Publisher's Synopsis
In the early centuries of the Christian era, several texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews and Christians. The original is believed to have been written in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac, and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra. This version was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. This book claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 240 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired several 'Christian' Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the 'Latin' Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the "second book of the prophet Ezra." This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the Jewish scriptures, but a prophet named Ezra that lived several decades earlier.The Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra was adopted under a variety of names into the Bibles of most older churches before the Protestant reformation. In the 4th-century it was called 3rd Esdras by Archbishop Ambrose (Aurelius Ambrosius) of Milan, which continues to be its name Orthodox Bibles. Catholics call it 4th Esdras, while Protestants call it 2nd Esdras. The Ethiopian version uses another name: Ezra Sutuel, which is derived from the fact that the text claims to have been written by 'Sutuel, who am also called Ezra.' Sutuel is the Ethiopian translation of Shealtiel, the name of one of King Jehoiachin's sons. Jehoiachin the second last king of Judah before it was conquered by the Babylonians, and was considered the first 'King of the Exiles' in Babylon. His son Shealtiel was the second 'King of the Exiles, ' as this does correlate with the time recorded in the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, meaning, that if Ezra was not Shealtiel, he would have at least known him well, as Ezra is described as being the leader of the community of Babylon.There is no consensus of when the Latin Apocalypse of Ezra was written, however, it is a Christian era Apocalyse, that is clearly anti-Jewish in nature. The Apocalyse's claim to being the second book of the prophet Ezra implies that the author was positioning it as the sequel to the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, and as such it does not repeat the same material as the Jewish Apocalyse, unlike the Greek Apocalypse. In the Latin Apocalyse, the focus is more one declaring that God had abandoned the Jews in favor of Christians, and describing the coming end of the world.The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is a third Apocalypse of Ezra, which has only survived in two copies both dating both to before the 9th-century. It is a separate text from the Jewish or Latin Apocalypses of Ezra and appears to be a Christian-era composite of various Ezra related materials. There is no consensus of when the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra was written, however, it is a Christian era Apocalyse, which refers to several Christian Apostles in heaven along with the Jewish Patriarchs. This Apocalypse uses a very inconsistent writing style, and switches constantly between first-person and third-person as if it is a composite of material that originated in various earlier Ezra material. Some of the content repeats content found in the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, however, the bulk of the material is unique, describing Ezra's journey through the sky (Heaven) and the underworld (Tartarus).
