Interpreting 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch International Studies [Paperback]

In this volume Gabriele Boccaccini and Jason M. Zurawski collect together essays from leading international scholars on the books of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. The literature of the Second Temple Period has become increasingly studied in recent years as scholars have begun to recognize the importance of these texts for a developed understanding of Rabbinic and Christian origins.

Through close readings of the texts themselves, examining the books in comparison with other Jewish apocalyptic literature and early Christian materials, and reading the texts in light of their social and historical settings, the fifteen papers collected herein significantly advance the current scholarly conversation on these defining Jewish apocalypses written at the end of the first century CE, and they shed light on the everlasting legacy of apocalyptic ideas in both Christianity and Judaism.

Introduction: Perspectives on 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch from the Sixth Enoch Seminar - Gabriele Boccaccini (University of Michigan, USA) and Jason M. Zurawski (University of Michigan, USA)
Part I: 4 Ezra in the Apocalyptic Tradition
1. More than the Present: Perspectives on World History in 4 Ezra and the Book of the Watchers - Veronika Bachmann (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
2. Apocalyptic Ideas in 4 Ezra in Comparison with the Dead Sea Scrolls -Bilhah Nitzan (Tel-Aviv University, Israel)
3. The Meaning of History in the Fifth Vision of 4 Ezra - Laura Bizzarro (Universidad Catolica, Argentina)
Part II: Ezra 2, Baruch, and Early Christian Literature
4. The Woman Who Anoints Jesus for his Burial (Mark 14) and the Woman Who Laments her Dead Son (4 Ezra9-10) - Twice the Same Person? - Andreas Bedenbender (University of Dortmund, Germany)
5. Days of Creation in 4 Ezra 6:38-59 and John 1-5 - Calum Carmichael (Cornell University, USA)
6. 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra, and the Epistle to the Hebrews:Three Approaches to the Interpretation of Ps 104:4 - Eric F. Mason lÓ3