2 Esdras
This is the most theologically ambitious book in the Apocrypha.
Read this if you…
- want apocalyptic visions outside Revelation (angels, eagles, the end of the age)
- like Job-style arguments with God about why the righteous suffer
- curious about a book the Apocrypha kept but the Hebrew Bible didn't
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Why It Matters
This is the most theologically ambitious book in the Apocrypha. It wrestles with the problem of evil in much the same way Job does, and its vision of a messianic figure and a coming age fed into both Jewish and Christian thinking about the end of the world.
Depicted in Art
Ezra sits writing a manuscript on his lap before an open book cupboard holding a nine-volume Bible; nimbed, surrounded by scribal tools.
716
Uriel stands with the prophet Esdras in a pointed-arch panel of medieval stained glass, the angel instructing Ezra on his apocalyptic questions.
1350
An Orthodox icon pairing the prophet Esdras with the archangel Uriel in frontal poses, robed in the conventions of late-18th-century Moldavian icon painting.
1790
Close crop on Ezra at his writing desk with the open book cupboard behind him; the canonical Northumbrian portrait of the scribe-prophet at work.
716
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Cambridge University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!
Deep Dive
What It's About
This summary gives away plot details.
Notable Quotes
“There be many created, but few shall be saved.”
“I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out, till the things be performed which thou shalt begin to write.”
More by Unknown
- Job
c. 500 BCE · Wisdom
- Esther
c. 400 BCE · Scripture — Narrative
- Tobit
c. 200 BCE · Scripture — Narrative
- 1 Esdras
c. 150 BCE · Scripture — Narrative
- Prayer of Manasses
c. 150 BCE · Lyric
- 2 Maccabees
c. 124 BCE · Scripture — Narrative
- 1 Maccabees
c. 100 BCE · Scripture — Narrative
- Judith
c. 100 BCE · Scripture — Narrative
- Beowulf
c. 1000 · Epic
- The Song of Roland
c. 1100 · Epic
- The Nibelungenlied
c. 1200 · Epic
- The Poetic Edda
c. 1270 · Epic