ESDRAS, THE BOOKS OF

There is considerable confusion as to_ the nomenclature of the various Ezra books. According to the A.V., the First and Second Books of Esdras appear among the apo hal books. According to the Septuagint Version, the First Book of Esdras appears as Esdras A, while under the heading Esdras B appear the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Through the influence of Jerome, this arrangement was not followed in the Vulgate. Here the Book of Ezra is styled Esdras 1.; — Esdras Il. is the Book of Nehemiah, — while Esdras I. and II. are re-named Esdras Ill. and IV. The dats of Esdras I. is probably the 2nd century B.C. It is a compliation consisting of: (1) Translation of part of Ezra, (2) part of Nehemiah, (8) part of Chronicles and (4) an original portion giving the discu ion of Darius and the three young men. The translation is free and in superior Greek to that of Esdras B in the Septuagint. The Second Book of Esdras, the most pathetic of the Jewish apocalypses, dates from the last years of the Ist century A.D. It contains sixteen chapters of which ch. i., ii, XvV., Xvi. are later additions, the first two chapters certainly being by a Christian author. The rest of the book tells of seven visions shown to the prophet Ezra, the whole being in the extreme pe imistic tone of the school of Shammai. It is not yet settled in what language Esdras II. was originally written. It now survives only inversions Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, etc. BALIOL BRETT (1852), Eng. peer; was M.P. for Penryn and Falmouth 1880-5. Among his publications are Footprints of Statesmen, The Yoke of Empire, To-day and To-morrow, After the War, etc. 1ST VISCOUNT (1817-99), Eng. judge of Common Pleas, 1868; Master of the Robes, 1883; Solicitor-Gen., 1868; cr. Viscount, 1897.