rivers,'' for the purj^se of "robbing and stealing," ; is the work of Daniel Cramer, and the Protestant
EbDxiAS
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ESDRAS
Church generally has treated it with great contempt, because it contradicts the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. On the other hand, Josephus, as we have seen regards it as a great authority, and it was treat- ed with great reverence by the Greek and Latin fa- thers. St. Augustine mentions it among the canonical books (Z'e Doctr. Christ, lib. ii, 1:3), and quotes the fa- mous passage, " Truth is the strongest" (ch. iii, 12), as Ezra's prophecy respecting Christ {De Civitat. Dei, xviii, 16) ; the same sentence is quoted as Scripture by Cyprian {Epist. Ixxiv; comp. also Clemens Alex- andrinus, Strom, i; Athanasius, Oral, iii, cont. Aria- nos; Justin Iilartyr, Dial, cum Tri/ph.). Modern criti- cism has justly taken the middle course between treat- ing; it with contempt and regarding it as canonical, and has recognised in it an important auxiUary to the settling of the text, and to the adjusting of the facts recorded in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, since this book has evidently been made from a different recension of the Hebrew, and has some readings and divisions preferable to those contained in the canonical books (comp. v, 9 with Ezra ii, 12 ; ix, 12 with Ezra X, G; ix, 16 with Ezra x, 16). Both Bertheau in his commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah {Exeget. Handb. pt. xviii), and Fritzsche in his commentary on the apocryphal Ezra {Exegef. Ilandb. z. d. Apokr. pt. i), have shown the important services which tiie canoni- cal and uncanonical records may render to each other. — Kitto, s. V. ; Smith, s. v.
VI. There are no separate commentaries on the first book of Esdras, and the literature pertaining to it is given under foregoing heads.
ESDRAS, Second Book of, i. e. the second in the order of the apocryphal books as given in the English translations of the Bible, which follow the Zurich Bible. I. Title and Position. — The original designation of this book, by which it is appropriately called in the Greek Church, is ' k-nOKu\vi\/ii; 'Eacuia, or 7Tpo(pt]Tiia 'E'TCpci, the Revelation or Propheci) of Ezra (comp. Ni- cephorus, apud Fabric. Cod. Pseud. V. T. ii, 176 ; Cod. Apocr. N. T. i, 951 sq. ; Montfaucon, Biblioth. Coislin. p. 191). The designation ' ' 1 Ezra, " which it has in the Araljic and Etliiopic versions, arises from the fact that it was fdaced before the canonical Ezra because it be- gins a little earlier (i. e. B.C. 558) than the Hebrew Ezra. It is called ''2 Ezra" in the Latin version be- cause it follows the canonical books Ezra and Nehe- miah, which were together styled the first Ezra, and it is still more generally denominated ''4 Ezra," a name given to it by St. Jerome (comp. Pro'f. in Esdr. et Ne- chem.), because it is in most of the Latin MSS. the fourth of the books which go by the name of Ezra, and which are placed in the following order : 1 Ezra, i. e. the canonical Ezra ; 2 Ezra, i. e. Nehemiah ; 3 Ezra, i. e. 1 apocryphal Ezra ; and 4 Ezra, i. e. this book.. The name "-4 Ezra" is retained bj' Luther, the Zurich Bible, Coverdale, Mattiiew's Bible, Cranmer's Bible, the Bishoiis' Bible, and in the 6tli article of the Church of England (1571). The name " 2 Esdras," given to it in the A.V., is taken from tlie Geneva Bible, and is the title given to it by the author himself (2 Esdr. i, 1). This book, like the former one, is placed at the end of the Vulgate in the Sixtine and Clementine edi- tions, because it has been excluded from the Canon by the Council of Trent.
II. Disvjn and Plan.— The object of this book was to comfort the chosen people of God who were suffering Tuider the grinding oj)pression of the heathen, by assur- ing them that the Lord has appointed a time of deliver- ance when the oppressors shall be judged, and the ten tribes of Israel, in imion with their brethren, shall re- turn to the Holy Land to enjoy a glorious kingdom which shall be established in the daj's of tiie Messiah. This is graduall}^ developed in nn introduction, and seven angelic revelations, or visions, in which Ezra is instructed in the mysteries of the moral world, as fol- lows:
1. Introduction (iii, 1-36, A. V. ; or i, 1-36, Ethiopic Vers.). — When on his couch in Babylon, in the 3Uth year after the destruction of Jerusalem (B.C. 558), mourning over the deplorable fate of his brethren (ver. 1-3), and recounting the dealings of God with mankind generally (ver. 4-12), and with his chosen people in particular, in consequence of their sinful nature inher- ited from Adam (ver. 13-22), for which the Temple was destroyed and the cit}- delivered into the hands of Gentiles (ver. 23-27), Ezra asked God why the hea- then sinnei-s of Babylon are spared, whilst the people of his covenant are so unsparingly punished (ver. 28- 36)?
2. First Revelation (iv. 1-v, 15, A.V. ; ii, 1-iii, 23, Eth.). — In answer to this, the angel Uriel is sent, who, after censuring the presumptuousness of a short-sight- ed man in trying to fathom the unsearchable dealings of the Most High, when he cannot understand the things below (ver. 1-21), and after Ezra's earnest re- iteration of the ciuestion (ver. 22-25), saj's that sin has not yet reached its climax (ver. 26-31), enumerates the signs wliereby the fulness of that time will be dis- tinguished, and promises to reveal to him still greater things if he will continue to pray and fast seven days (ver. 32-v, 15).