The Harvest of Sheol

We live in a world full of people who think they know how everything works. The audacity of science and investigative thought is often revealed in claiming to have figured it all out, as mere theories are too often presented as facts. This is sadly true with all human knowledge about the world which we inhabit, but did not make, regardless of the field of study. There is so much we do not know and don't even have the capacity to comprehend fully. In acknowledgment of our limitations is where our rationality meets spirituality, as we seek to delve into the unseen and unknown. I think this is one of the reasons why Apocalyptic texts fascinate people so much; they touch this unknown.

I want to share a short segment from the book of 4 Ezra (sometimes called 2 Esdras in Latin) with my readers. It is an extrabiblical apocalyptic Jewish work, very much like the book of Revelation in the New Testament, and a lot like the book of Daniel. In this ancient book, Ezra is shown visions, and Angel Uriel serves as a guide who helps him make sense of the visions. The visions themselves were put into writing between the first and third centuries CE, and it is not certain if any of their contents can be traced to Ezra in the Bible. Unfortunately, some parts of this ancient book have been edited and supplemented by generations of church scribes, obscuring the original text, and some portions exist in Latin only today. However, the bulk of the visions are very Semitic in their expressions and reasoning, so we can be fairly certain we are encountering authentic ancient Jewish ideas. Even if 4 Ezra has nothing to do with Ezra in the Bible, most scholars still see this book as a valuable Jewish apocalyptic book that provides us with context.

One section of the book I want to share here highlights the aspect of waiting for the time of redemption. It speaks of those in Hades or Sheol (in Hebrew) as they are expecting a time when they will be released.

26 He answered me and said, “If you are alive, you will see, and if you live long, you will often marvel, because the age is hastening swiftly to its end. 27 For it will not be able to bring the things that have been promised to the righteous in their appointed times, because this age is full of sadness and infirmities. 28 For the evil about which you ask me has been sown, but the harvest of it has not yet come. 29 If therefore that which has been sown is not reaped, and if the place where the evil has been sown does not pass away, the field where the good has been sown will not come. 30 For a grain of evil seed was sown in Adam’s heart from the beginning, and how much ungodliness it has produced until now, and will produce until the time of threshing comes! 31 Consider now for yourself how much fruit of ungodliness a grain of evil seed has produced. 32 When heads of grain without number are sown, how great a threshing floor they will fill!” 33 Then I answered and said, “How long and when will these things be? Why are our years few and evil?” 34 He answered me and said, “You do not hasten faster than the Most High, for your haste is for yourself, but the Highest hastens on behalf of many. 35 Did not the souls of the righteous in their chambers ask about these matters, saying, ‘How long are we to remain here? And when will come the harvest of our reward?’ 36 And Yeremiel the archangel answered them and said, ‘When the number of those like yourselves is completed; for he has weighed the age in the balance, 37 and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.’”38 Then I answered and said, “O sovereign Lord, but all of us also are full of ungodliness. 39 And it is perhaps on account of us that the time of threshing is delayed for the righteous—on account of the sins of those who dwell on earth.”40 He answered me and said, “Go and ask a woman who is with child if, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the child within her any longer. 41 “No, my lord,” I said, “it cannot.” He said to me, “In Hades the chambers of the souls are like the womb. 42 For just as a woman who is in travail makes haste to escape the pangs of birth, so also do these places hasten to give back those things that were committed to them from the beginning. 43 Then the things that you desire to see will be disclosed to you.” (4 Ezrah 4:26-43 RSV)