthly life and focus this attention on future judgment and reward after death. 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 Encyclopedia. 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, No. 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 (Kautzschs Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments. Bd. II, 1900). From subsequent works known: Lagrange. Notes Sir le Messianisme au temps de Jesus (Revue Biblique, 1905). – Shurer. 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). Among the Russian works known: Shavrov. About the third book of Ezra (1861). - Bukharev. An Inquiry into the Worth, Integrity, and Origin of the Third Book of Ezra (1864). - Ananyinsky. The state of enlightenment among Palestinian Jews in the last three centuries before Christ (Proceedings of the Kyiv Spiritual Academy, 1865). – Smirnov. Messianic expectations and beliefs of the Jews around the time of I. X. (1899). - Glubokovsky. Annunciation of St. The Apostle Paul according to his origin and essence (1905). - D. Yungerov. A private historical-critical introduction to the sacred books of the Old Testament (1907). This book is neither in Hebrew nor in Greek. Both Slavic and Russian translations are made from the Vulgate. In the latter, it is divided into two parts: the first consists of chapters 3–14 (according to the Slavic translation); and the second contains chapters 1, 2, 15 and 16. In the Russian translation, the order of the chapters of the Slavic translation is maintained.