Bart Ehrman on 4 Ezra/2 Esdras, 2 Baruch and 1 Enoch

 Bart Ehrman on 4 Ezra/2 Esdras, 2 Baruch and 1 Enoch

"We do, of course, have narratives that describe postmortem salvation for some of those suffering in the world to come, through the intercessory power of saints pleading for mercy for some individuals—most notably Thecla’s prayer for Falconilla and Perpetua’s for her brother Dinocrates (Acts of Thecla 28; Mart. Perp. 7–8). These are rare moments and they involve only particular people, but they do show that Christians imagined that God sometimes listened to pleas for mercy from those he especially cherished [Note 59: See Trumbower, Rescue for the Dead.]. In most instances, however, throughout both the Jewish and Christian traditions, such pleas are to no avail; on the contrary, they typically highlight the opposite view—that God is just and cannot or will not bestow mercy on anyone who deserves to be punished [Note 60: See the discussion of Bauckham, Fate of the Dead, pp. 136–48, “The Conflict of Justice and Mercy.”]. The point occurs in a number of rather remarkable passages in a variety of texts. In the Jewish tradition we have 4 Ezra, where Ezra laments the horrible fate awaiting the great mass of humanity and asks “whether on the day of judgment the righteous will be able to intercede for the ungodly or to entreat the Most High for them.” He receives an emphatic reply from his accompanying angel: “The day of judgment is decisive and displays to all the seal of truth . . . No one shall ever pray for another on that day” (7.102–5) [Note 61: Translation of Bruce Metzger, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1, p. 540.]. Even more emphatic is 2 Baruch 85.12–13: “There will not be an opportunity to repent any more, nor a limit to the times, nor a duration of the periods, nor a change to rest, nor an opportunity to prayer . . . nor intercessions of the prophets, nor help of the righteous. There is the proclamation of judgment to corruption, regarding the way to the fire and the path that leads to the glowing coals.” [Note 62: Translation of A. F. J. Klijn, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1, pp. 651–52.]" (Journeys to Heaven and Hell, chpater 5, p. 201; notes found at p. 276)

I shared the relevant text from 4 Ezra/2 Esdras before: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/09/bart-ehrman-on-4-ezra2-esdras-and-2.html

 On 1 Enoch (notes omitted):

"ENOCH’S VISION OF THE ULTIMATE DESTINATIONS

After Enoch sees the interim state of souls, he goes on to observe the ultimate places of reward and punishment, destined to be populated after the Day of Judgment. These do not correlate directly with Virgil’s Tartarus and Elysium, let alone with later Christian notions of heaven and hell, but with the Jews’ most sacred and defiled spots—a “heavenly” Jerusalem and a horrifying Gehenna. When Enoch continues on his way, he sees “seven glorious mountains.” The seventh is the highest and has the appearance of the seat of a throne. Around it are fragrant trees, one in particular more fragrant than the others, with beautiful fruit and leaves that never wither (24.2–4). As Enoch marvels at the sight, the archangel Michael explains that the great mountain “is the seat where the Great Holy One, the Lord of glory, the King of eternity, will sit, when he descends to visit the earth in goodness” (25.3). This then is the throne of God at the final judgment. In 25.4 we are told that the judgment will involve vengeance on some (though the text says “on all”) and great reward for “the chosen.” The fragrant tree, which is beyond human touch now, will then be given to “the righteous and the pious.” At that point it will be “transplanted to the holy place, by the house of God,” and will serve as food for the chosen while its fragrance enters their bones (that is, into their inner beings). These saints will “rejoice greatly and be glad, and they will enter into the sanctuary.” Somewhat surprisingly, however, they will not live forevermore but instead only “a long life upon the earth, such as your fathers lived in their days, and torments and plagues and suffering will not touch them” (25.6). In this vision we have a mingling of traditional images: the “tree of life” in paradise, the theophany of God on the Day of Judgment, the sacred city Jerusalem as a dwelling place of the saints, and the temple as the dwelling place of God and site of worship. Unlike those experiencing God’s vengeance, the chosen ones will experience no pain. The tree of life will sustain them in the holy place. All this will be “upon the earth,” not in heaven above but in the world that was originally meant to be their habitation, a place of no sin and no suffering, a place of joy and innocent pleasure, in the presence of God, his sanctuary, his city, and his people, a literal return to paradise with the tree of life given freely to all who are there. It is difficult to know what to make of the long lives of the elect. If the punishments of the wicked are eternal, why aren’t the rewards of the righteous? Instead, they will be granted longevity unusual for mortals; they will live as long as Enoch’s ancestors (“such as your fathers lived”). The oldest of these was his father Jared, who clocked in at 962 years before passing off his mortal coil (Gen 5:20), seven years shy of Enoch’s own son Methuselah (Gen 5:27). Is the text suggesting the saints will enjoy the blessings of paradise for a thousand years, a millennium? It’s a traditional number, but why not forever? Enoch then travels to “the center of the earth” and sees a place that is “blessed” but with a dark side. There are three glorious mountains and a deep valley, which is desolate and barren. Enoch immediately recognizes the valley as a desecrated place. It is not named, but as the cursed valley next to the holy mountain (Zion), just outside the holy city, it is almost certainly Gehenna. Now it is the angel Sariel who explains: this “cursed valley is for those who are cursed forever” (27.2). These are those who “utter with their mouth an improper word against the Lord and speak hard things against his glory.” These sinners will be gathered there “in the days of righteous judgment,” and remarkably they will “be in the presence of the righteous for all time.” It is hard to make sense of the passage in relation to the differentiated treatments of souls in the three pits described earlier. On its own terms, the idea of Gehenna is no problem in particular. From early times this valley outside Jerusalem suffered from a wicked reputation, as seen, for example, in the Deuteronomic History, which condemns the spot as a place of child sacrifice to the Canaanite enemy-god Molech (2 Kgs 23:10). In many ways the desecrated spot represented the polar opposite of the site immediately above it: the temple of Yahweh where true sacrifices were offered to the God of Israel. Much earlier Jeremiah did not fail to see the contrast, when he declared that God would destroy his people because Judeans had put up an altar in “the valley of the son of Hinnom” in order to “burn their sons and their daughters in the fire” (Jer 7:31). Jeremiah announces that now the name will be changed. It will be called “the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury [there] until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away” (Jer 7:32–33). This most unholy of all places will be where God will slay those who are disobedient among his own people, after which the scavengers will come. The angel Sariel does not explain to Enoch what the “cursed” sinners gathered in this place would be experiencing. Possibly he expects his readers to think of Jeremiah. But now the sinners are not the unburied dead, food for carrion. They are very much alive. The fact that the “righteous” are present, presumably looking on, suggests that sinners will be subject to both physical punishment and humiliating ridicule. Most remarkable of all, those being tortured not only acknowledge that their punishment is just, but they spend their time “blessing” God because of it. This is a motif we will see again in Christian versions of katabasis. Behind the idea is the conviction that God is not like other judges who make mistakes. He is completely righteous and correct, and in the end, everyone will admit it—even those in eternal anguish. Whatever their earlier beliefs, perspectives, inclinations, motivations, desires, and sensibilities, they will agree they were wrong, they are getting what they deserve, and God is to be blessed for it. Enoch then travels from Gehenna to its (other) antithesis, the “paradise of righteousness” (chs. 28–32). En route he sees more great mountains, valleys filled with water, glorious trees, fragrant spices—a description striking some readers as fulfilling no obvious narrative function since no one resides there. Possibly the same can be said about paradise itself, since it too will be vacant for all time: Enoch has already described the future dwelling place of the righteous in chapters 24–25. What he sees now is not the future paradise but the original one, the garden of Eden and its environs, devoid of humans but filled with amazing trees, including, of greatest note, the “tree of wisdom,” from which “your father of old and your mother of old . . . ate” before they “were driven from the garden” (32.6). It is difficult to know why the narrative takes him to this place, since it has no bearing on future realities. Possibly it concludes Enoch’s journey to show why the realms of the dead he had seen came into existence in the first place. The parents of the human race were driven from paradise, and their descendants will remain outside." (Journeys to Heaven and Hell, chapter 2, pp. 59-61)