Ethiopic Apocalypse of Ezra

Textual history

The Apocalypse, or at least its second part, appears to be an original Ethiopic composition. As it stands, it is a Jewish text with heavy Christian influences, calling the Messiah the Word and quoting the New Testament. Richard Bauckham and Steven Kaplan consider it a de-christianized version of an originally Christian text. The work is pseudepigraphal, beginning with the words, 'This is what God said to Ezra,' and draws inspiration from 4 Ezra, the Book of Jubilees, and 1 Enoch. New Testament books used include Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Thessalonians. Joseph Halévy acquired a manuscript from a Jewish debtera in 1867, publishing a transcription with French translation and introduction. Two other manuscripts are Ethiopic MSS 27.7 and 61.1 in the British Museum, and a version exists in the Faitlovitch collection in Tel Aviv. Questions of provenance and date await a critical edition.

Synopsis

The Apocalypse has two clear parts. The first describes the last judgment and resurrection of the dead in Jewish eschatology: Raphael sounds his trumpet, the dead are raised, the just see God's face, and the wicked are dragged by the angel Bernael to God's throne, who hands them to Temlyakos, the angel of Gehenna. The second part begins with Ezra fasting in the desert until Uriel gives him a drink like fire, revealing future world history from creation to the end times, with emphasis on Ethiopian kings and the destruction of the Ishmaelites (Muslims) by the Messiah.

Kings are identified only by initials; only King Lalibela is identifiable from his rock-hewn churches. Under Lalibela there will be abundance and peace; under his successor Ye, perjury, famine, pestilence, and death. Slaves will be sold to the Ishmaelites, who will reign 700 years until a son of a lion, the Messiah of the house of David, arises. He will lead the nine tribes exiled by King Shalmaneser V, kill the Ishmaelites, reign forty years, then go into hiding.

Gog and Magog and a certain Guga will rampage, and a false messiah, the devil, will reign three years, six months, and three days before God strikes him down to Sheol. Lisbeth Fried calls it a polemic against the Muslim invasion and a political apocalypse, though its tone is less strident than the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra.