ESDRAS

The first book of Esdras, which the sixth Article of Religion styles the third book, was written some time within the first century B.C., and is chiefly made up of an independent and somewhat free version (not without value) of portions of 2. Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah. It is possibly based upon a Greek, but emended from a Hebrew source. The one portion peculiar to the book (3–5:6), commonly called “The Three Wise Sayings,” has been thought to be the nucleus of the whole book round which the rest is grouped.

The second book of Esdras is not included in this volume, as although it was probably composed in Greek, no Greek version has as yet been found. The book consists of three distinct works, and its most important portion (3–14) is known as “The Apocalypse of Esdras.” It contains seven visions, written probably in Domitian’s reign (A.D. 81–96); and in recent years the Apocalypse has been amplified by the discovery of a lost portion of the Latin translation.