Greek Apocalypse of Ezra

Apocalypse of Ezra

The Word and Revelation of Ezra

It came to pass in the thirtieth year, on the twenty-second day of the month, that I was in my house. I cried out and said to the Most High: “Master, reveal the glory, so that I may see Your hidden things.”

When night came, Michael the chief messenger came to me and said, “Ezra, prophet of God, keep yourself from bread for seventy [weeks/days uncertain].” So I fasted as he commanded me.

Raphael, commander of the host, came and gave me a rod of fragrant resin. I fasted again for [number uncertain] weeks, and I saw the hidden things of God and His messengers.

I said to them, “I desire to plead before God for the race of the Christians. Better for a human being not to have been born than to come into the world and be handed over to judgment.”

Then I was taken up into heaven. In the first heaven I saw a great army of messengers, and they brought me to the places of judgment. I heard voices saying, “Have mercy on us, Ezra, chosen one of God.”

I began to speak: “Woe to sinners when they see one who is righteous standing higher than the messengers, while they themselves are in the Gehenna of fire.”

I said, “Have mercy on the works of Your hands, Compassionate One, rich in mercy. Judge me instead of the souls of sinners. It is better that one soul should be punished than that the whole world should perish.”

Ezra Pleads for Sinners

God said, “I will give rest to the righteous in Paradise, and I am merciful.”

Ezra said, “Master, why do You give reward only to the righteous? A hired worker receives his wage after he has served his time. So also the righteous receive their reward in heaven. But have mercy on sinners, for we know that You are merciful.”

God said, “I do not see how I may have mercy on them.”

Ezra said, “They cannot endure Your wrath.”

God said, “This is their appointed end.”

God said again, “I wish to have you like Paul and John, because you have kept for Me the treasure that cannot be stolen, the treasure of purity, the wall of humankind.”

Ezra said, “It is better for a human being not to have been born. It is better not to live. The irrational creatures are better than humans, for they have no punishment. But You have taken us and given us over to judgment. Woe to sinners in the world to come, for their judgment is without end and the flame is not quenched.”

While I was speaking, Michael and Gabriel came, and all the apostles with them, and they said, “Rejoice, faithful man of God.”

[Text damaged / probable restoration] Ezra said, “Rise and come with me, Master, to judgment.”

The Master said, “Behold, I give you My covenant between Me and you, so that you may receive it.”

Ezra said, “Let us plead in Your hearing.”

God said, “Ask Abraham your father how a son pleads with his father, and come plead with Us.” [Meaning uncertain; text corrupt.]

Ezra said, “As the Master lives, I will not cease pleading before You for the race of the Christians. Where are Your ancient compassions, Master? Where is Your long-suffering?”

The Question of Adam

God said, “As I made night and day, I made the righteous and the sinner. The sinner should have lived like the righteous.”

The prophet said, “Who made Adam, the first-formed?”

God said, “My undefiled hands. I placed him in Paradise to guard the food of the tree of life, but afterwards he disobeyed and acted in transgression.”

The prophet said, “Was he not protected by a messenger? Was his life not guarded by the cherubim for the ages? How then was he deceived while guarded by messengers? [Text damaged] If You had not given him Eve, the serpent would not have deceived him. Whom You will, You save; and whom You will, You destroy.”

The prophet said, “Let us come, my Master, to a second judgment.”

God said, “I cast fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah.”

The prophet said, “Master, You deal with us according to our deserts.”

God said, “Your sins surpass My clemency.”

The prophet said, “Remember the Scriptures, my Father, who measured Jerusalem and raised her again. Have mercy, Master, on sinners. Have mercy on Your own creatures. Have pity on the works of Your hands.”

Then God remembered those whom He had formed and said to the prophet, “How can I have mercy on them? They gave Me vinegar and gall to drink, and even then they did not repent.”

The Day of Judgment

The prophet said, “Reveal Your cherubim, and let us go together to judgment. Show me what the day of judgment is like.”

God said, “You have been deceived, Ezra. Compared with that day, a day with no rain upon the earth is a merciful tribunal.”

The prophet said, “I will not cease pleading with You unless I see the day of consummation.”

God said, “[Text supplied in source tradition] Count the stars and the sand of the sea. If you are able to count them, then you are able to plead with Me.”

The prophet said, “Master, You know that I wear human flesh. How can I count the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea?”

God said, “My chosen prophet, no human being will know that great day and the appearing that comes to judge the world. For your sake, My prophet, I have told you the day, but I have not told you the hour.”

The prophet said, “Master, tell me also the years.”

God said, “If I see that righteousness has increased in the world, I will be patient with them. But if not, I will stretch out My hand, take hold of the world by its four corners, bring all together into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and wipe out the race of humankind, so that the world shall be no more.”

The prophet said, “How then will Your right hand be glorified?”

God said, “I shall be glorified by My messengers.”

The prophet said, “Master, if You have resolved to do this, why did You make humankind? You said to our father Abraham, ‘Multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the shore of the sea.’ Where is Your promise?”

God said, “First I will make an earthquake for the fall of beasts and humans. When you see brother handing brother over to death, children rising against parents, a woman leaving her own husband, and nation rising against nation in war, then you will know that the end is near.”

“Then brother will not pity brother, nor man his wife, nor children their parents, nor friends their friends, nor slave his master. The adversary of humankind will come up from Tartarus and show many things to people.”

God said, “What shall I do with you, Ezra? Will you still plead with Me?”

The prophet said, “Master, I will not cease pleading with You.”

God said, “Count the flowers of the earth. If you can count them, then you can plead with Me.”

The prophet said, “Master, I cannot count them. I wear human flesh; yet I will not cease pleading with You. I wish also to see the lower parts of Tartarus.”

Ezra Is Shown the Lower Places

God said, “Come down and see.”

He gave me Michael and Gabriel and thirty-four other messengers. I went down eighty-five steps, and they brought me down five hundred steps. I saw a fiery throne, and an old man sitting on it; his judgment was without mercy.

I said to the messengers, “Who is this, and what is his sin?”

They said to me, “This is Herod, who for a time was king and commanded the killing of children two years old and under.”

I said, “Woe to his soul.”

Again they brought me down thirty steps, and there I saw boilings of fire. In them was a multitude of sinners. I heard their voice, but I did not see their forms.

They brought me down lower, by many steps which I could not measure. There I saw old men, and fiery pivots turning in their ears.

I said, “Who are these, and what is their sin?”

They said to me, “These are the ones who would not listen.” [Meaning uncertain: possibly those who heard wrongly.]

They brought me down again another five hundred steps. There I saw the worm that does not sleep and fire burning up sinners.

They brought me down to the lowest part of destruction, and I saw there the twelve plagues of the abyss.

They took me away toward the south, and I saw there a man hanging by his eyelids while the messengers scourged him.

I asked, “Who is this, and what is his sin?”

Michael the commander said to me, “This is one who lay with his mother. Because he carried out a forbidden desire, he has been ordered to hang.”

They took me away toward the north, and I saw a man bound with iron chains.

I asked, “Who is this?”

He said to me, “This is the one who said, ‘I am the Son of God, who made stones bread and water wine.’”

The prophet said, “My master, let me know his appearance, so that I may tell the human race and they may not believe in him.”

He said to me, “The form of his face is like that of a wild beast. His right eye is like the star that rises in the morning, and the other is motionless. His mouth is one cubit; his teeth are a span long; his fingers are like sickles; the track of his feet is two spans; and on his face is written: Antichrist. He has been lifted up to heaven; he shall go down to Hades. At one time he becomes a child, and at another an old man.”

The prophet said, “Master, how do You permit him to deceive the human race?”

God said, “Listen, My prophet. He becomes both child and old man, yet no one believes that he is My beloved Son. After this a trumpet will sound, and the tombs will be opened, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.”

“Then the adversary, hearing the dreadful threat, will hide himself in outer darkness. Then heaven, earth, and sea will be destroyed.”

The Burning and the Lament

God said, “Then I will burn the heaven eighty cubits, and the earth eight hundred cubits.”

The prophet said, “How has heaven sinned?”

God said, “[Text missing / damaged] because there is evil.”

The prophet said, “Master, how has the earth sinned?”

God said, “Because the adversary, hearing the dreadful threat, will hide himself; for this reason I will melt the earth, and with it the opponent of the human race.”

The prophet said, “Have mercy, Master, on the race of the Christians.”

I saw a woman hanging, and four wild beasts were sucking her breasts.

The messengers said to me, “She withheld her milk and threw her infants into rivers.”

I saw a dreadful darkness, a night without stars or moon. There was no young or old there, no brother with brother, no mother with child, no wife with husband.

I wept and said, “Master God, have mercy on the sinners.”

As I said this, a cloud came and seized me and carried me again into the heavens. I saw there many judgments. I wept bitterly and said, “It is good for a human being not to have come out of the mother’s womb.”

Those who were in torment cried out, saying, “Since you have come here, holy one of God, we have found a little relief.”

The prophet said, “Blessed are those who weep for their sins.”

The Formation of the Human Being

God said, “Hear, beloved Ezra. As a farmer casts seed of grain into the ground, so a man casts his seed into the parts of a woman. In the first month it is all together. In the second it increases in size. In the third it receives hair. In the fourth it receives nails. In the fifth [meaning uncertain] it is turned into milk. In the sixth it is made ready and receives life. In the seventh it is fully formed. In the ninth the barriers of the woman’s gate are opened, and it is born safe and whole upon the earth.”

The prophet said, “Master, it is good for a human being not to have been born. Woe to the human race when You come to judgment.”

I said to the Master, “Master, why did You create humankind and hand them over to judgment?”

God said with a lofty proclamation, “I will by no means have mercy on those who transgress My covenant.”

The prophet said, “Master, where is Your goodness?”

God said, “I prepared all things for the sake of humankind, but humankind does not keep My commandments.”

The prophet said, “Master, reveal to me the judgments and Paradise.”

Paradise and the Final Judgments

The messengers took me toward the east, and I saw the tree of life. I saw there Enoch, Elijah, Moses, Peter, Paul, Luke, Matthias, all the righteous, and the patriarchs.

I saw there the restraining of the air, the blowing of the winds, the storehouses of ice, and the eternal judgments.

I saw a man hanging by the skull.

They said to me, “This man removed boundary markers.”

I saw great judgments.

I said to the Master, “Master God, what human being who has been born has not sinned?”

They took me lower down into Tartarus, and I saw all sinners lamenting, weeping, and mourning bitterly. I also wept when I saw the human race tormented in this way.

Then God said to me, “Do you know, Ezra, the names of the messengers at the end of the world? Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Gabuthelon, Aker, Arphugitonos, Beburos, and Zebuleon.”

The Death of Ezra

Then a voice came to me: “Come here and die, Ezra, My beloved. Give back what was entrusted to you.”

The prophet said, “From where can you bring out my soul?”

The messengers said, “We can bring it out through the mouth.”

The prophet said, “Mouth to mouth I have spoken with God, and it shall not come out from there.”

The messengers said, “Let us bring it out through your nostrils.”

The prophet said, “My nostrils have smelled the sweet fragrance of the glory of God.”

The messengers said, “We can bring it out through your eyes.”

The prophet said, “My eyes have seen the back parts of God.”

The messengers said, “We can bring it out through the crown of your head.”

The prophet said, “I also walked with Moses on the mountain, and it shall not come out from there.”

The messengers said, “We can bring it out through the tips of your nails.”

The prophet said, “My feet have walked upon the altar.”

The messengers went away, having done nothing, and said, “Master, we cannot take his soul.”

Then He said to His only-begotten Son, “Go down, My beloved Son, with a great host of messengers, and take the soul of My beloved Ezra.”

The Master came with a great host of messengers and said to the prophet, “Give Me the trust which I entrusted to you. The crown has been prepared for you.”

The prophet said, “Master, if You take my soul from me, who will be left to plead with You for the human race?”

God said, “You are mortal and of the earth. Do not plead with Me.”

The prophet said, “I will not cease pleading.”

God said, “Now give up the trust. The crown has been prepared for you. Come and die, so that you may receive it.”

Then the prophet began to speak with tears: “Master, what good have I done by pleading with You, if I am about to fall down into the earth? Woe is me, woe is me, for I am about to be eaten by worms. Weep for me, all saints and righteous ones, because I have pleaded much and am delivered up to death. Weep for me, all saints and righteous ones, because I go down into the pit of Hades.”

God said to him, “Hear, Ezra, My beloved. I, who am immortal, endured a cross. I tasted vinegar and gall. I was placed in a tomb, and I raised up My chosen ones. I called Adam up out of Hades, that I might save the human race. Do not fear death. What is from Me, that is, the soul, goes to heaven; and what is from the earth, that is, the body, goes to the earth from which it was taken.”

The prophet said, “Woe is me, woe is me. What shall I do? I do not know.”

Ezra’s Final Prayer

Then blessed Ezra began to speak:

“Eternal God, Maker of the whole creation, who measured heaven with a span and hold the earth as in the hand; who ride upon the cherubim; who took the prophet Elijah into the heavens in a chariot of fire; who give food to all flesh; before whose power all things dread and tremble: listen to me, who have pleaded much.”

“Give a blessing from heaven to all who copy this book, possess it, remember my name, and honour my memory. Bless them in all things, as You blessed Joseph at the end, and do not remember their former wickedness in the day of judgment.”

“As many as do not believe this book shall be burned like Sodom and Gomorrah.”

A voice came to him, saying, “Ezra, My beloved, all that you have asked I will give to each one.”

Immediately he gave up his precious soul with much honour, in the month of October, on the twenty-eighth day.

They prepared him for burial with incense and psalms. His precious and sacred body gives strength of soul and body continually to those who come to him with longing desire.

To the One to whom belong glory, strength, honour, and worship, now and always, to the ages of the ages. Amen.