4th book of Ezra
The 4th book of Ezra is a pseudepigraphic , Christianized apocalypse of Jewish origin, which was probably written around 100 AD. It is believed to have originally been written in Hebrew and initially translated into Greek; In any case, it was translated into other languages from a Greek original (only these second translations have been completely preserved).
Surname
The writing owes its name and thus the numbering as the fourth book of Ezra to its position in the Vulgate . There the biblical books Ezra and Nehemiah are referred to as the 1st and 2nd books of Ezra. In the appendix of the Vulgate is the 3rd book Ezra , an apocryphal script containing excerpts from the 2nd book of the Chronicle as well as from Ezra, Nehemiah and other short texts. This is followed by the fourth book of Ezra discussed here. It is neither identical to the Greek nor to the Syrian Esra apocalypse .
Text and translations
The 4th book of Ezra is mostly in Latin, but is based on a Greek model. The Syrian, Ethiopian, Arabic, Armenian and Georgian translations that have survived are indirect evidence of a Greek original. Adolf Hilgenfeld published a back translation into Greek in 1869. The Greek original goes back to an older Hebrew or Aramaic version.
Completion time and place
According to 4 Ezr 3: 1–2, the seer Ezra dates his presence to the 30th year after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple (587 BC) by the Babylonians.
“In the thirtieth year after the fall of the city I stayed Salathiel (who is also called Esra) in Babel, and once, as I lay on my bed, I was taken aback and my thoughts went to my heart because I was devastating Zion, Babel residents but saw in abundance. "
In the opinion of most researchers, this fictitious date refers to the 30th year after the destruction of the Herodian Temple (70 AD), i.e. to around 100 AD when the book was written. The so-called eagle vision, that is the fifth vision (4 Esr 10.60-12.50), confirms this dating in its reconstructed original form.
Due to the fact that the author is close to the scribes of Jabne, Palestine is likely to be the place of composition . Other researchers assume the Orient or Rome.
Structure and content
The script named after Ezra is designed as a dialogue between the archangel Uriel and the recipient of the revelation Ezra, in which religious problems and speculations in eschatology find their cause or their answer. Each time such a dialogue is followed by a vision that deepens and expands the previous one.
Of the traditional 16 chapters, chapters 1 and 2 (= 5th book of Ezra ) and 15 and 16 (= 6th book of Ezra ) represent later Christian additions that can only be found in the Latin tradition; these chapters are missing in the oriental, and thus also eastern versions. The Jewish Apocalypse, 4th Book of Ezra (= Chapters 3–14), is divided into seven visions:
- Vision 1 = chapters 3.1-5.19
- Vision 2 = chap. 5.20-6.34
- Vision 3 = chap. 6,35-9,25
- Vision 4 = chap. 9.26-10.59
- Vision 5 = chapters 10.60-12.50
- Vision 6 = chap.12.51-13.56
- Vision 7 = chap. 13.57-14.47
The first three visions deal with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (587 BC). In the next three visions, Esra reveals upcoming events. In the final vision, Ezra is commissioned to compose 24 holy scriptures to be published (probably referring to the books of today's Tanach ) and 70 secret scriptures about the end of the world. At the end of the book, Ezra is caught up to God .
The two text passages requiem aeternitatis dabit vobis (verse 34) and quia lux perpetua lucebit vobis per aeternitatem temporis (verse 35) from the second chapter are the sources for the well-known recurring passages of the proprium of the funeral mass Requiem aeternam dona eis and Lux perpetua luceat eis .
Editions and translations
- Biblia Sacra. Iuxta Vulgate Versionem. Stuttgart 1983, pp. 1931-1974.
- Josef Schreiner: The 4th Book Esra (= JSHRZ V / 4). Gütersloh 1981.
- Hermann Gunkel : The fourth book Esra. In: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphs of the Old Testament, in conjunction with specialist colleagues. u. ed. by Emil Kautzsch . 2 volumes. Tübingen 1900, Vol. 2, pp. 331-401.
- Adolf Hilgenfeld : Messias Judaeorum, libris eorum paulo ante et paulo post Christum natum conscriptis illustratus. Lipsiæ 1869.
- Bruno Violet: The Esra Apocalypse (IV Esra). Leipzig 1910.
- Bruno Violet: The Apocalypses of Esra and Baruch in German form. Leipzig 1924.
literature
- Ferdinand Hahn : Early Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic . Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998, pp. 63-74.
- Albertus Frederik Klijn (ed.): The Esra-Apocalypse (IV. Esra): Translated from the Latin text using the other versions . Berlin / New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-017310-7 .
Remarks
- ^ Hahn, Apokalyptik 64. Cf. the detailed overview in Gunkel, Esra 331f.
- ↑ Even if no manuscripts or fragments of the assumed Semitic original version have so far been found, the assumption of a Semitic original version is considered certain due to linguistic and stylistic text anomalies in the translations that have come down to us. See Schreiner, Esra, 294f .; Hahn, Apokalyptik, 64; Gunkel, Esra, 333 . Schreiner, Ezra 295, considers an original Hebrew version to be more likely than an Aramaic.
- ↑ See Schreiner, Esra 301; Hahn, Apocalyptic 65.
- ↑ Cf. especially 4 Esr 12,22-27 as an allusion to Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. See Hahn, Apokalyptik 74; Schreiner, Esra 301; Gunkel, Ezra 352 .
- ↑ So Schreiner, Esra 302 following Ferdinand Rosenthal (Four apocryphal books from the time and school of Rabbi Akiba, 1885).
- ^ So Gunkel, Ezra 352 .
- ^ So Bruno Violet, Die Apokalypsen des Esra, Leipzig 1924, p. L.
- ↑ Biblia Sacra Vulgata - 4th Ezra, 2 , Bibelwissenschaft.de, accessed on November 3, 2019
