Library/Old Testament pseudepigrapha
2 Baruch (Syriac Apocalypse)
Sister to 4 Ezra: a destroyed Zion, a grieving scribe, visions of dark and bright waters, a messianic forest, and an insistence that the Law is enough even without the courts. Twelve tribes get a letter.
- Status
- Pseudepigrapha
- Date
- c. 100 CE
- Languages
- Syriac (from Greek)
- Setting
- After the destruction of the Temple, with Baruch as seer
What it contains
- Lament
- Visions of waters and the cedar
- The letter to the nine and a half tribes
Why it sits outside most canons
Post-70 apocalypse; Syriac survival.
Themes
- Temple
- Law
- Messiah
- Theodicy
Passages
2 Baruch 85:3
We have nothing now save the Mighty One and his Law.