The illustrated Bible treasury

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 Excerpt: ... AND 2 ESDRA£. The title of these books, which profess to continue the canonical Ezra and Nehemiah, varies in different copies. In the Vulgate these books appear as 3 and 4 Esdras, because Ezra and Nehemiah have been counted as two books of Ezra. Counting them in this way, the third book of Esdras is a new version of the events relating to the return from the Captivity, the chief incident being a contest before the king; by the young wits of the court. Zerubbabel wins with the well-known maxim, "Magna est Veritas, et praevalebit"--i.e. "Truth is great, and will prevail." In consequence, he obtains concessions for the Jewish captives. The Fourth Book of Esdras has perished in the Greek, but is extant in versions made from it. The major part of it is a series of revelations made by God to Ezra regarding the fortunes of Israel and of Jerusalem. They were probably written after the destruction of the city by Titus (70 A.i.). The Fourth Book of Esdras underwent some re-editing by Christian hands, who added the first two chapters, and made some changes in the remainder. The following striking passage in the second chapter will be recognized by the reader as Christian, and as being parallel to the seventh chapter of Revelation:--"IT Esdras, saw upon the Mount Sion a great people, whom I could not number, and they all praised the Lord with songs. And in the midst of them there was a young man of a high stature, taller than all the rest, and upon every one of their heads he set crowns, and was more exalted, which I marvelled at greatly. So I asked the angel, and said, Sir, what are these? He answered and said unto me, These be they that have put off the mortal clothing and put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God. Now are...