ESDRAS

the name of two apocryphal books of Scripture, which were always excluded the Jewish canon, and are too absurd to be admitted as canonical by the Romanists themselves. They are supposed to have been originally written in Greek, by some Hellenistical Jews, though some imagine that they were first written in Chaldee, and afterwards translated into Greek. It is uncertain when they were composed, though it is generally agreed that the author wrote before Joseph us. The First Book of Esdras is chiefly historical, and gives an account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, the building of the temple, and the establishment of Divine worship. The truth it contains is borrowed from the canonical books of Ezra (or Esdras, as the Greeks and Latins call him, and thence term these books, the Third and Fourth Book of Esdras); the rest is exceeding fabulous and trifling: this book however is by the Greeks allowed to be canonical. The Second Book of Esdras is written in the prophetical way, and pretends to visions and revelations, but so ridiculous and absurd, that the Spirit of God could have no concern in the dictating of them. The author believed that the day of judgment was at hand, and that all the souls both of good and bad men would be delivered out of hell after the day of judgment. He speaks of two monstrous animals created by God at the beginning of the world, in order to make a feast with them for all the elect, after the resurrection. He says, that the ten tribes are gone into a certain country, which he calls Arseret; that Ezra repaired the whole body of the Holy Scriptures, which were entirely lost; and he speaks of Jesus Christ and his apostles in so clear a manner, that the gospel itself is not more expre . The Books of Esdras are not read in the service of the Church of England. In the list of apocryphal books in the 6th Article, these are called the Third and Fourth Books of Esdras, because Ezra and Nehemiah were formerly joined in one book; and when they were separated, the book of Nehemiah, being considered as a continuation of the book of Ezra, was called by his name.— Bishop Tomline.