Esdras

Esdras [Gr. from Heb. Ezra ], name of several books found in the Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha . The New Revised Standard Version (following the Authorized Version) maintains the titles Ezra and Nehemiah for the books to which the Vulgate gives the titles First and Second Esdras respectively. The Septuagint gives the title Second Esdras to a work in which both books are combined. In the Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah are also a combined work. The New Revised Standard Version's and Septuagint's First Esdras compile the whole of Ezra, sections of Second Chronicles and Nehemiah, and a story about Darius the Persian's bodyguards. In the Vulgate this work is entitled Third Esdras. The work known as Second Esdras in the Apocrypha of the Authorized Version and New Revised Standard Version is given the title Fourth Esdras (=Fourth Ezra) in the Vulgate. Part of this work is a Jewish apocalypse extant in Latin; other parts are Christian additions. Many consider it the most theologically perceptive of the Jewish apocalypses. The original language was probably Hebrew or Aramaic, from which a Greek translation was made; however, none of these versions exist. The work, which most critics date after AD 100, is a response to the destruction (AD 70) of Jerusalem. See Apocrypha ; J. M. Myers, I and II Esdras (1974); J. H. Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Vol. I, 1983); M. Stone, Fourth Ezra (1990).

Esdras either of two books of the Apocrypha. The first is mainly a compilation from Chronicles, Nehemiah, and Ezra; the second is a record of angelic revelation.

Esdras, Books of. ‘Esdras’ is the Greek and Latin form of Ezra. The Septuagint contains Esdras A, a Greek Book based on parts of 2 Chron., Ez., and Neh., with an additional story not in the Hebrew; and Esdras B, a straight rendering of the Hebrew of Ez.-Neh. (treated as one Book). In the current form of the Vulgate I and II Esdras are St Jerome's rendering of Ez. and Neh., treated as separate Books; III Esdras is the Old Latin version of Esdras A, and IV Esdras is another Book not extant in Greek. In 1546 III and IV Esdras were rejected from the RC Canon and in subsequent editions of the Vulgate they appear as an appendix after the NT. In the Geneva Bible (1560) and subsequent English versions I and II Esdras of the Vulgate are entitled ‘Ezra’ (q.v.) and ‘Nehemiah’, while III and IV Esdras are the ‘1’ and ‘2’ Esdras of the Apocrypha.1 ESDRAS (i.e. Esdras A of the LXX, III Esdras of the Vulgate, or The Greek Ezra), recounts the story of Israel from Josiah to Ezra. It is mainly composed of matter taken from the Hebrew canonical Books. It is generally dated between c.200 and 50 BC.2 ESDRAS (IV Esdras of the Vulgate or The Ezra-Apocalypse) is composite.: (a) 1–2, an introductory section denouncing the sins of Israel and partly based on the NT; (b) 3–14, the ‘Ezra-Apocalypse’ proper, in which the writer relates his visions and discourses with an angel; this section (the oldest part) is generally dated after AD 70 and not later than the reign of Hadrian (117–38); (c) 15–16, an appendix, in some MSS reckoned as ‘V Esdras’.