4 Ezra (2 Esdras 3-14); Luke 9:28ff; Isaiah 65:17-25; Rev 12; Rev 21; 2 Cor 3.
Finally we come to our last episode on the Readable Books. 4 Ezra, also known as 2 Esdras, the Apocalypse of Ezra, or the Prophecy of Ezra, is not found in many Orthodox Bibles, though we see it in the Ethiopic, the Armenian, the Georgian, and the Slavonic Biblical tradition. In the Latin West, it was included in the appendix to the Vulgate (the Old Latin Version), but with four appended chapters added, two at the beginning (2 Esdras 1-2), and two chapters of the end of the book (2 Esdras 15-16). These are clearly Christian additions, however, and change the character of the original Hebrew writing, which was known in a Greek translation (now lost) by the writer of The Shepherd of Hermas, St. Ambrose, and St Clement of Alexandria. In my opinion, these chapters from the Latin version are not particularly edifying, and so I am glad that they have not come into Orthodoxy.
Overall, we must agree that 4 Ezra (as we will call it here) is on the very outskirts of the Readable Books. Yet it is worth reading! First, it gives us a sense of how the Jewish community of the late first century A. D. understood their fate, and helps us to understand how Jesus might have been received by those looking for consolation and fulfillment. Secondly, its first section, which goes from chapter three to chapter 10, is full of philosophical theology, and helps us to voice our concern for the world and for unbelievers. But most inviting is the poignant vision that stands at its center, and that moves towards a tantalizing glimpse of the Messiah who was to come (from the perspective of the book). Especially its imagery of God’s people as a wife and mother is familiar to Christians, who see the same pictures in Isaiah, in the book of Revelation, and in The Shepherd of Hermas (a popular second century AD book that almost was admitted into the New Testament).
The book proceeds in three parts—a long debate between the prophet “Ezra” and the archangel Uriel about the problem of evil; a striking transitionary vision in which Ezra sees and talks with a woman who is transformed before his eyes into the heavenly Jerusalem; and closing visions in which the future hope for God’s people is disclosed. Since the book was almost certainly written in the first century A.D., the “Ezra” who speaks to the angel and sees the visions is not that historical Ezra during the return from Exile (with Zerubbabel and Nehemiah). Rather, the anonymous writer has adopted this name because the loss of Jerusalem and the Temple at the end of the first century was a cause for lament, just as the loss of the original Temple caused grief. Ezra the prophet gave the people the hope and the will to rebuild after the return from Exile, just as this book offers a new perspective and the prospect of a bright future for later believers. The writer is not being deceptive, or pretending that the historical Ezra saw these things, but has taken on his name because of the affinity between the two eras.
Those who are concerned about the problem of evil and the plight of humankind in the fallen world will no doubt be helped by the first 9 chapters, in which “Ezra” laments and argues with God’s representative, Uriel, about these matters. When you read the book yourself, I recommend that you not gloss over these questions and arguments, but feel their weight—how many of us have not wondered about the “fairness” of the world and of history, and why so many suffer, or do not believe? But the most luminous section comes when Ezra fasts and waits for the Lord’s answer to his complaint. Then he is brought up short by the vision of a woman who is so despondent that she has gone out to the wilderness to die. It is this encounter that transforms Ezra himself from a complainer and lamenter into one who can offer strength and comfort to others.
Let’s zero in on the central transformational passage, 4 Ezra 9:26-10:59. This part comes after three long cycles of argument with Uriel, when Ezra is finally told to wait for seven days, partially fast, and pray for the answer of the Lord. Let’s hear some of the story:
So I went, as he directed me…. And after seven days, as I lay on the grass, my heart was troubled again as it was before. And… I began to speak before the Most High, and said, “O Lord, thou didst show thyself among us, to our fathers in the wilderness when they came out from Egypt . . . But though our fathers received the law, they did not keep it, and did not observe the statutes. . . [W]e who have received the law and sinned will perish…. [T]he law, however, does not perish but remains in its glory.”
When I said these things,. . . I lifted up my eyes and saw a woman on my right, and behold, she was mourning and weeping with a loud voice, and was deeply grieved at heart, and her clothes were rent, and there were ashes on her head. Then I dismissed the thoughts with which I had been engaged, and turned to her and said to her, “Why are you weeping, and why are you grieved at heart?”
And she said to me, “Let me alone, my lord, that I may weep for myself and continue to mourn, for I am greatly embittered in spirit and deeply afflicted.”
And I said to her, “What has happened to you? Tell me.”
And she said to me, “Your servant was barren and had no child, though I lived with my husband thirty years. And every hour and every day during those thirty years I besought the Most High, night and day. And after thirty years God heard your handmaid, and looked upon my low estate, and considered my distress, and gave me a son. And I rejoiced greatly over him . . . [a]nd I brought him up with much care. So when he grew up and I came to take a wife for him, I set a day for the marriage feast. But it happened that when my son entered his wedding chamber, he fell down and died. Then we all put out the lamps, and all my neighbors attempted to console me; and I remained quiet until evening of the second day. But when they all had stopped consoling me, that I might be quiet, I got up in the night and fled, and came to this field, as you see. And now I intend not to return to the city, but to stay here, and I will neither eat nor drink, but without ceasing mourn and fast until I die.”
Then I broke off the reflections with which I was still engaged, and answered her in anger and said, “You most foolish of women, do you not see our mourning, and what has happened to us? For Zion, the mother of us all, is in deep grief and great affliction. It is most appropriate to mourn now, because we are all mourning, and to be sorrowful, because we are all sorrowing; you are sorrowing for one son, but we, the whole world, for our mother. Now ask the earth, and she will tell you that it is she who ought to mourn over so many who have come into being upon her. And from the beginning all have been born of her, and others will come; and behold, almost all go to perdition, and a multitude of them are destined for destruction. Who then ought to mourn the more, she who lost so great a multitude, or you who are grieving for one? … Now, therefore, keep your sorrow to yourself, and bear bravely the troubles that have come upon you. For if you acknowledge the decree of God to be just, you will receive your son back in due time, and will be praised among women. Therefore go into the city to your husband.”
She said to me, “…I will not go into the city, but I will die here.”
So I spoke again to her, and said, “Do not say that, but let yourself be persuaded because of the troubles of Zion, and be consoled because of the sorrow of Jerusalem. For you see that our sanctuary has been laid waste, our altar thrown down, our temple destroyed; our harp has been laid low, our song has been silenced, and our rejoicing has been ended; the light of our lampstand has been put out, the ark of our covenant has been plundered, our holy things have been polluted, and the name by which we are called has been profaned; our free men have suffered abuse, our priests have been burned to death, our Levites have gone into captivity, our virgins have been defiled, and our wives have been ravished; our righteous men have been carried off, our little ones have been cast out, our young men have been enslaved and our strong men made powerless. And, what is more than all, the seal of Zion — for she has now lost the seal of her glory, and has been given over into the hands of those that hate us. Therefore shake off your great sadness and lay aside your many sorrows, so that the Mighty One may be merciful to you again, and the Most High may give you rest, a relief from your troubles.”
While I was talking to her, behold, her face suddenly shone exceedingly, and her countenance flashed like lightning, so that I was too frightened to approach her, and my heart was terrified. While I was wondering what this meant, behold, she suddenly uttered a loud and fearful cry, so that the earth shook at the sound. And I looked, and behold, the woman was no longer visible to me, but there was a city being built, with huge foundations.
At this point in the story, Ezra cries out for Uriel, who comes and explains to him that woman is Zion, and that God has given him this vision because of his own sorrow over Jerusalem. He then ends with a note of encouragement: “Therefore do not be afraid, and do not let your heart be terrified; but go in and see the splendor and vastness of the building, as far as it is possible for your eyes to see it, and afterward you will hear as much as your ears can hear. “ We do not see what Ezra sees, but in the rest of the book we hear three further visions that God gives to him, having to do with a Messiah to come and a future paradise.
The story is full of irony and mystery. Ezra is bemoaning Zion, and does not recognize the woman in front of him; indeed, he tells her to stop her lament! Ezra does not understand the vision, but Uriel comes and interprets it, even to the detail of the years that the woman was barren, and the meaning of her son’s death—that is, when Jerusalem was conquered and leveled to the ground. Ezra receives a richer vision of the city, but we are not told what he has seen, for he is a particularly blessed prophet. But the visions that he gives afterwards regarding the Messiah, and the writing of holy books for God’s people remain as an encouragement to the reader.
Especially poignant is Ezra’s lament before the woman: “For you see that our sanctuary has been laid waste, our altar thrown down, our temple destroyed; our harp has been laid low, our song has been silenced, and our rejoicing has been ended; the light of our lampstand has been put out, the ark of our covenant has been plundered…” and on it goes. Every single person has experienced loss because of what has happened to the Holy City, he explains, and he carries that loss before God in his heart. In this sense, Ezra’s lament is righteous.
However, he does not yet see things as God sees them. He does not understand that out of suffering the task of building up God’s people goes on—the woman is transfigured before him—face, body, and all—and becomes a city. He sees the grand foundations, but also that the work is not yet accomplished. His own sympathy and love for his people becomes, in fact part of that upbuilding, when he can truly see what God is up to. And so he is invited to see “as it is possible for [his] eyes” and to hear “as much as [his] ears can hear.” We might be reminded of Jesus’ Transfiguration, especially as it is told in Luke 9:28ff. There, it is Jesus’ face that is altered, and his clothing that become dazzling white. There, the disciples are awestruck as they actually enter into the glory cloud, a promise of when they themselves will become tabernacles of the living God. There, as our hymns say, they see and hear as much as they are able!
This experience of Peter, James, and John, but also of “Ezra,” remind us that God aims to draw us into His very glory, and to dispel our sorrows. It also reminds us that the Lord does not stand aloof from us in our suffering, but has entered fully into it, so that he can trample down death by death and lead us to glory. We remember that, in the Transfiguration, Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah concerning His ordeal to come—an exodus from the world and for the world that would heal all who come to Him.
The OT, in figures, speaks of God’s desire to heal his people. In the last chapter of Isaiah (65:17-25), we hear about the renewal of Zion, like a mother who bears many children:
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness….
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress….
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,
and their descendants with them.
This picture, of course, is filled out in our mysterious book of Revelation, where the woman who is being pursued in the wilderness by the devil (in chapter 12) comes at the last to be a perfect Bride in the last chapters of the book, adorned for her husband, and sharing the very glory of God.
What the prophets, and what this Readable Book see as from afar, we see more closely up, in the face of Jesus, the Transfigured One. Suffering is not futile, but will be turned into glory, just as the King of Glory ruled—wonder of wonders—from the cross. And so St. Paul reminds us, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). Sometimes our lives may seem mundane, and far from that glory that has been promised. Sometimes we may see tragedy, and we have to hang on with our fingernails to the promises. We may at times want to argue with God, and ask “Why?” as “Ezra” did. But the answer is always the same: “Therefore do not be afraid, and do not let your heart be terrified; but go in and see the splendor and vastness of the building, as far as it is possible for your eyes to see it, and afterward you will hear as much as your ears can hear.“ We cannot see it all, but in the words of the OT and the Readable Books, which point us to the face of Jesus, we see enough to give us assurance and hope.
That, friends, is the end of this series on the Readable Books. We have seen how the histories, visions, poetry, wisdom, and short stories all shed light upon the One who came among us as the God-Man. In two weeks’ time, the Nativity fast begins. And so in this blog and podcast “A Lamp for Today,” we will begin reading the infancy accounts, first of Luke, then of Matthew, plumbing them for the way that they use various passages of the Old Testament, so that we can understand the wonder of the Nativity even better. We will use the evangelists as guides to show us how to read the Old Testament. At the same time, we will search for “Light from the Old Testament Upon the Nativity.”
Edith M. Humphrey 