4 Esdras

A Jewish core from the end of the 1st century AD, with two Christian chapters added at the front and two at the end. The Hebrew or Aramaic original is lost; it survives in Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian and Georgian. In the Vulgate it appears as an appendix, and it is the same book English Bibles call 2 Esdras.

Not canonical for Catholics or Protestants, but printed as an appendix in the Clementine Vulgate, and accepted by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The prayer of Ezra from chapter 8 entered the Latin liturgy.

• The hardest debate in ancient Jewish literature about the justice of God, with Ezra pressing rather than falling silent.
• The vision of the woman weeping for her dead son, who is transformed into a built city.
• The eagle with twelve wings and three heads, an allegory of the Roman empire.
• The closing account in which Ezra dictates ninety-four books: twenty-four for everyone and seventy reserved for the wise.

Are 4 Ezra and 2 Esdras the same book?

Yes. The numbering changes by tradition: what the Vulgate calls 4 Ezra is what English Bibles call 2 Esdras.

Is 4 Ezra in any Bible?

It appears as an appendix in the Clementine Vulgate and is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It is not part of the Catholic, Protestant or Greek Orthodox canon.