Deuterocanon/Apocrypha Commentaries: 2 Esdras/4 Ezra

"Fourth Ezra is a magnificent commentary, the definitive and standard work for generations to come." - Fortress Press

"Fresh translations of early Jewish texts 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, written in the decades after the Judean War, which saw Jerusalem conquered, the temple destroyed, and Judaism changed forever. This handy volume makes these two important texts accessible to students, provides expert introductions, and illuminates the interrelationship of the texts through parallel columns." - Fortress Press

"In this volume Gabriele Boccaccini and Jason M. Zurawski collect together essays from leading international scholars on the books of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. The literature of the Second Temple Period has become increasingly studied in recent years as scholars have begun to recognize the importance of these texts for a developed understanding of Rabbinic and Christian origins. Through close readings of the texts themselves, examining the books in comparison with other Jewish apocalyptic literature and early Christian materials, and reading the texts in light of their social and historical settings, the fifteen papers collected herein significantly advance the current scholarly conversation on these defining Jewish apocalypses written at the end of the first century CE, and they shed light on the everlasting legacy of apocalyptic ideas in both Christianity and Judaism."

"Drawing together two divergent approaches to 4 Ezra, this book combines a fresh analysis of the dialogues as a wisdom debate with a literary-psychological interpretation of the book, arguing that the author's theological solution is found in the symbolic visions." - Brill

"This extensive and detailed analysis compares Paul with the author of 4 Ezra against the background of Sanders’s portrayal of early Judaism. 4 Ezra and Paul would seem to have one significant point in common: their common displacement from the covenantal ‘pattern of religion’ which was so prevalent in Early Judaism. It is from this perspective that Longenecker undertakes his comparison." - T&T Clark