"This is a groundbreaking study, examining the theme of creation in 4
Ezra more thoroughly than has been done before. Moo reads the text with
an exceptional alertness to data relating to creation and nature and
notices details often overlooked." -- Edward Adams, Journal for the
Study of the New Testament This exegetical study of creation and nature
in 4 Ezra argues that this first-century Jewish apocalypse's profound
pessimism concerning humankind and the present age is matched by a
surprisingly robust belief in the goodness of the created order. 4 Ezra
presents the natural world as standing with God over and against corrupt
humankind, envisions substantial elements of continuity between the
ages, and hints that those parts of the earth that remain unsullied by
humankind still stand witness to God's sovereignty, love and justice and
even serve as material pointers to the new creation. This study calls
into question the persistent assumption that apocalypticism and the
'apocalyptic eschatology' of the historical apocalypses in particular
necessarily entails a profound dualism. Emerging as it does from an
experience of historical disaster and unresolved questions of theodicy,
4 Ezra especially is often considered an apocalypse in which the
doctrine of the two ages has been radicalised to the extent that
creation, history and life in this world have lost their meaning or
significance. The results of this study, however, indicate that while 4
Ezra considers the world of humankind to be corrupted and corrupting, in
the natural world the creator's sovereignty is not so obscured, and
there his original intentions for creation can still be perceived. This
study provides a fresh reading of 4 Ezra that takes seriously the book's
unity and coherence. Its conclusions suggest that it may be best to
abandon the label 'apocalyptic eschatology' given its potential to mast
the interesting complexities and mix of continuity and discontinuity
that attend the portrayal of creation, nature and hope in an apocalypse
like 4 Ezra.
