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Books of Es´dras, (Apocrypha) In several manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate, as well as in all the printed editions anterior to the decree of the Council of Trent, and in many since that period, there will be found four books following each other, entitled the 1James , 2 nd, 3rd, and 4th books of Ezra. The two first are the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the 3rd and 4th form the subject of the present article. They are the same which are called 1st and 2nd Esdras in the English Authorized Version.

The Third Book of Ezra is little more than a recapitulation of the history contained in the canonical Ezra, interspersed with some remarkable interpolations, the chief of which are 1 Esdras 1, taken from 2 Chronicles 35, 36, part of the last chapter, from Nehemiah 8, and the narration of the themes or sentences of Zorobabel and the two other young men of Darius's body-guard (). The book is more properly a version than an original work. It was made use of by Josephus, who cites it largely in his Antiquities, but nothing further has been ascertained respecting the age either of the original or the translation.

This book was regarded as apocryphal by Jerome, Augustine, and others of the Fathers. It does not appear to have been included in the catalogue of any council, nor has any portion of it been read in the offices of the church. It was also rejected as apocryphal by the Council of Trent.

The Fourth Book of Ezra is quite of a different character from the former, and it has been even doubted whether it more properly belongs to the Apocrypha of the Old or the New Testament; but the circumstance of the author's personating the celebrated scribe of that name has been supposed to have led to its obtaining a place in the former. It consists of a number of similitudes or visions, resembling in some passages the Apocalypse. The descriptions are acknowledged to be sometimes most spirited and striking, occasionally rising to great sublimity of thought, energy of conception, and elegance of expression.

With regard to its author and age, Jahn supposes the author to have been a Jew, educated in Chaldea, who borrowed his style from Daniel, and who, having become a Christian, still retained his reverence for Cabalistic traditions. He places him in the first or early in the second century. Archbishop Laurence, on the other hand, conceives that the author was a Jew who never changed his creed.

Dr. Lee is strongly of opinion that the author of this book was contemporary with the author of the book of Enoch, or rather that both these books were written by one and the same author. It does not appear that Josephus was aware of its existence.