Guide
What Is the Second Book of Esdras?
1st Century
The book that appears in the Apocrypha as 2 Esdras comprises three distinct works, called 4 Ezra, 5 Ezra, and 6 Ezra. The oldest is 4 Ezra, an apocalyptic work ascribed to the biblical figure Ezra and generally dated to the first century CE. The book of 4 Ezra was originally written in Hebrew, but that text has been lost. The best surviving translations are in Syriac and Latin. The narrative is set thirty years after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and describes seven visions that Ezra receives.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Twenty-Four Books
2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 14:19–26, 38–48, 50
Then I answered and said, “Let me speak in your presence, Lord. For I will go, as you have commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living; but who will warn those who will be born…
Primary Source
Agony and Comfort
2 Esdras (4 Ezra ) 3–10 (selections)
In the thirtieth year after the destruction of the city, I was in Babylon—I, Salathiel, who am also called Ezra. I was troubled as I lay on…
Primary Source
The Messianic Kingdom
2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 7:26–44
“For indeed the time will come, when the signs that I have foretold to you will come to pass, that the city that now is not seen shall appear, and the land that now is hidden shall be disclosed. E…
Primary Source
Seeing God and Becoming Stars
2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 7:88–99
“Now this is the order of those who have kept the ways of the Most High, when they shall be separated from their mortal body. During the time that they lived in it, they laboriously served the…
Primary Source
Torments of the Soul after Death
2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 7:75–87
I answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, show this also to your servant: whether after death, as soon as everyone of us yields up the soul, we shall be kept in rest until…
Primary Source
Ezra’s Prayer for Israel’s Forgiveness
2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 8:15–36
“And now I will speak out: About all humankind you know best; but I will speak out about your people, for whom I am grieved, and about your inheritance, from whom I lament, and about Israel, for…