Background and History

The chapters above are the King James Apocrypha. This essay is the setting of 2 Esdras: who is said to have written it, when and where the book places the story, what happens in it, which copies have been found, and why the Protestant canon does not include it.

Canon and Authorship

Trent’s books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The Confession of Dositheus sentence does not name 2 Esdras. Anglican Article VI lists the Fourth of Esdras among the other books. Bruce Metzger’s 1957 note, quoted under Church Lists, says the 1534 Luther Bible omitted 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened. The Clementine Vulgate preface set the fourth book of Esdras outside the canonical series.

The book does not name its writer. The early chapters are speech the book attributes to the Lord, and 2 Esdras 14:44 says that in forty days they wrote two hundred and four books. A composition year was not added.

At a Glance

Author	The book calls itself the second book of the prophet Esdras. It does not name a later editor.
Date	A composition year was not added on this page.
Place	Chapter 3 names Babylon, in the thirtieth year after the ruin of the city. A modern city was not added.
Genre	A first-person book of visions, a dialogue with the angel Uriel, and a command to write books.
Chapters	16
Verses	874 in this King James Apocrypha
Key verse	2 Esdras 14:44 Apocrypha Not part of the 66-book Protestant canon. Catholic and Orthodox churches accept these books as deuterocanonical. In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.2 Esdras 14:44 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source

Setting

2 Esdras 1:1

The second book of the prophet Esdras, the son of Saraias, the son of Azarias, the son of Helchias, the son of Sadamias, the son of Sadoc, the son of Achitob,2 Esdras 1:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source calls the book the second book of the prophet Esdras, the son of Saraias. 2 Esdras 3:1 In the thirtieth year after the ruin of the city I was in Babylon, and lay troubled upon my bed, and my thoughts came up over my heart:2 Esdras 3:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says that in the thirtieth year after the ruin of the city the speaker was in Babylon, troubled on his bed.

The Text

This King James text is sixteen chapters. A scholarly introduction was not opened, so this page does not divide the book into an earlier apocalypse and later additions, and it does not name a language of composition.

Structure and Themes

The early chapters are speech the book attributes to the Lord. 2 Esdras 4:1

And the angel that was sent unto me, whose name was Uriel, gave me an answer,2 Esdras 4:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source names the angel Uriel. Later chapters are dreams, including an eagle with twelve wings and three heads (2 Esdras 11:1 Then saw I a dream, and, behold, there came up from the sea an eagle, which had twelve feathered wings, and three heads.2 Esdras 11:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source). 2 Esdras 14:44 In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.2 Esdras 14:44 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says that in forty days they wrote two hundred and four books. The next verse says the Highest told Esdras to publish the first openly, so that the worthy and the unworthy might read it.

Issues With This Book

Trent’s books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The Confession of Dositheus sentence fetched for Church Lists does not name 2 Esdras. Anglican Article VI lists the Third and Fourth of Esdras among the other books. Those sentences are under Church Lists. Bruce Metzger’s 1957 note, also quoted there, says the 1534 Luther Bible omitted 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened.

The book’s own count of two hundred and four books, with only the first published openly, is 2 Esdras 14:44

In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.2 Esdras 14:44 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source and 2 Esdras 14:45 And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it:2 Esdras 14:45 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source. A composition year was not added.

On This Site

These articles quote the church lists and the passages that those lists argue from. They link back to this collection.

Church Lists

The Council of Trent, session 4 (1546), receives Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with Jeremiah, Daniel, and two books of Maccabees, and it anathematizes a knowing refusal. That decree’s first and second books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah, not the books titled 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras in this King James Apocrypha. The decree does not name the Prayer of Manasseh as its own book. The English of the decree is quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120 says the Church discerned the canon by apostolic Tradition and counts 46 Old Testament books, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Confession of Dositheus, from the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, answers “What Books do you call Sacred Scripture?” by naming, among the books Cyril Lucaris had called Apocrypha, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” “Judith,” “Tobit,” “The History of the Dragon,” “The History of Susanna,” “The Maccabees,” and “The Wisdom of Sirach,” and it says “we judge these also to be with the other genuine Books of Divine Scripture genuine parts of Scripture.” That sentence, on the English hosted by CRI/Voice, does not name 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, or the Prayer of Manasseh. The host says the English is adapted from J. N. W. B. Robertson’s 1899 translation. The brackets around “Bel and the Dragon” on that page are the editor’s.

Anglican Article VI says the other books, “as Hierome saith,” the Church “doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The article’s other books include the Third and Fourth of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, the rest of Esther, Wisdom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the First and Second of Maccabees. Its canonical First and Second of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The sentence is on the Articles of Religion and on What Do Anglicans Believe?

The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

That is Westminster Confession 1.3, as printed by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What Do Protestants Believe? quotes the same paragraph.

The Lutherhaus Wittenberg records a complete German Bible of 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, titled Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. A Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek record of a 1536 Lufft Apocrypha title page reads “Apocrypha. Das sind Bücher: so nicht der heiligen Schrifft gleich gehalten: und doch nützlich und gut zu lesen sind.” Bruce Metzger, writing in Christianity Today in 1957, says the 1534 edition gathered the books between the Old and New Testaments under that heading and did not include 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened for this page.

The New Testament and These Books

These pages do not cite a sentence in the New Testament that names Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or Maccabees as Scripture. Jude 14 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, and the next verse continues that prophecy. First Enoch is not one of the fourteen books in this King James Apocrypha. The text and the history are on 1 Enoch.

1 Maccabees 9:27 says there was great affliction in Israel, “the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.” 2 Maccabees 15:38 is the writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

2 Maccabees 12:44 says that if Judas had not hoped the slain would rise, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Verse 45 says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. This King James text has no verse 12:46. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46 for that reconciliation. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes the churches on that dispute and does not decide it.

Tobit 12:9 says alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. Sirach 3:30 says water quenches a flaming fire and alms make an atonement for sins. Those sentences are what the pages that discuss almsgiving and atonement are quoting. This site does not have a separate article whose only subject is alms.

Jewish Lists

Josephus, Against Apion 1.8 (William Whiston’s translation), says the Jews have “only twenty two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine,” five of them Moses, thirteen the prophets after Moses through Artaxerxes, and four hymns and precepts. History written since Artaxerxes “hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time.”

Jerome’s prologue to Kings, the Prologus Galeatus, in Kevin P. Edgecomb’s public-domain translation, counts twenty-two books and says “whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha.” He names Wisdom, “the book of Jesus son of Sirach,” Judith, and Tobias as not in the canon, and he says the first book of Maccabees is Hebrew and the second is Greek. The translation is at tertullian.org.

Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), counts twenty-two Old Testament books and includes “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book. He then names Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit as “not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read.” The English is the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text on New Advent.

Melito of Sardis, quoted by Eusebius in Church History 4.26.14, lists the Old Testament books he learned in the East. The list includes “Wisdom also” and does not name Tobit, Judith, Sirach, or the books of Maccabees.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Bible Canon,” says the Jewish canon is twenty-four books: the five of the Law, eight of the Prophets, and eleven Writings. It summarizes the baraita in Bava Batra 14b as Law; Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets); and Writings (Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles). That summary does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch as its own book, or Maccabees. The English of the Talmud on Sefaria is copyrighted, so this page does not reprint it.

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151 are not in this King James text.

2 Esdras