2 Esdras

Peter Hayman's commentary on 2 Esdras (=4,5 and 6 Ezra) argues that the book(s) had little impact on "mainstream," i.e., pre-Rabbinic, Judaism, but apparently played a role among the pre-Christian groups that preserved it.

Biblical literature alone would have provided medieval authors with anything but a consistent model since the biblical image of the cup at times represents the suffering brought about by divine judgement, and at others the blessings, grace, and comfort granted by God.(14) In Ezekiel 23:31-4 the fate of Samaria is described as a cup of horror and desolation from which Jerusalem must drink; but in Psalm 22: 5 the psalmist's cup overflows with divine blessings, and in 2 Esdras 14: 39-40 the Lord gives Ezra a cup of fire-coloured liquid that causes his heart to pour forth understanding and his breast to fill with wisdom.

Thus, today, in the Pseudepigraphical text 4 Ezra (a version of which appears in the Catholic Bible as 2 Esdras), one finds the most elaborate description of Jewish afterlife teachings from the first century C.E.(12) Originally written in Hebrew, this text reflects certain streams of philosophical beliefs of the Jewish world in Late Antiquity, and is one of many such texts that were rejected by the Rabbis in canonizing the Torah.

The biblical strand was found in 2 Esdras 6:42, which asserted that the earth was six parts land and one part water, relating the survival of the ocean to God's rest on the seventh day.

While the books covered are largely the same, deSilva adds 3 and 4 Maccabees and 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) while Kaiser adds 1 Enoch and the Psalms of Solomon.

The three names mentioned above all refer, I believe, to the same person, Esdras or Ezra, the presumed author and protagonist of the Jewish apocalyptic book 2 Esdras (4 Esdras in the Catholic Bible).

Theodore Bergren (C.3:102-127), in as clear and persuasive an account as one is likely to find, examines the transmission history of the composite work called 4 Ezra or 2 Esdras, as found among the "Apocrypha" in most Bibles.

Most of the students understood the biblical text in the same way that their Muslim friends understood the Qur'an: the Bible was the result of a divine dictation of the inerrant word of God (see 2 Esdras [4 Ezra] 14:38-44).