Greek Apocalypse of Ezra #881261

In the early centuries of the Christian era, several texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews and Christians. The original is believed to have been written in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac, and is commonly known as the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra.This version was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. This book claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 904 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired several 'Christian' Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the 'Latin' Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the 'second book of the prophet Ezra.' The prophet Ezra in the Judahite and Greek apocalypses was not the Ezra the scribe, but a prophet named or titled Ezra who lived centuries earlier, while the prophet in the Latin apocalypse was the Judahite scribe from circa 350 BC. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is a third Apocalypse of Ezra, which has only survived in two copies dating to before the 9th-century. It is a separate text from the Judahite or Latin Apocalypses of Ezra, and appears to be a Christian-era composite of various Ezra and Shadrach related materials. There is no consensus of when the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra was written, however, it is a Christian era Apocalyse, that refers to a number of Christian Apostles in heaven along with the Jewish Patriarchs. This Apocalyse is written in very inconsistent grammar, and switches constantly between first-person and third-person, as if it is a composite of material that originated in various earlier material. Some of the content repeats content found in the Judahite Apocalyse of Ezra, however, the bulk of the material is unique, describing Ezra's journey through the sky (Heaven) and the underworld (Tartarus). This Apocalypse is the only one of the three surviving Apocalyses of Ezra that includes the Antichrist, who is described as being chained in the lowest level of Hades. The description points very clearly to the early 2nd-century for this section of the Apocalypse, when the majority of Christians still believed there had been an Antichrist around at the same time as the Christ, another Jesus. This Jesus Antichrist was phased out of mainstream Christianity by the mid 3rd century, and those that believed he had existed were ultimately hunted down and exterminated by the Byzantine Orthodox Church in the 5th through 8th centuries. Therefore, this simple description of the Antichrist points to a mid 2nd century origin for the description, and likley the composition itself, although other sections were likely copied from older sources.