As part of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning’s Jewish-Christian Lecture Series, professor Matthew Goff will present his lecture, “The Book of 2 Esdras: Jewish, Christian, Both, Neither” in professor Yonder Gillihan’s course, “Early Christianity in Its Jewish Context.”On 21 March. Follow the link for a summary.
The Book of 4 Ezra was dropped by Judaism shortly after it was written (c. 100 CE). But it has a long history of transmission by Christians. Notably, "2 Esdras" is a Latin translation of 4 Ezra that includes two other short works (5-6 Ezra).
This is a good excuse to mention that our forthcoming Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2, (MOTP2) reprints Michael Stone's English translation of the Armenian version of 4 Ezra, with a new introduction by Vered Hillel.
The Armenian version translates a Greek version of 4 Ezra that had been heavily edited in late antiquity by Christians, with changes that are sometimes of considerable theological interest.
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