Syriac Apocalypse Of Ezra And The Arabic Apocalypse Of Daniel

The Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra, sometimes called the Revelation of Ezra appears to have been reworked in the High Middle Ages. Another version of the apocalypse has survived in Arabic, but attributed to Daniel not Ezra, commonly known as the Arabic Apocalypse of Daniel. The Arabic version is shorter and appears to be older, likely dating to earlier than the time of Muhammad, while the Syriac version has been reworked into an anti-Islamic apocalypse, likely between 1229 and 1244. The apocalypse includes a reference from the High Middle Ages to Muslims as Ishmaelites, and Mongols as Gog and Magog, forming an alliance and conquering Jerusalem. This idea would not have been conceivable until the Mongols defeated the Khwarazmian Empire, an Islamic Turko-Persian empire in Iran and Central Asia. Before that, the idea that the Mongols could reach Jerusalem was not a consideration. The Apocalypse indicates that the city of Jerusalem was occupied by Christians at the time, which would place the anti-Islamic redaction to sometime between 1229 and 1244. The Latin crusaders had been driven out of Jerusalem in 1187, however, the kingdom of Jerusalem continued to exist, first from its capital in Tyre, and later Acre, however, in 1229 Jerusalem was recaptured, and held until 1244. As the Principality of Antioch was another crusader state to the north, and the name ‘Antioch’ appears to have been added earlier in the Apocalypse, the redactor may have meant it as a piece of propaganda intended to garner support from Byzantine Christians, who had not generally participated in the crusades and had better relations with the Muslims than the Catholics. The older Arabic version of the apocalypse likewise appears to have been used for propaganda, however, was anti-Jewish instead of anti-Islamic, and appears to have been written in Aramaic before the time of Muhammad. Based on the dialect of Arabic, it most likely originated in Palestine, among medieval Christians. The Arabic version is much shorter and is mostly paraphrased from the Gospels and other early Christian works, however, the content of the apocalypse is clearly something that was incorporated into the longer Syriac Apocalypse. While the content of the Arabic apocalypse is repeated in the Syriac apocalypse, it is a direct translation, but a series of paraphases that are reinterpreted in an anti-Islamic way. The longer Syriac apocalypse, which must originate much later than the pre-Islamic Arabic apocalypse, nevertheless, has much more content, most of which appears to have been composed in Neo-Babylonian sometime between 597 and 592 BC. The Syriac apocalypse has many Greek loanwords, confirming it was written in Greek, as well as an Arabic word the Syriac translator chose over a Syriac word, suggesting the Syriac translation was done long after Northern Iraq became Arabic speaking. All known copies of the Syriac Apocalypse can be traced to Iraqi Kurdistan, or the old Christian churches of Mosul, just south of Kurdistan. All of the surviving manuscripts are also in the Eastern Syriac script, and ten of the known 15 manuscripts can be linked to the Rabban Hormizd Monastery, of the Chaldean Catholic church, suggesting that all known copies are derived from the texts maintained at the monastery. The oldest known manuscript is from 1702 and is known as MS Mingana Syriac 11, or simplified to Mingana 11. It was copied on January 16, 1702, by a Hoshabo, son of Daniel, son of Joseph the priest, son of Hoshabo, and bought by Alphonse Mingana in the 1920s. Minanga was a British orientalist who had been born in Ottoman Kurdistan, and in the 1920s made multiple trips to northern Iraq to acquire ancient manuscripts, which later became the Mingana Collection at the University of Birmingham, in England.

Matthias Henze has prepared the editio princeps of the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel, a hitherto unknown apocalypse composed in the early seventh century A.D. in Syriac and preserved in a single manuscript only. Following an introduction to the Apocalypse, the book includes an edition of the Syriac text, an English translation, and a detailed commentary.Like the biblical Daniel on which it is closely modelled, the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel is an 'historical' apocalypse, i.e. it has two parts: the 'historical' first part relates the adventures of Daniel in midrashic form, from his deportation by Nebuchadnezzar until his return to Persia from Jerusalem which he visits with King Darius. Upon returning to Persia, Daniel has a sequence of apocalyptic visions which are recorded in the latter, eschatological part of the text and which describe the gradual unfolding of the end of time.The Syriac Apocalypse has preserved a number of motifs worth exploring: the messianic woes, the Gates of the North erected by Alexander the Great, a description of Antichrist's physiognomy, the Second Coming of Christ, and the new Jerusalem. Equally important, the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel bears testimony to the vibrant apocalyptic currency in Syriac Christianity.

In the early centuries of the Christian era, a number of texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews, Christians, Gnostics, and related religious groups. The original is believed to have been written in Judahite or Aramaic, and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, as Ezra is believed to have been an ancient Judahite. This translation is referred to as the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, as the book has nothing to do with modern Judaism. This version of the Apocalypse was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. In the book, it is claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 904 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired many Christian-era Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the ‘Latin’ Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the ‘second book of the prophet Ezra.’ This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the books of Ezra, but a prophet named Shealtiel who lived a couple of centuries earlier. In the apocalypse, he is called Ezra by the angel Uriel, which translates a ‘helper’ or ‘assistant.’ The shorter Latin Apocalypse of Ezra has become fused with the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra in most Catholic and Protestant translations, however, scholars divide the Catholic versions of 4ᵗʰ Esdras (Protestant 2ⁿᵈ Esdras) into three sections, with only the core twelve chapters that correspond to the Orthodox and Ethiopian versions of the book labeled as 4ᵗʰ Ezra. The opening two chapters, which are only found in the Catholic version, are labeled as 5ᵗʰ Ezra, while the last 2 chapters found in the Catholic version, as well as fragments surviving in an ancient Greek translation, are labeled 6ᵗʰ Ezra. 5ᵗʰ Ezra and 6ᵗʰ Ezra appear to have originally been one document, which is commonly called the Latin Apocalypse of Ezra, although it was almost certainly not written in Latin. There is another Greek Apocalypse of Ezra that has been reconstructed by scholars with a high level of certainty based on ancient fragments and quotes, however, it is a separate text from the Judahite or Latin Apocalypses of Ezra, and appears to be a Christian-era composite of various Ezra related materials. The Vision of Ezra appears to be either a prequel to the Greek Apocalypse or possibly another reworking of material that served as a basis for both works. In the Vision, Ezra is taken on a tour of the underworld by angels of Tartarus and then is taken to heaven where he begs for mercy for those in the underworld. The text appears to have been written by a Coptic Christian or Gnostic, as the underworld is largely inspired by the ancient Egyptian underworld. There are several unique underworld elements in the Vision that support a Coptic origin, including dogs attacking the dead, two great lions, and an immense worm, all at the western horizon. Like the Catholic Apocalypse of Ezra, the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra appears to have been reworked in the High Middle Ages. Another version of the apocalypse has survived in Arabic, but is attributed to Daniel instead of Ezra, an is commonly known as the Arabic Apocalypse of Daniel. The Arabic version is shorter and appears to be older, likely dating to earlier than the time of Muhammad, while the Syriac version has been reworked into an anti-Islamic apocalypse, likely between 1229 and 1244. The longer Syriac apocalypse, which must originate much later than the pre-Isamic Arabic apocalypse, nevertheless, has much more content, most of which appears to have been composed in Neo-Babylonian sometime between 597 and 592 BC. The Syriac apocalypse has many Greek loanwords, confirming it was written in Greek, as well as an Arabic word the Syriac translator chose over a Syriac word, suggesting the Syriac translation was done long after Northern Iraq became Arabic speaking. All known copies of the Syriac Apocalypse can be traced to Iraqi Kurdistan, or the old Christian churches of Mosul.

In the early centuries of the Christian era, several texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews, Christians, Gnostics, and related religious groups. The original is believed to have been written in Judahite or Aramaic and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, as Ezra is believed to have been an ancient Judahite. This translation is referred to as the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, as the book has nothing to do with modern Judaism. This version of the Apocalypse was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the books of Ezra, but a prophet named Shealtiel who lived a couple of centuries earlier. In the apocalypse, he is called Ezra by the angel Uriel, which translates a ‘helper’ or ‘assistant.’ In the book, it is claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 904 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired a number of Christian-era Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the ‘Latin’ Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the ‘second book of the prophet Ezra.’ The ‘second apocalypse’ was strangely attributed to Ezra the Scribe, and not the earlier exilarch Shealtiel, suggesting the author of the second apocalypse was not entirely familiar with the first apocalypse. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is a third Apocalypse of Ezra, which has only survived in two copies, both 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 Apocalypse, which refers to several Christian Apostles in heaven along with the Israelite Patriarchs. This Apocalypse uses a very inconsistent writing style and switches constantly between first-person and third-person as if it is a composite of material that originated in various earlier Ezra material. Some of the content repeats content found in the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, however, the bulk of the material is unique, describing Ezra’s journey through the sky (Heaven) and the underworld (Tartarus).

In the early centuries of the Christian era, a number of texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews, Christians, Gnostics, and related religious groups. The original is believed to have been written in Judahite or Aramaic, and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, as Ezra is believed to have been an ancient Judahite. This translation is referred to as the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, as the book has nothing to do with modern Judaism. This version of the Apocalypse was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. In the book, it is claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 904 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired many Christian-era Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the 'Latin' Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the 'second book of the prophet Ezra.' This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the books of Ezra, but a prophet named Shealtiel who lived a couple of centuries earlier. In the apocalypse, he is called Ezra by the angel Uriel, which translates a 'helper' or 'assistant.' The shorter Latin Apocalypse of Ezra has become fused with the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra in most Catholic and Protestant translations, however, scholars divide the Catholic versions of 4ᵗʰ Esdras into three sections, with only the core twelve chapters that correspond to the Orthodox and Ethiopian versions of the book labeled as 4ᵗʰ Ezra. The opening two chapters, which are only found in the Catholic version, are labeled as 5ᵗʰ Ezra, while the last 2 chapters found in the Catholic version, as well as fragments surviving in an ancient Greek translation, are labeled 6ᵗʰ Ezra. 5ᵗʰ Ezra and 6ᵗʰ Ezra appear to have originally been one document, which is commonly called the Latin Apocalypse of Ezra, although it was almost certainly not written in Latin. There is another Greek Apocalypse of Ezra that has been reconstructed by scholars with a high level of certainty based on ancient fragments and quotes, however, it is a separate text from the Judahite or Latin Apocalypses of Ezra, and appears to be a Christian-era composite of various Ezra related materials. The Vision of Ezra appears to be either a prequel to the Greek Apocalypse or possibly another reworking of material that served as a basis for both works. In the Vision, Ezra is taken on a tour of the underworld by angels of Tartarus and then is taken to heaven where he begs for mercy for those in the underworld. The text appears to have been written by a Coptic Christian or Gnostic, as the underworld is largely inspired by the ancient Egyptian underworld. There are several unique underworld elements in the Vision that support a Coptic origin, including dogs attacking the dead, two great lions, and an immense worm, all at the western horizon. Like the Catholic Apocalypse of Ezra, the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra appears to have been reworked in the High Middle Ages. Another version of the apocalypse has survived in Arabic, but is attributed to Daniel instead of Ezra, an is commonly known as the Arabic Apocalypse of Daniel. The Arabic version is shorter and appears to be older, likely dating to earlier than the time of Muhammad, while the Syriac version has been reworked into an anti-Islamic apocalypse, likely between 1229 and 1244. The longer Syriac apocalypse, which must originate much later than the pre-Isamic Arabic apocalypse, nevertheless, has much more content, most of which appears to have been composed in Neo-Babylonian sometime between 597 and 592 BC. The Syriac apocalypse has many Greek loanwords, confirming it was written in Greek, as well as an Arabic word the Syriac translator chose over a Syriac word, suggesting the Syriac translation was done long after Northern Iraq became Arabic speaking. All known copies of the Syriac Apocalypse can be traced to Iraqi Kurdistan, or the old Christian churches of Mosul.

In the early centuries of the Christian era, a number of texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews, Christians, Gnostics, and related religious groups. The original is believed to have been written in Judahite or Aramaic, and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, as Ezra is believed to have been an ancient Judahite. This translation is referred to as the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, as the book has nothing to do with modern Judaism. This version of the Apocalypse was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. In the book, it is claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 904 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired a number of Christian-era Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the ‘Latin’ Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the ‘second book of the prophet Ezra.’ This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the books of Ezra, but a prophet named Shealtiel who lived a couple of centuries earlier. In the apocalypse, he is called Ezra by the angel Uriel, which translates a ‘helper’ or ‘assistant.’ In 1592, Pope Clement VIII’s creation of a Catholic Bible added a version of the Apocalypse of Ezra into the Catholic Bible under the name 4ᵗʰ Esdras. Unfortunately, the Latin translation of the Apocalypse of Ezra that Clement added to the Catholic Vulgate included the shorter Latin Apocalypse of Ezra, resulting in the Catholic and Protestant Bibles having longer, and self-contradicting versions of the apocalypse in comparison to Orthodox Bibles. The identification of the author as ‘Shealtiel, who is also called Ezra,’ is found in most translations of the apocalypse, other than the longer Catholic version, where it is both redundant and conflicting, as the author is identified at the beginning of the longer text. The introduction of the Catholic version is the introduction of the shorter Latin Apocalypse of Ezra, which identifies the author as Ezra the Scribe and provides his genealogy. Ezra the Scribe was a Levite and son his genealogy has nothing to do with the line of David, a Judahite king. This translation is a translation of the Latin version's text that originated in the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, along with the restoration of short sections of text that were cut from the Catholic version but remain in the Armenian, Georgian, or Ethiopian translations.

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Hebrew and Samaritan scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint. The two books of Ezra were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint before 200 BC when a large number of refugees fled the ongoing wars in Judea and settled in Egypt. The two books of Ezra were two different versions of the same basic story, one likely a Sadducee version, and the other a Pharisee text. 2ⁿᵈ Ezra became in the Masoretic Texts' version of Ezra, and by the year 100 AD, the Apocalypse of Ezra was in circulation as 3ʳᵈ Ezra. This has created some confusion among Biblical Translators throughout the centuries. This version of Ezra is called 1ˢᵗ Esdras (1ˢᵗ Ezra) in Orthodox Bibles and Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha, 3 Esdras in Catholic Bibles that include the Apocrypha, and Greek Ezra in the Ethiopian Bible. The Septuagint's 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra are thematically similar, telling the generally same story, however from two different points of view. They tell the story of the fall of Jerusalem, first to the Egyptians, and then the Babylonians, followed by Babylon's fall to the Persians, following which the Judahites returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. 1ˢᵗ Ezra was clearly written from a non-spiritual viewpoint, common among the Sadducees, and repeatedly makes it clear that the author, Ezra, and various kings, viewed the Lord as the Judahite version of other gods, including the Egyptian creator and Sun-god Atum, and the Zoroastrian 'god of truth' and 'King of the Sky' Ahura Mazda. These views are inconsistent with the view of the Pharisees, which developed under the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty after Judea broke free from the rule of the Greeks, and the Lord became a separate god from all others. Both the Greek translations of 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra, and the Hebrew translation of Ezra-Nehemiah (2ⁿᵈ Ezra), contain relics of an Aramaic source-text, unfortunately, the Aramaic Book of Ezra is lost. The difference in the surviving Aramaic words within the Greek 1ˢᵗ Ezra, and Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah, it appears that the two versions of Ezra already existed in the Aramaic versions. 1ˢᵗ Ezra, the less spiritual of the two, clearly dates to the Persian era, as it treats the Judahite Lord of the Temple in Jerusalem as another version of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian God. Several Zoroastrian titles of Ahura Mazda are applied to the Judahite Lord, including King of Truth, and King of the Sky. Letters from the Persian Kings Cyrus II, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II, as included in the book, all of which were closely associated with Zoroastrianism, yet, referred to the Judahite Lord using titles generally associated with Ahura Mazda. In the Greek 1ˢᵗ Ezra and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra, and the Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah, the temple is described as being a Zoroastrian fire-temple, containing an eternal fire, which Nehemiah even referred to as burning naphtha, like the other fire-temples across the Persian Empire.

The Vision of Ezra appears to be either a prequel to the Greek Apocalypse, or possibly another reworking of material that served as a basis for both works. In the Vision, Ezra is taken on a tour of the underworld by angels of Tartarus and then is taken to heaven where he begs for mercy for those in the underworld. The text appears to have been written by a Coptic Christian or Gnostic, as the underworld is largely inspired by the ancient Egyptian underworld. There are several unique underworld elements in the Vision that support a Coptic origin, including dogs attacking the dead, two great lions, and an immense worm, all at the western horizon. While dogs devouring corpses is not unique to Egypt, it was a significant concern in Egypt. Dogs were so closely associated with the dead that the embalming god Anubis was pictured with a jackal’s head. In the ancient Egyptian religion, two great lions protected the sun as it traveled through the underworld each night. Depictions of the sun on the horizon, guarded by the two lions are common, although different Egyptian cults believed that the lions were different specific lions deities. The oldest version was likely the Heliopolitan theology, which taught they were Shu and Tefnut, the first created by Atum, the creator. In the Heliopolitan theology, Shu and Tefnut, which means ‘dryness’ and ‘moisture,’ were the two primordial elements that the universe was made from, who in turn created Geb (Earth) and Nut (the sky). They were also viewed as being the first male and female, something akin to Adam and Eve. They were often depicted as either a set of humans, lions, or a hybrid of humans and lions. Later in Egyptian history, alternative lion deities were said to guard the sun in the underworld, including Sekhmet and Maahes, who were also depicted as human-lion hybrids. It is unlikely that a non-Egyptian Christian would have conceptualized the underworld with two lions guarding it. The immortal ‘worm’ whose size could not be reckoned is either a unique element in Christian texts, or a mistranslation from a language in which the same word is used for ‘worm’ and ‘serpent.’ The Latin vermis, which means ‘worm,’ is most-likely a mistranslation of the Coptic word fnt, which means both ‘worm’ and ‘snake.’ While the terms for snake and worm are the same in many languages, they were not in Greek or Latin, supporting the text originated in another language, such as Coptic. The giant serpent in the underworld was Ôảpp in ancient Egyptian beliefs, who lived in the far western region of the underworld, near the place the sun set each evening. During the early Iron Age, he became known as Ảpảp, a demonic serpent of the underworld in Egyptian beliefs. The Greeks interpreted him as Apophis, an underworld serpent god. In the early Christian era, he was interpreted as Aphoph by Coptic Christians, the worm/serpent from the Garden of Eden who was sent to live eternally in the underworld. It is unlikely someone other than an early Coptic Christian would have written a vision of the underworld that included this giant worm/serpent.