King James Version · Under Rome
2 Esdras 14
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1And it came to pass upon the third day, I sat under an oak, and, behold, there came a voice out of a bush over against me, and said, , . 2And I said, Here am I, And I stood up upon my feet. 3Then said he unto me, In the bush I did manifestly myself unto , and talked with him, when my people in : 4And I sent him and led my people out of , and brought him up to the mount of where I held him by me a long season, 5And told him many wondrous things, and shewed him the secrets of the times, and the end; and commanded him, saying, 6These words shalt thou declare, and these shalt thou hide. 7And now I say unto thee, 8That thou lay up in thy the signs that I have shewed, and the that thou hast seen, and the interpretations which thou hast heard: 9For thou shalt be taken away from all, and from henceforth thou shalt with my Son, and with such as be like thee, until the times be ended. 10For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin to wax old. 11For the world is divided into twelve parts, and the ten parts of it are gone already, and half of a tenth part: 12And there remaineth that which is after the half of the tenth part. 13Now therefore set thine house in order, and reprove thy people, comfort such of them as be in trouble, and now renounce corruption, 14Let go from thee mortal , cast away the burdens of man, put off now the weak nature, 15And set aside the that are most heavy unto thee, and haste thee to flee from these times. 16For yet greater evils than those which thou hast seen happen shall be done hereafter. 17For look how much the world shall be weaker through age, so much the more shall evils increase upon them that therein. 18For the time is fled far away, and leasing is hard at hand: for now hasteth the to come, which thou hast seen. 19Then answered I before thee, and said, 20Behold, , I will go, as thou hast commanded me, and reprove the people which are present: but they that shall be born afterward, who shall admonish them? thus the world is set , and they that therein are without . 21For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the work that shall begin. 22But if I have found before thee, send the Ghost into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the world since the beginning, which were written in thy law, that men may find thy path, and that they which will live in the may live. 23And he answered me, saying, Go thy way, gather the people together, and say unto them, that they seek thee not for forty days. 24But look thou prepare thee many box trees, and take with thee Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, these five which are ready to write swiftly; 25And come hither, and I shall a candle of understanding in thine , which shall not be put out, till the things be performed which thou shalt begin to write. 26And when thou hast done, some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou shew secretly to : to morrow this hour shalt thou begin to write. 27Then went I forth, as he commanded, and gathered all the people together, and said, 28Hear these words, O Israel. 29Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in , from whence they were : 30And received of life, which they kept not, which ye also have transgressed after them. 31Then was the land, even the land of , parted among you by lot: but your fathers, and ye yourselves, have done unrighteousness, and have not kept the ways which the Highest commanded you. 32And forasmuch as he is a judge, he took from you in time the thing that he had given you. 33And now are ye here, and your brethren among you. 34Therefore if so be that ye will your own understanding, and reform your , ye shall be kept alive and after ye shall obtain mercy. 35For after shall the come, when we shall live again: and then shall the names of be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared. 36Let no man therefore come unto me now, nor seek after me these forty days. 37So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went into the field, and remained there. 38And the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, , open thy , and drink that I give thee to drink. 39Then opened I my , and, behold, he reached me a full , which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was like . 40And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, uttered understanding, and grew in my breast, for strengthened my memory: 41And my was opened, and shut no more. 42The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they wrote the wonderful of the night that were told, which they knew not: and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the day, and at night they ate bread. 43As for me. I spake in the day, and I held not my by night. 44In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books. 45And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it: 46But keep the seventy last, that thou mayest them only to such as be among the people: 47For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of , and the stream of knowledge. 48And I did so.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.