(Download) "Greek Apocalypse of Ezra" by Scriptural Research Institute " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Greek Apocalypse of Ezra
- Author : Scriptural Research Institute
- Release Date : January 07, 2020
- Genre: Bible Studies,Books,Religion & Spirituality,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 301 KB
Description
In the early centuries of the Christian era, several texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews and Christians. The original is believed to have been written in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac, and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra. This version was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. This book claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 240 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired several 'Christian' Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the 'Latin' Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the "second book of the prophet Ezra." This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the Jewish scriptures, but a prophet named Ezra that lived several decades earlier.
The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is a third Apocalypse of Ezra, which has only survived in two copies both dating to before the 9th-century. It is a separate text from the Jewish or Latin Apocalypses of Ezra and appears to be a Christian-era composite of various Ezra related materials. There is no consensus of when the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra was written, however, it is a Christian era Apocalyse, which refers to several Christian Apostles in heaven along with the Jewish Patriarchs. This Apocalypse is written in a very inconsistent style, and switches constantly between first-person and third-person as if it is a composite of material that originated in various earlier Ezra material. Some of the content repeats content found in the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, however, the bulk of the material is unique, describing Ezra's journey through the sky (Heaven) and the underworld (Tartarus).
This Apocalypse is the only one of the three surviving Apocalypses of Ezra that includes the Antichrist, who is described as being chained in the lowest level of Hades. The description points very clearly to the early-2nd-century for this section of the Apocalypse, when the majority of Christians still believed there had been an Antichrist around at the same time as the Christ, another Jesus. This Jesus Antichrist was phased out of mainstream Christianity by the mid-3rd century, and those that believed he had existed were ultimately hunted down and exterminated by the Imperial Church in the 5th through 8th centuries. Therefore, this simple description of the Antichrist points to a mid-2nd-century origin for the description, and likely the composition itself, although other sections were likely copied from older sources.