3 Baruch or the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch is a visionary,

pseudepigraphic A pseudepigraph (also :wikt:anglicized, anglicized as "pseudepigraphon") is a false attribution, falsely attributed work, a text whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. Th ...

text written some time between the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the third century. Scholars disagree on whether it was written by a Jew or a Christian, or whether a clear distinction can be made in this era. It is one of the pseudepigrapha attributed to

Baruch ben Neriah Baruch ben Neriah ( ''Bārūḵ ben Nērīyyā''; c. 6th century BC) was the scribe, disciple, secretary, and devoted friend of the Hebrew Bible, Biblical prophet Jeremiah. He is traditionally credited with authoring the Book of Baruch. Biograp ...

, the scribe of

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

in the 6th-century BC. It does not form part of the

biblical canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek , meaning 'ruler, rule' or 'measu ...

of either Jews or Christians. It survives in certain

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

manuscripts, and also in a few

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

ones.

Content

2 Baruch 2 Baruch is a Jewish apocryphal text thought to have been written in the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It is attributed to the biblical figure Baruch ben Neriah (c. 6th century BC) ...

, this Greek Apocalypse of Baruch describes the state of Jerusalem after the sack by

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

in 587 BC and discusses how Judaism can survive when the temple is no longer in existence. It frames this discussion as a mystical vision granted to

. Also like 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch argues that the Temple has been preserved in heaven and is presented as fully functional and attended by

angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

; thus there is no need for the temple to be rebuilt on earth. This third book of Baruch addresses the question of why God permits good people to suffer, and answering with a vision of the afterlife in which sinners and the righteous get their just rewards. During the vision, Baruch is shown various heavens,This

literary trope A literary trope is an artistic effect realized with figurative language – word, phrase, image – such as a figure of speech, rhetorical figure. In editorial practice, a ''trope'' is "a substitution of a word or phrase by a less literal word ...

Apocalyptic literature Apocalyptic literature is a genre of prophetical writing that developed in post- Exilic Jewish culture and was popular among millennialist early Christians. '' Apocalypse'' () is a Greek word meaning "revelation", "an unveiling or unfolding o ...

is discussed by there witnessing the punishment of the builders of the "tower of strife against God" (perhaps the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

); a serpent named

Hades Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea ...

who drinks from the sea; and other such marvels, until he is finally stopped by a locked gate at the fifth heaven, which only the

archangel Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second ...

has the ability to open. The builders of the "tower of strife" are described in terms that could be regarded as

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

ic – with the faces of cattle, horns of deer, and feet of goats; while those who commanded them to build it are punished eternally in a separate heaven where they are reincarnated in the forms of dogs, bears or apes. Baruch also witnesses a phoenix, which the text portrays as a massive singular bird that protects the earth from the rays of the sun.

Origins

Lee asserts that the text was originally written in Greek by someone with a Semitic background. Other scholars find significant that the Old Church Slavonic versions do not contain the Christian overtones of the Greek text and conclude that the extant Greek text represents a rewriting in the Christian age.

Citations

General and cited references

External links

3 Baruch at earlyjewishwritings.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baruch, 3 2nd-century texts 3rd-century texts Apocalyptic literature Baruch ben Neriah Jewish apocrypha Jewish eschatology Old Testament pseudepigrapha Texts in Koine Greek Old Church Slavonic literature Jewish cosmology

Content

Origins

See also

Citations

General and cited references

External links