Sibylline Oracle

A Christian Introduction to 4 Ezra

Because it was written about the same time as the book of Revelation, 4 Ezra is one of the more important apocalyptic books. The Jewish apocalypse (chapters 3-14) was probably written about A.D. 100 based on the opening verse which states the book was written thirty years after Jerusalem was destroyed. This verse claims to be the words of the main character in the story, Ezra, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Since the book discusses the problem of the fall of Jerusalem it is applicable to either A.D. 70 or 135.

EzraMetzger finds it unlikely a Jewish book would find popularity in the post-Bar Kokhba world, so probably the central section was not written after even A.D. 120 (OTP 1:520. Charles 2:552 concurs with this date, although he tries to separate various sources in the text in order to date them earlier. Michael Stone dates the book to the last decade of the first century, see “Esdras, Second Book of,” in ABD 2:611-614).

The Christian framework was added in the second half of the third century. Collins states there is a “consensus” the Jewish apocalypse was written in Palestine at the end of the first century while Metzger takes the reference to Babylon in 3:1 as Rome; the book is therefore the product of Diaspora Jews (Apocalyptic Imagination, 196).

Chapters 1-2 of 4 Ezra are a Christian composition known as either 2 Esdras or 5 Ezra. After a brief genealogical introduction (1:1-3) Ezra is called to prophetic ministry (1:4-11). Ezra is to declare to the people of Israel their sins. To do this, Ezra describes the Exodus (1:12-14), the wilderness journeys (1:15-20) and the conquest (1:21-23) and shows that God did great things for the people, but they responded by breaking the covenant.

God addresses the people through Ezra, wondering what he will do with his rebellious people (1:24-32). God declares that he will reject his people and no longer listen to their pleas (1:25) and drive them away like straw in the wind (1:22-37). God did send them leaders such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then the 12 Minor Prophets (listed in the order of the LXX). Israel is to be scattered and God has become as a widow (2:1-7).

After a short “woe” against Assyria which seems out of place, God says the Kingdom of Jerusalem will be taken away from Israel and given to “my people,” presumably Christians. God has rejected the nation of Israel as his people, and according to this text, he has turned to the gentiles. In 2:33-41 Ezra calls to the nations because Israel has rejected God: “O nations, await your true shepherd” (The editor of OTP inserts “Ezra turns to the Gentiles” as a section heading for 2:33-41, which seems a bit more than the text says).

Chapter 2:15-32 is an ethical section inserted between the sections on Israel’s rejection. Beginning in verse 20 there is a list of actions which are expected from the people of God. Isaiah and Jeremiah are described as the servants of God sent to help Ezra as he reminds his readers of the ethical demands required of them. Some of the ethical statements which following in verse 20 are in fact drawn from Isaiah 1:17 and Jeremiah 7: guard the rights of the widow and the orphan, clothe the naked, care for the injured and weak, protect the lame and the blind, protect the old and properly bury the dead. Burial of the dead is not a factor in Isaiah and Jeremiah, but it is an important issue to first century Judaism. That Second Temple Judaism considered proper burial important is seen in the apocryphal book of Tobit. One of the “good deeds” of Tobit is the burial of the dead, see 1:18-20, 2:3-8, 4:3-4; 6:15; 14:10-13.

There is a hint of resurrection in 2:16: “I will raise up the dead from their places and bring them out from their tombs.” Since it is followed by ethical commands, it is possible that some sort of spiritual resurrection is in mind here (the passing from death to life at the salvation, etc.) Coupled with the reference to the shepherd in 2:34, it is possible the writer has Ezekiel 34 and 37 in mind. There is a resurrection in 37:1-14 (the valley of dry bones) and the true shepherd in 34:1-19.

The Christian section draws to a close with a vision of a great multitude in Zion (2:42-48). This crowd received crowns and are given palm branches by the Son of God because they have confessed him in the world (2:47). This Son of God is described briefly as a young man of great stature, taller than the rest and more exalted as well.

What is the Apocalypse of Zephaniah?

The Apocalypse of Zephaniah is a fragmentary piece of apocalyptic literature. Study of the book is hindered by missing sections in the two partially preserved manuscripts. Clement of Alexandria may have referred to the book (in Stromata), making the latest date possible about A.D. 175 and implying an origin for the book in Egypt.

Apocalypse-lambSince the book refers to both Daniel 3 and the apocryphal Susanna, implying a date no earlier than 100 B.C. The author was a Jew living in a Greek speaking Diaspora community. The book appears to have been used in the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, found in Upper Egypt. E. A. Budge includes this in his Miscellaneous Texts in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (London 1915) but carefully distinguishes this Apocalypse of Paul from the Nag Hammadi text of the same name. There is nothing uniquely Christian in the text, despite the fact Christians preserved the text.

The fragment of the Apocalypse of Zephaniah which is preserved in Clement’s Stromata is a brief description of the prophet’s ascension into the fifth heaven. There he sees angels (called “lords”) being crowned by the Holy Spirit and seated on brilliant thrones. This sort of heavenly journey and throne vision is common in the apocalyptic genre based on Isaiah 6:1-8. The unique element is the activity of the “Holy Spirit.” Since this is a Jewish text, we need to be careful not te read the Christian Trinity into this text (OTP 1:508, note b). He explains his use of capital letters in his translation and notes the spirit of God is described in similar ways in the Jewish sources (WisSol 9:17; Martyrdom of Isaiah 5:14, 4 Ezra 14:22; PssSol 17:42, CD 2.10).

The Sahidic fragment describes a punishment scene. A soul is lashed a hundred times each day by each of five thousand angels. Zephaniah faints at the sight of this and is told by his angelic guide to be strong. He calls Zephaniah “the one who will triumph.” It is this line, specifically the title for Zephaniah,” which is found in Budge’s Coptic Apocalypse. A second scene describes a great, broad places with thousands of people. The description of the people breaks off after their hair “loose like that belonging to a woman.” Since this description appears in 4:4 of the Akhmimic text, it is possible the people described are the souls of the ungodly in Hades.

The Akhmimic text is much longer, although it is also fragmentary and sections are missing. The first fragment is the end of a section which deals with the burial of the dead. A dead person is to be carried out accompanied by the playing of the cithara and the chanting of psalms and odes. This could be construed as a Christian funeral rite, but as Wintermute notes, there is simply not enough here decide if this is Christian or Jewish (OTP 1:509, note b).

Bibliography: Wintermute, O.S. “Apocalypse of Zephaniah” in OTP 498-515.

The Apocryphon of Ezekiel, Fragments 2-5

[Andrew Harrington offered a link to the text of fragments 2-5 in the comments, I am adding the link here. Thanks Andrew!]

Fragment 2 as reported in 1 Clement 8:3 describes God’s mercy. Even if the sins are “redder than scarlet or blacker than sackcloth,” if the people simply call God “Father” he will forgive them.  In addition to Jesus’ use of Father for God, Gal. 4:6 and Rom. 8:15 refer to calling out to God as Father (“abba”).  Fragment 3 exists in several variations, but is only reported as coming from Ezekiel by Tertullian (De carne Christi 23). This saying concerns a cow which has “given birth and not given birth.”  Apparently Tertullian used this as a reference to the Virgin Mary.

Fragment 4 is a saying attributed to Jesus by Justin Martyr, although it appears to come from “the prophets” in Elias of Crete and Pseudo-Athanasius.

Fragment 5 is found in Clement of Alexandria.  This text describes the healing of the nation and is probably based on Ezekiel 34:14-16 and Isaiah 35:5-7.  The Ezekiel passage is in the context of the true shepherd, while Isaiah describes the joy of the restoration of the people.  Zeph. 3:19 and Micah 4:6-7 both use the restoration of the lame as an image of renewal.

It is too much to say these fragments had much impact on the thinking of first century Judaism, although it is clear from the writers who preserved them that early Christians read and used the Apocryphon of Ezekiel. While the Christians used texts which could be applied to Jesus as the Messiah, it is almost impossible to know how a Jewish reader would have taken these same texts.

These fragments at best indicate the currency of the idea of restoration in Judaism based on the classic texts of Isaiah and Ezekiel.  The idea of a true shepherd from Ezekiel 34 may have been a popular enough of an idea that when Jesus used sheep as images in parables (Luke 15:1-3-7; John 10:11-14).

 

Bibliography:

Bregman, Marc. “The Parable of the Lame and the Blind: Epiphanius’ Quotation from an Apocryphon of Ezekiel.” JTS ns 42 (1991): 125-138.

Cook, Stephen L. “The Five Fragments of the Apocryphon of Ezekiel: A Critical Study” JBL115 (1996): 532-534.

Mueller, James Raymond.  “The ‘Apocryphon of Ezekiel:’ A Critical Study of Pseudepigraphic Fragments.”  Unpublished Dissertation:  (Ph. D.) Duke University, 1986.

Mueller, J. R. and S. E. Robinson.  “The Apocryphon of Ezekiel ”in OTP 1:487-495.

Stone, Michael E., Benjamin G. Wright, and David Satran.  The Apocryphal Ezekiel.  Atlanta: SBL, 2000.

Wright, Benjamin G. “The Apocryphon of Ezekiel and 4QPseudo-Ezekiel” pages 462-480 in Dead Sea Scrolls Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 2000.

__________.  “Talking with God and Losing His Head: Extrabiblical Traditions about the Prophet Ezekiel” pages 290-315 in Biblical Figures Outside the Bible. Harrisburg, Penn.: Trinity Press, 1998.

The Apocryphon of Ezekiel, Fragment 1

The Apocryphon of Ezekiel is a lost work known only through a fragment preserved in Epiphanes (Against Heresies 64.70, 5-17), the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 91a, a fragment preserved in 1 Clement 8:3, a number variations of a saying Tertullian attributed to Ezekiel, a fragment in Justin Martyr (Dialogue, 47), and a fragment in Clement of Alexandria (Paedagogus, 1:9).  A late date for the larger work can be set by First Clement is normally dated to A.D. 95.  Josephus seems knows of Ezekiel (Ant. 10.5.1 mentions two books).  Dates for Apocryphon of Ezekiel therefore range from 50 B.C. to A.D. 50 (Mueller and Robinson, 488).

Roman Feast 01The first fragment contains a parable used by Epiphanes to discuss the relationship of the body and the soul.  A king drafted his entire population into the army so there were no civilians except a blind man and a lame man. The king gave a wedding banquet for his son and invited the entire kingdom except the two civilians. They were insulted at this snub and made a plan to work together to enter the king’s garden. The blind man helps the lame man walk, the lame man led the blind man. (The version in the Talmud is slightly different in that the two men simply enter the garden and steal new figs without the wedding banquet.)

When the king discovers what the men did he questions them, but they deny responsibility.  The blind man could not have entered the garden because he cannot see, the lame man cannot walk.  In Epiphanes’ version the king flogs the men to discover the truth – the one blames the other.  In both versions of this parable the point is to illustrate the relationship of the soul and the body.

This parable is a potential parallel to the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14 or the Great Banquet in Luke 14:15-35. In both biblical parables and the Apocryphon version a king gives a banquet and invites many guests.  But in the biblical version the invited guests do not come to the banquet and are replaced by the blind, lame, etc.

The point of the parable of Jesus is to describe his ministry (those who were invited to the wedding banquet reject the invitation and are replaced with “outsiders”) rather than a description of the body and soul.  In the Apocryphon’s version the guests all accept the invitation, the two “outsiders” are not among those who should be at the banquet. What is clear from this fragment is that the metaphor of a wedding banquet was common, but also flexible enough to be used in different ways.

A wedding banquet is not always about the coming Kingdom of God.

The Treatise of Shem

The text is known from a fifteenth century Syriac manuscript (Rylands Syriac MS).  The original may have been written in Hebrew or Aramaic, although Aramaic is more likely if the provenance is Alexandria, as Charlesworth thinks it is.  The book was dated by Charlesworth to the early twenties B.C. based on the implication the author knows the battle of Actium and some details of Anthony’s political maneuvering in Egypt.  Collins, however, notes there is no clear evidence of this date and it could come from much later (Athens, 164, n. 37).

John Collins called the Treatise of Shem “the most striking endorsement of astrology by a Jewish author” (Athens, 42, n. 63). While astrology is generally associated with evil and demonic forces (1 Enoch 8.3, SibOr 3.220-236, Jub. 12), we find a remarkable number of zodiac-related material in Judaism. Despite the anti-astrology statement in 1 Enoch 8.3, 1 Enoch 72.1-37 adapts the zodiac signs as gateways or portals.  The zodiac is also present at Qumran: 4QCryptic (4Q186): a man’s characteristics are determined by the zodiac sign under which he was born. A man born under the sign of Taurus, for example, will be poor and have long thin toes.

MagiInterest in the zodiac may have been more common in Judaism than we expect: “paganism, at least via astrology, had become attractive to, and made an impression upon, numerous Jews during the Hellenistic and Roman periods” (Charlesworth, “Jewish Astrology”, 200 note 59, commenting on the work of David Flusser, “Paganism in Palestine” in The Jewish People in the First Century (Compendia rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, section 1) 1065-1099).

Each section of the Treatise describes the year beginning in a particular sign of the Zodiac.  These oracles are stereotypical, using several repeated elements important to describing the general year.  Nearly every chapter has a reference to the flood of the Nile (only 10 and 11 are missing this feature.)  The activities of Rome are important in chapters 1, 2 and 11, the activities of Egypt are found in 1, 2, 6 (Alexandria), 9, and 12.

A striking feature of many oracles is that people whose names contain certain Hebrew letters will have misfortunes if the year begins in a particular Zodiac sign. For example, in chapter 2, if the year begins in Taurus, all those whose names contain a Beth, Yod, of Kaph will become ill or be wounded by iron. This feature is found in every chapter except 4 and 5. There is a tacit acceptance of fate in this sort of text.  The general flow of a year is determined by the sign of a Zodiac.

Since the text dates to just before the first century, the Treatise of Shem is important for New Testament studies in showing that at least some of the Jews were interested in astrology. While the text is clearly Diaspora (Egyptian as the interest in the Nile indicates), we know the Qumran community preserved similar texts dealing with astrological predictions (4QCryptic = 4Q186).

An example of astrology in the New Testament is the Magi from the east who used a star to known when the King of the Jews had been born. While the Treatise of Shem deals simply with general predictions based on the beginning of a year, other astrological texts appear to have been in use by Jews despite the prohibitions of the Law.

 

Bibliography:

James Charlesworth, “Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues,” Harvard Theological Review 70 (July-Oct 1977) 183-200.

Francis Schmidt, “Ancient Jewish Astrology: An Attempt to Interpret 4QCryptic (4Q186),” in Biblical Perspectives (Leiden : E J Brill, 1998), 189-205.