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Wisdom of Solomon says that all things are arranged by measure, number, and weight, presenting creation as precisely ordered. 4 Ezra echoes this when describing how the course of history is measured and each age assigned a set limit.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 11:20
Deuterocanon
18 or newly-created and unknown wild beasts, full of rage, either breathing out a blast of fiery breath, or belching out smoke, or flashing dreadful sparks from their eyes; 19 which had power not only to consume them by their violence, but to destroy them even by the terror of their sight. 20 Yes and without these they might have fallen by a single breath, being pursued by Justice, and scattered abroad by the breath of your power; but you arranged all things by measure, number, and weight. 21 For to be greatly strong is yours at all times. Who could withstand the might of your arm? 22 Because the whole world before you is as a grain in a balance, and as a drop of dew that comes down upon the earth in the morning.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Ezra 4:36
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
34 He answered me, and said, “Don’t hurry faster than the Most High; for your haste is for your own self, but he who is above hurries on behalf of many. 35 Didn’t the souls of the righteous ask about these things in their chambers, saying, ‘How long will we be here? When does the fruit of the threshing floor come?’ 36 To them, Jeremiel the archangel answered, ‘When the number is fulfilled of those who are like you. For he has weighed the world in the balance. 37 By measure, he has measured the times. By number, he has counted the seasons. He won’t move or stir them until that measure is fulfilled.’” 38 Then I answered, “O sovereign Lord, all of us are full of ungodliness.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Passages in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (edited by Charles) to which there are parallels in 4 Ezra (4 Ezra 4:36-37; Testament of Naphtali 22:3) ... Note also the striking parallel to both these passages in Wisdom 11:20 (cited in the note on 4 Ezra 4:36) ..."
G. H. Box, The Ezra-Apocalypse (2 Esdras 3-14) (Sir Issac Pitman and Sons, 1912), lxxii.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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