This book is one of the first modern collections of studies on important
aspects of the Ezra figure that combines both Jewish and Christian
traditions. The volume opens with a study of Ezra in rabbinic literature
and continues with four chapters on 4 Ezra, discussing its dimensions of
time, future agents and visionary practices as well as reminiscences of
4 Ezra in the Armenian Script of the Lord's Infancy. The following
chapters study the relationship of 4, 5 and 6 Ezra, the nature of 5 Ezra
and dissimulation strategies in 6 Ezra. The last chapters concentrate on
the important discovery in 1984 of a longer version of the Vision of
Ezra. Studies of its place, date, tour of hell as well as its scheme of
atonements make a start with integrating this text in the study of early
Christianity. Analyses of the Apocalypse of Sedrach and of anxieties of
discontinuity in the Testament of Abraham and in Ezra traditions further
contribute to a better understanding of this text. The final chapter
offers the first German translation of this exciting discovery. As has
become customary, the volume concludes with an extensive bibliography
and detailed index.