Free Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels

of Fourth Ezra
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990).
9 I am grateful to Professor Martha Himmelfarb for noting Salathiel’s meaning as a pen name.
10 The Revelation of Ezra, 3.27–32.
11 The Revelation of Ezra, 4.1–5.
12 Job 38:4–7, 19–37.
13 Job 42:1–6.
14 The Revelation of Ezra, 4.12.
15 The Revelation of Ezra, 4.22–24.
16 The Revelation of Ezra, 4.26–6.25.
17 The Revelation of Ezra, 7.29. For discussion, see Stone,
Fourth Ezra,
208–209, 368–69.
18 The Revelation of Ezra, 4.52.
19 The Revelation of Ezra, 7.75–91.
20 The Revelation of Ezra, 5.15–15.
21 The Revelation of Ezra, 5.34ff.
22 The Revelation of Ezra, 9.24–25. See the incisive discussion by Martha Himmelfarb,
Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1993),especially 98–100, 106–107;
The Apocalypse: A Brief History
(Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 55–62, as well as Stone’s edition and commentary cited above.
23 The Revelation of Ezra, 9.38–10.16.
24 For an outstanding review of scholarly discussion of the composition of the text, as well as a fascinating analysis of how the text describes Ezra’s “change of heart,” see Stone,
Fourth Ezra,
especially 11–47, 302–331.
25 The Revelation of Ezra, 10.26–54. See also Stone’s discussion and comparison with John of Patmos’ account of the holy city of Jerusalem.
26 The Revelation of Ezra, 14:38–41.
27 The Revelation of Ezra, 14:44–47.
28 We can see that this book was widely read by Christians in antiquity; Irenaeus seems to have known the book, or much of its contents. Of the thirteen volumes found at Nag Hammadi, each containing a number of ancient texts, three include copies of the Secret Revelation of John. A fourth copy survives in the socalled Berlin Codex 8502, 2. For discussion of the textual evidence, along with parallel transcription of the texts, with translation and commentary, see Michael Waldstein and Frederik Wisse,
The Apocryphon of John: Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II, 1; III, 1, and IV, 1, with BG 8502, 2
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1995), 1–8. For a more recent translation, along with scholarly discussion, see Karen L. King,
The Secret Revelation of John
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), and for a fascinating discussion of the Secret Revelation in relation to Irenaeus’ critique, see her “Social and Theological Effects of Heresiological Discourse,” in Eduard Iricinschi and Holger M. Zellentin, eds.,
Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity
(Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 28–49.
29 The Secret Revelation [Apocryphon] of John,
II.1.3–2.4, NHC II, 1,
in
CGL
vol. 2, 13–19.
30 To see how scholars disagree on the translation of this passage, compare, for example, the translation by Michael Waldstein and Frederick Wisse in
The Coptic Gnostic Library,
vol. 2, 17; Karen L. King,
The Secret Revelation of John,
27; and Zlatko Plese,
The Apocryphon of John: Narrative, Cosmology, Composition,
Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1996, 28ff.
31 The Secret Revelation of John,
NHC II, 2, 2–6; 6, 14;
see, for example,
CGL
vol. 2, 17–35, 85, 113. Note that the version transmitted in Codex II often uses the term “Mother-Father,” while other versions (Codex III and the Berlin Codex, for example) differ. For discussion of gendered language, see King,
Secret Revelation,
125–136.
32 The Secret Revelation of John,
NHC II, 25, 1–15,
in
CGL
vol. 2, 147.
33 The Secret Revelation of John,
NHC II,
26.6–7, in
CGL
vol. 2, 151. Note: I have offered here a slightly different translation of the Coptic
rome nim
as “every human being” (instead of “every man”).
34 The Secret Revelation of John,
NHC II, 31, 9,
in
CGL
vol. 2, 175. Here, too, I have offered a freer translation of the Coptic phrase that speaks of the “immovable race,” in order to convey its meaning, as interpreted by Michael Williams in his influential monograph
The Immovable Race: A Gnostic Designation and the