An Atheist Explores the Apocrypha Part Six: Freaky Allegorical Eagles, Targaryen Prophecies and the Futility of Hell (2 Esdras 11-16)
2 Esdras 11-16
Freaky Allegorical Eagles, Targaryen Prophecies and the Futility of Hell.
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
2 Esdras 11
“Then saw I a dream, and, behold, there came up from the sea an eagle, which had twelve feathered wings, and three heads.”
Oh joy. Crazy visions of prophecy. You all know how much I just love these.
After a fortnight of not eating, Esdras begins to see some really far-out things. A three-headed, twelve winged eagle appears and rules over the earth. She, as the eagle is referred to, drops feathers on the earth which are evidently metaphors for rulers or kingdoms or some other kind of political body, as they rule each for a time before the next one does. Because that’s what you’d expect from feathers. Eight of these are “contrary” feathers, whatever that is, and then there’s also some confusing stuff about “little feathers and small”, which are possibly also the “contrary feathers”. Except later this becomes twelve feathers. These also seem to come from the right hand side, which is probably meant to be important.
Eventually the eagle is whittled down from twelve wings to six, and the middle of the three heads, which was asleep, wakes up and “put the whole earth in fear, and bare rule in it over all those that dwelt upon the earth with much oppression; and it had the governance of the world more than all the wings that had been”. And then disappears. Then the remaining two heads rule the earth for a bit until the right-hand one eats the left hand one. I think some other wings disappear until this thing is looking like a regular eagle.
Finally, a lion emerges from the woods and is, apparently, some kind of messenger for God because it tells the eagle “The Highest also hath looked upon the proud times, and, behold, they are ended, and his abominations are fulfilled” and tells the eagle to get lost so “That all the earth may be refreshed, and may return, being delivered from thy violence, and that she may hope for the judgment and mercy of him that made her.”
Well. Evidently, like the various beasts in Revelation, all this talk of certain numbers of “feathers” and “heads” and left and right are probably meant to refer to specific polities. I wonder if the author of Esdras had something particular in mind when he wrote this (probably Rome), or if it truly was the result of a crazy vision that he thought might have some meaning. Like Revelation, you could tack any kind of interpretation onto it you like, that’s how these things work, which is why I don’t have much interest in these kinds of passages. I mean, what’s it really saying here? Empires, nations, kingdoms, bodies politics, leaders, all come and go and some are good and some are bad and some nations break apart and some combine? Big wow. You need a vision from God to tell you that?
2 Esdras 12
“And I saw, and, behold, they appeared no more, and the whole body of the eagle was burnt so that the earth was in great fear: then awaked I out of the trouble and trance of my mind, and from great fear, and said unto my spirit”
Handily for us, Esdras asks Uriel for an interpretation of the vision (“Comfort me then, and shew me thy servant the interpretation and plain difference of this fearful vision, that thou mayest perfectly comfort my soul”), although to be honest the interpretation is not much more helpful.
The eagle represents a great empire that “shall be feared above all the kingdoms that were before it”. The twelve feather represent twelve rulers, of which the second has the longest reign, followed by eight lesser rulers with relatively short reigns that come after a period of civil war or other “great strivings”, where the empire “shall stand in peril of failing: nevertheless it shall not then fall, but shall be restored again to his beginning”.
The three heads then represent “three kingdoms”, whether as part of this empire or not is unclear, although I guess since they’re all part of the same freaky eagle it’s meant to be part of it. Three concurrent rulers, of which one will die of sickness and of the remaining two, one will kill the other and then himself.
Meanwhile, the lion represents “the anointed, which the Highest hath kept for them and for their wickedness unto the end”.
Now, this is one of those interpretations that can be applied to anything, really, but I suspect that the eagle is supposed to represent Rome (having an eagle standard, for one thing). If, as seems to be understood, Esdras is actually written after the second destruction of the Temple by Roman troops, the hindsight is clear. Twelve Caesars, of which Augustus’ reign is the longest. A period of civil war for the Time of Four Emperors, and some seem to interpret the three heads as Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. This doesn’t entirely fit, since Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars includes the Four Emperors and the Flavian family, not as additions to twelve rulers. Neither do Vespasian and his sons split the Empire into three parts. One could almost assume this to mean the division of Charlemagne’s lands into East and West Francia and Lotharingia, but now I’m doing the thing where I’m trying to apply patterns to stuff. So, no.
So, as with prophecy generally, so vague as to be useless.
After this, Esdras goes and wanders the streets of the city that used to be a woman, where the people ask him where he’s been to which he replies “As for me, I have not forsaken you, neither am I departed from you: but am come into this place, to pray for the desolation of Sion, and that I might seek mercy for the low estate of your sanctuary” and then goes to live in the field again for another seven days of eating flowers.
2 Esdras 13
“And whensoever the voice went out of his mouth, all they burned that heard his voice, like as the earth faileth when it feeleth the fire.”
Esdras gets his next vision, in which a man emerges from the sea (which I imagine as a kind of drag version of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus), and his voice is like fire that burns people up. Which he needs to do because people from “the four winds” come to fight him and he “graved himself a great mountain, and flew up upon it”. My first reading was that this man (it’s obviously going to be Jesus) flew around on the mountain, but on a second look “flew up upon it” may involve flying, but to the top of the mountain. Pity, that was a cool image.
“I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire, and out of his lips a flaming breath, and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests” says Esdras, which “fell with violence upon the multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them up every one, so that upon a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived, but only dust and smell of smoke”. Maybe he’s a Targaryen? Then another bunch of people turn up, and “some were glad, some were sorry, and some of them were bound, and other some brought of them that were offered”. So, this guy on a mountain (that sadly doesn’t fly) burns people up with fiery breath and has a following for the poor and downtrodden of society? Are we sure we’re not really talking about Danaerys Targaryen?
You may recall my discussion of messianic figures in popular fiction before; I missed the Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones parallels that time, I think. Interesting that GRRM decided to split the common attributes of messianic figures between Dany and Jon Snow.
Back to Esdras; handily, good old Uriel is at hand to explain the vision, although his explanation is about as elliptical and allusive as the vision itself. The man, the Son, will appear with origins that are as mysterious and unknowable as the depths of the sea (hence the Venus drag act), and warring people will cease their internecine fights to unite against him, whereupon his words “shall lay before them their evil thoughts, and the torments wherewith they shall begin to be tormented, which are like unto a flame: and he shall destroy them without labour by the law which is like unto me.”
There’s then a weird bit about the peaceful people that follow – they are the “ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land”. Ten tribes? What happened to the other two, because I presume we’re talking tribes of the Israelites? (Added in editing – I remember now that the Ten Tribes made up Israel, which was destroyed first, leaving only two in Judea – Judah and … Benjamin?)
But that’s not the oddest part. These tribes then decide to set up their own isolated nation across the Euphrates, “and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land”. There’s a bit of a Red Sea light event where God lets them across the Euphrates (see also Joshua crossing the Jordan), after which it takes them a year and a half to get to a place called Asareth. And at this visionary time shown to Esdras, God will let them back across the Euphrates. But, hang on though. If these people were taken as slaves by the Assyrians, how are they able to then just wander off to form their own colony? And isn’t this just a retread of the Exodus anyway? If Asareth, why not back to the land originally promised to them by God, and isn’t God annoyed about this (He usually is). It’s all very odd.
Uriel then tells Esdras that he gets these visions for being a good boy, and promises more in three days time. Stay tuned….
2 Esdras 14
“And it came to pass upon the third day, I sat under an oak, and, behold, there came a voice out of a bush over against me, and said, Esdras, Esdras.”
God appears to Esdras as a burning bush, which He points out is like the time He appeared to Moses. There is a reason for this reference to an earlier time, because God has come to give Esdras some dictation to do – “And come hither, and 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”. God tells Esdras to go and fetch Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, who apparently are fast scribes, as we shall see.
Before that, though, God sounds like… well, I’ve referenced Lord of the Rings already haven’t I? He sounds like Gandalf, or Treebeard, or Elrond perhaps, saying “For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin to wax old”. There’s more on this theme, including an intriguing reference to ten and a half “parts” of the world having already gone. Which suggests, to me, not so much a physical part but at the time of writing Esdras sssumed that the word was nearly in its “eleventh hour” of time left. Without knowing how long each of the twelve “parts” are we can’t say for certain how long this would actually be (although the implication is of something reasonably imminent). If we take the Bishop Ussher numbering and assume that Esdras is writing at around 4000 years after Creation, then if 4000 years is 10.5 units, 12 units is around 4600 (with some rounding). Placing this end time, according to this numbering, at around 6-700AD. Which it wasn’t. Of course, Ussher’s numbering may well not apply to the timescale Esdras is thinking of, so perhaps don’t read too much into this.
Esdras gather the five fast writers together, and tells everyone the suspiciously Christian sounding message that “For after death shall the judgment come, when we shall live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared” before asking to be left alone for forty days to do his writing (that favourite Biblical number of forty…).
For some reason, the six of them set up camp in the field (usually a tatty garret, remote cabin or crumbling stately home are the traditional writer’s retreats) whereupon Esdras receive inspiration that he describes as “a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was like fire. And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit strengthened my memory.” It’s a grand description; I do like the writing is Esdras at least.
Esdras dictates to the five men, and they write during the day and eat at night, producing in the end 204 books. Of these, God tells Esdras to publish 134 of them and to keep 70 back (it’s not clear, but implied that these were the last 70 written). Two hundred and four works out to be just a tick over a book per scribe per day.
I love the final verse (48) – “And I did so.”
2 Esdras 15
“I will send plagues upon thee; widowhood, poverty, famine, sword, and pestilence, to waste thy houses with destruction and death.”
Ah, we’re back to some good old destruction and death. God promises Esdras signs of the end times, which include the highly non-specific “I will bring plagues upon the world; the sword, famine, death, and destruction”. Well, that’s a rare set of occurrences then.
There’s more in this kind of vein, including God talking about freeing His people from Egypt and visiting it with plagues. I’m assuming here that this is a metaphorical “Egypt” in the form of Babylon, and not God going senile and repeating old actions. There’s a lot of the kind of descriptions of terrible times so beloved of apocalyptic prophets, including the absolutely terrifying “A man shall desire to go into a city, and shall not be able” (Another edit here: I’m tidying this up in the time of Covid-19 lockdowns, and perhaps the past Me shouldn’t have been so dismissive!)
This is followed by some stuff about the four winds, and destruction from the four cardinal directions, and then some bits where the “dragons of Arabia” and the Carmanians and the Assyrians go to war where “They shall smite one upon another, and they shall smite down a great multitude of stars upon the earth, even their own star; and blood shall be from the sword unto the belly”. Lots of stuff about stars and clouds and storms, really
God then promises some good old-fashioned destructive vengeance, such as “They that be in the mountains shall die of hunger, and eat their own flesh, and drink their own blood, for very hunger of bread, and thirst of water”. Also that “Thy children shall they carry away captive”, those that survive, that is, because earlier “Thy children shall die of hunger”. Now, possibly, since the “thou” of these verses is the nation of Babylon, the “children” could mean “citizens”. Even if this isn’t wishing starvation and slavey on literal children, it’s a hardly a message of peace and love. But, of course, there’s justification that they deserve it – “Like as thou hast done unto my chosen, saith the Lord, even so shall God do unto thee, and shall deliver thee into mischief”.
2 Esdras 16
“The earth quaketh, and the foundations thereof; the sea ariseth up with waves from the deep, and the waves of it are troubled, and the fishes thereof also, before the Lord, and before the glory of his power”
In many ways I’m glad to be at the end of Esdras, he does go on a bit even if the poetry is good. Each chapter, however, is very lengthy, usually taking around 70 verses or so.
This one starts with more apocalyptic visions, and some good poetic motifs – “A sword is sent upon you, and who may turn it back? A fire is sent among you, and who may quench it? Plagues are sent unto you, and what is he that may drive them away?” And so on; it goes on for some length with this form, covering hungry lions and arrows from God, where Esdras seems to be confusing Yahweh with Apollo since the “arrows” are plagues.
All of this is a description of the end times which, apparently, are “nigh” (The End always is, is it not?). Fires and plagues and wars, etc. etc (cats and dogs, living together…). But there’s a false hope – “Behold, victuals shall be so good cheap upon earth, that they shall think themselves to be in good case”. But wait, this time of consumer plenty is not all good because “For many of them that dwell upon earth shall perish of famine; and the other, that escape the hunger, shall the sword destroy”. Now, if Esdras had been told that those that escape the hunger would die from heart disease and Type II diabetes, that I’d consider to be a scary prophecy. As it is, eh. Famine and war? How rare.
Esdras paints a grim picture of a world diminished in population such that the vineyards go un-harvested and “The virgins shall mourn, having no bridegrooms; the women shall mourn, having no husbands; their daughters shall mourn, having no helpers”. Evidently only men will die directly then, because women apparently are immune to famine and disease. All labours will be in vain because “strangers shall reap their fruits, and spoil their goods, overthrow their houses, and take their children captives, for in captivity and famine shall they get children”. But wait… these “strangers” must be from somewhere that hasn’t been denuded of its population, so evidently the Apocalypse isn’t worldwide. No, I mean, it reads well, all of this, but makes little actual sense.
After all this God starts judging people, “Let not the sinner say that he hath not sinned: for God shall burn coals of fire upon his head”. That’s more like something from the Qur’an, a good bit of burning punishment. Let’s make them drink pus and boiling water again, that was my favourite bit. It does make me wonder, this revisiting doom-and-gloom apocalypse stuff, what is the actual point of God doing all this winnowing? Why visit miseries on people to sort out good from bad, especially if He “knoweth all the works of men, their imaginations, their thoughts, and their hearts”. It would make more sense, or at least seem less bloodthirsty and vindictive, if God just accepted the righteous people into wherever and left the rest alone to eventually experience the heat-death of the universe. I mean, why would He really care if people lived and died as people do in some tiny corner of the universe if He is conscious of all of space and time, and the reward for believers is some taster of the same. It all seems a bit minimal for an entity who “In his word were the stars made, and he knoweth the number of them”.
Finally we get into the notion of sin and absolution. “Behold, God himself is the judge, fear him: leave off from your sins, and forget your iniquities, to meddle no more with them for ever: so shall God lead you forth, and deliver you from all trouble”. This stood out to me because Esdras is talking about “sins”, as in a general sense of wrong-doings. Not “original sin”, a bizarre doctrine stemming from one verse from Paul, about Adam’s sin of disobedience (despite not knowing right from wrong) marring humanity forever. No, this is about more specific things that each person has done, and to me makes more sense. We’ve all done things we regret, or want to apologise to people we (knowingly or unknowingly) wronged. Seeking “redemption from sin” in a psychological sense is learning to live with this and not carry baggage with us, making a conscious effort to be better people going forwards. Original sin gives us baggage which isn’t even ours and tells us to feel bad for it, which is deeply, deeply psychologically damaging as far as I’m concerned. As Esdras himself writes here, “let not your sins weigh you down, and let not your iniquities lift up themselves”.
Freaky Allegorical Eagles, Targaryen Prophecies and the Futility of Hell.
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
2 Esdras 11
“Then saw I a dream, and, behold, there came up from the sea an eagle, which had twelve feathered wings, and three heads.”
Oh joy. Crazy visions of prophecy. You all know how much I just love these.
After a fortnight of not eating, Esdras begins to see some really far-out things. A three-headed, twelve winged eagle appears and rules over the earth. She, as the eagle is referred to, drops feathers on the earth which are evidently metaphors for rulers or kingdoms or some other kind of political body, as they rule each for a time before the next one does. Because that’s what you’d expect from feathers. Eight of these are “contrary” feathers, whatever that is, and then there’s also some confusing stuff about “little feathers and small”, which are possibly also the “contrary feathers”. Except later this becomes twelve feathers. These also seem to come from the right hand side, which is probably meant to be important.
Eventually the eagle is whittled down from twelve wings to six, and the middle of the three heads, which was asleep, wakes up and “put the whole earth in fear, and bare rule in it over all those that dwelt upon the earth with much oppression; and it had the governance of the world more than all the wings that had been”. And then disappears. Then the remaining two heads rule the earth for a bit until the right-hand one eats the left hand one. I think some other wings disappear until this thing is looking like a regular eagle.
Finally, a lion emerges from the woods and is, apparently, some kind of messenger for God because it tells the eagle “The Highest also hath looked upon the proud times, and, behold, they are ended, and his abominations are fulfilled” and tells the eagle to get lost so “That all the earth may be refreshed, and may return, being delivered from thy violence, and that she may hope for the judgment and mercy of him that made her.”
Well. Evidently, like the various beasts in Revelation, all this talk of certain numbers of “feathers” and “heads” and left and right are probably meant to refer to specific polities. I wonder if the author of Esdras had something particular in mind when he wrote this (probably Rome), or if it truly was the result of a crazy vision that he thought might have some meaning. Like Revelation, you could tack any kind of interpretation onto it you like, that’s how these things work, which is why I don’t have much interest in these kinds of passages. I mean, what’s it really saying here? Empires, nations, kingdoms, bodies politics, leaders, all come and go and some are good and some are bad and some nations break apart and some combine? Big wow. You need a vision from God to tell you that?
2 Esdras 12
“And I saw, and, behold, they appeared no more, and the whole body of the eagle was burnt so that the earth was in great fear: then awaked I out of the trouble and trance of my mind, and from great fear, and said unto my spirit”
Handily for us, Esdras asks Uriel for an interpretation of the vision (“Comfort me then, and shew me thy servant the interpretation and plain difference of this fearful vision, that thou mayest perfectly comfort my soul”), although to be honest the interpretation is not much more helpful.
The eagle represents a great empire that “shall be feared above all the kingdoms that were before it”. The twelve feather represent twelve rulers, of which the second has the longest reign, followed by eight lesser rulers with relatively short reigns that come after a period of civil war or other “great strivings”, where the empire “shall stand in peril of failing: nevertheless it shall not then fall, but shall be restored again to his beginning”.
The three heads then represent “three kingdoms”, whether as part of this empire or not is unclear, although I guess since they’re all part of the same freaky eagle it’s meant to be part of it. Three concurrent rulers, of which one will die of sickness and of the remaining two, one will kill the other and then himself.
Meanwhile, the lion represents “the anointed, which the Highest hath kept for them and for their wickedness unto the end”.
Now, this is one of those interpretations that can be applied to anything, really, but I suspect that the eagle is supposed to represent Rome (having an eagle standard, for one thing). If, as seems to be understood, Esdras is actually written after the second destruction of the Temple by Roman troops, the hindsight is clear. Twelve Caesars, of which Augustus’ reign is the longest. A period of civil war for the Time of Four Emperors, and some seem to interpret the three heads as Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. This doesn’t entirely fit, since Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars includes the Four Emperors and the Flavian family, not as additions to twelve rulers. Neither do Vespasian and his sons split the Empire into three parts. One could almost assume this to mean the division of Charlemagne’s lands into East and West Francia and Lotharingia, but now I’m doing the thing where I’m trying to apply patterns to stuff. So, no.
So, as with prophecy generally, so vague as to be useless.
After this, Esdras goes and wanders the streets of the city that used to be a woman, where the people ask him where he’s been to which he replies “As for me, I have not forsaken you, neither am I departed from you: but am come into this place, to pray for the desolation of Sion, and that I might seek mercy for the low estate of your sanctuary” and then goes to live in the field again for another seven days of eating flowers.
2 Esdras 13
“And whensoever the voice went out of his mouth, all they burned that heard his voice, like as the earth faileth when it feeleth the fire.”
Esdras gets his next vision, in which a man emerges from the sea (which I imagine as a kind of drag version of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus), and his voice is like fire that burns people up. Which he needs to do because people from “the four winds” come to fight him and he “graved himself a great mountain, and flew up upon it”. My first reading was that this man (it’s obviously going to be Jesus) flew around on the mountain, but on a second look “flew up upon it” may involve flying, but to the top of the mountain. Pity, that was a cool image.
“I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire, and out of his lips a flaming breath, and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests” says Esdras, which “fell with violence upon the multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them up every one, so that upon a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived, but only dust and smell of smoke”. Maybe he’s a Targaryen? Then another bunch of people turn up, and “some were glad, some were sorry, and some of them were bound, and other some brought of them that were offered”. So, this guy on a mountain (that sadly doesn’t fly) burns people up with fiery breath and has a following for the poor and downtrodden of society? Are we sure we’re not really talking about Danaerys Targaryen?
You may recall my discussion of messianic figures in popular fiction before; I missed the Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones parallels that time, I think. Interesting that GRRM decided to split the common attributes of messianic figures between Dany and Jon Snow.
Back to Esdras; handily, good old Uriel is at hand to explain the vision, although his explanation is about as elliptical and allusive as the vision itself. The man, the Son, will appear with origins that are as mysterious and unknowable as the depths of the sea (hence the Venus drag act), and warring people will cease their internecine fights to unite against him, whereupon his words “shall lay before them their evil thoughts, and the torments wherewith they shall begin to be tormented, which are like unto a flame: and he shall destroy them without labour by the law which is like unto me.”
There’s then a weird bit about the peaceful people that follow – they are the “ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land”. Ten tribes? What happened to the other two, because I presume we’re talking tribes of the Israelites? (Added in editing – I remember now that the Ten Tribes made up Israel, which was destroyed first, leaving only two in Judea – Judah and … Benjamin?)
But that’s not the oddest part. These tribes then decide to set up their own isolated nation across the Euphrates, “and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land”. There’s a bit of a Red Sea light event where God lets them across the Euphrates (see also Joshua crossing the Jordan), after which it takes them a year and a half to get to a place called Asareth. And at this visionary time shown to Esdras, God will let them back across the Euphrates. But, hang on though. If these people were taken as slaves by the Assyrians, how are they able to then just wander off to form their own colony? And isn’t this just a retread of the Exodus anyway? If Asareth, why not back to the land originally promised to them by God, and isn’t God annoyed about this (He usually is). It’s all very odd.
Uriel then tells Esdras that he gets these visions for being a good boy, and promises more in three days time. Stay tuned….
2 Esdras 14
“And it came to pass upon the third day, I sat under an oak, and, behold, there came a voice out of a bush over against me, and said, Esdras, Esdras.”
God appears to Esdras as a burning bush, which He points out is like the time He appeared to Moses. There is a reason for this reference to an earlier time, because God has come to give Esdras some dictation to do – “And come hither, and 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”. God tells Esdras to go and fetch Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, who apparently are fast scribes, as we shall see.
Before that, though, God sounds like… well, I’ve referenced Lord of the Rings already haven’t I? He sounds like Gandalf, or Treebeard, or Elrond perhaps, saying “For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin to wax old”. There’s more on this theme, including an intriguing reference to ten and a half “parts” of the world having already gone. Which suggests, to me, not so much a physical part but at the time of writing Esdras sssumed that the word was nearly in its “eleventh hour” of time left. Without knowing how long each of the twelve “parts” are we can’t say for certain how long this would actually be (although the implication is of something reasonably imminent). If we take the Bishop Ussher numbering and assume that Esdras is writing at around 4000 years after Creation, then if 4000 years is 10.5 units, 12 units is around 4600 (with some rounding). Placing this end time, according to this numbering, at around 6-700AD. Which it wasn’t. Of course, Ussher’s numbering may well not apply to the timescale Esdras is thinking of, so perhaps don’t read too much into this.
Esdras gather the five fast writers together, and tells everyone the suspiciously Christian sounding message that “For after death shall the judgment come, when we shall live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared” before asking to be left alone for forty days to do his writing (that favourite Biblical number of forty…).
For some reason, the six of them set up camp in the field (usually a tatty garret, remote cabin or crumbling stately home are the traditional writer’s retreats) whereupon Esdras receive inspiration that he describes as “a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was like fire. And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit strengthened my memory.” It’s a grand description; I do like the writing is Esdras at least.
Esdras dictates to the five men, and they write during the day and eat at night, producing in the end 204 books. Of these, God tells Esdras to publish 134 of them and to keep 70 back (it’s not clear, but implied that these were the last 70 written). Two hundred and four works out to be just a tick over a book per scribe per day.
I love the final verse (48) – “And I did so.”
2 Esdras 15
“I will send plagues upon thee; widowhood, poverty, famine, sword, and pestilence, to waste thy houses with destruction and death.”
Ah, we’re back to some good old destruction and death. God promises Esdras signs of the end times, which include the highly non-specific “I will bring plagues upon the world; the sword, famine, death, and destruction”. Well, that’s a rare set of occurrences then.
There’s more in this kind of vein, including God talking about freeing His people from Egypt and visiting it with plagues. I’m assuming here that this is a metaphorical “Egypt” in the form of Babylon, and not God going senile and repeating old actions. There’s a lot of the kind of descriptions of terrible times so beloved of apocalyptic prophets, including the absolutely terrifying “A man shall desire to go into a city, and shall not be able” (Another edit here: I’m tidying this up in the time of Covid-19 lockdowns, and perhaps the past Me shouldn’t have been so dismissive!)
This is followed by some stuff about the four winds, and destruction from the four cardinal directions, and then some bits where the “dragons of Arabia” and the Carmanians and the Assyrians go to war where “They shall smite one upon another, and they shall smite down a great multitude of stars upon the earth, even their own star; and blood shall be from the sword unto the belly”. Lots of stuff about stars and clouds and storms, really
God then promises some good old-fashioned destructive vengeance, such as “They that be in the mountains shall die of hunger, and eat their own flesh, and drink their own blood, for very hunger of bread, and thirst of water”. Also that “Thy children shall they carry away captive”, those that survive, that is, because earlier “Thy children shall die of hunger”. Now, possibly, since the “thou” of these verses is the nation of Babylon, the “children” could mean “citizens”. Even if this isn’t wishing starvation and slavey on literal children, it’s a hardly a message of peace and love. But, of course, there’s justification that they deserve it – “Like as thou hast done unto my chosen, saith the Lord, even so shall God do unto thee, and shall deliver thee into mischief”.
2 Esdras 16
“The earth quaketh, and the foundations thereof; the sea ariseth up with waves from the deep, and the waves of it are troubled, and the fishes thereof also, before the Lord, and before the glory of his power”
In many ways I’m glad to be at the end of Esdras, he does go on a bit even if the poetry is good. Each chapter, however, is very lengthy, usually taking around 70 verses or so.
This one starts with more apocalyptic visions, and some good poetic motifs – “A sword is sent upon you, and who may turn it back? A fire is sent among you, and who may quench it? Plagues are sent unto you, and what is he that may drive them away?” And so on; it goes on for some length with this form, covering hungry lions and arrows from God, where Esdras seems to be confusing Yahweh with Apollo since the “arrows” are plagues.
All of this is a description of the end times which, apparently, are “nigh” (The End always is, is it not?). Fires and plagues and wars, etc. etc (cats and dogs, living together…). But there’s a false hope – “Behold, victuals shall be so good cheap upon earth, that they shall think themselves to be in good case”. But wait, this time of consumer plenty is not all good because “For many of them that dwell upon earth shall perish of famine; and the other, that escape the hunger, shall the sword destroy”. Now, if Esdras had been told that those that escape the hunger would die from heart disease and Type II diabetes, that I’d consider to be a scary prophecy. As it is, eh. Famine and war? How rare.
Esdras paints a grim picture of a world diminished in population such that the vineyards go un-harvested and “The virgins shall mourn, having no bridegrooms; the women shall mourn, having no husbands; their daughters shall mourn, having no helpers”. Evidently only men will die directly then, because women apparently are immune to famine and disease. All labours will be in vain because “strangers shall reap their fruits, and spoil their goods, overthrow their houses, and take their children captives, for in captivity and famine shall they get children”. But wait… these “strangers” must be from somewhere that hasn’t been denuded of its population, so evidently the Apocalypse isn’t worldwide. No, I mean, it reads well, all of this, but makes little actual sense.
After all this God starts judging people, “Let not the sinner say that he hath not sinned: for God shall burn coals of fire upon his head”. That’s more like something from the Qur’an, a good bit of burning punishment. Let’s make them drink pus and boiling water again, that was my favourite bit. It does make me wonder, this revisiting doom-and-gloom apocalypse stuff, what is the actual point of God doing all this winnowing? Why visit miseries on people to sort out good from bad, especially if He “knoweth all the works of men, their imaginations, their thoughts, and their hearts”. It would make more sense, or at least seem less bloodthirsty and vindictive, if God just accepted the righteous people into wherever and left the rest alone to eventually experience the heat-death of the universe. I mean, why would He really care if people lived and died as people do in some tiny corner of the universe if He is conscious of all of space and time, and the reward for believers is some taster of the same. It all seems a bit minimal for an entity who “In his word were the stars made, and he knoweth the number of them”.
Finally we get into the notion of sin and absolution. “Behold, God himself is the judge, fear him: leave off from your sins, and forget your iniquities, to meddle no more with them for ever: so shall God lead you forth, and deliver you from all trouble”. This stood out to me because Esdras is talking about “sins”, as in a general sense of wrong-doings. Not “original sin”, a bizarre doctrine stemming from one verse from Paul, about Adam’s sin of disobedience (despite not knowing right from wrong) marring humanity forever. No, this is about more specific things that each person has done, and to me makes more sense. We’ve all done things we regret, or want to apologise to people we (knowingly or unknowingly) wronged. Seeking “redemption from sin” in a psychological sense is learning to live with this and not carry baggage with us, making a conscious effort to be better people going forwards. Original sin gives us baggage which isn’t even ours and tells us to feel bad for it, which is deeply, deeply psychologically damaging as far as I’m concerned. As Esdras himself writes here, “let not your sins weigh you down, and let not your iniquities lift up themselves”.
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