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2 Baruch

Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch

About this book
Chapter 29

1 And He answered and said to me: ‘Whatever will then happen will happen to the whole earth; therefore all who live will experience them. 2 For at that time I will protect only those who are found in those self-same days in this land.

The Messiah and the Resurrection

3 And it shall come to pass when all is accomplished that was to come to pass in those parts, that the Messiah shall then begin to be revealed.⁠ 4 And Behemoth shall be revealed from his place and Leviathan shall ascend from the sea, those two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and have kept until that time; and then they shall be for food for all that are left.⁠ 5 The earth also shall yield its fruit ten thousandfold and on each vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster produce a thousand grapes, and each grape produce a cor of wine.⁠ 6 And those who have hungered shall rejoice: moreover, also, they shall behold marvels every day.⁠ 7 For winds shall go forth from before Me to bring every morning the fragrance of aromatic fruits, and at the close of the day clouds distilling the dew of health. 8 And it shall come to pass at that same time that the treasury of manna shall again descend from on high, and they will eat of it in those years, because these are they who have come to the consummation of time.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Baruch 29:5 and Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.33.3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Early Christian

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Summary

The Christian theologian Irenaeus describes a messianic future with vines producing extraordinary abundance, echoing the imagery used in Jewish apocalyptic texts such as 2 Baruch and 1 Enoch where the renewed creation provides fruit beyond measure.

Passages

2 Baruch 29:5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
1 And He answered and said to me: ‘Whatever will then happen will happen to the whole earth; therefore all who live will experience them. 2 For at that time I will protect only those who are found in those self-same days in this land. 3 And it shall come to pass when all is accomplished that was to come to pass in those parts, that the Messiah shall then begin to be revealed. 4 And Behemoth shall be revealed from his place and Leviathan shall ascend from the sea, those two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and have kept until that time; and then they shall be for food for all that are left. 5 The earth also shall yield its fruit ten thousandfold and on each vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster produce a thousand grapes, and each grape produce a cor of wine. 6 And those who have hungered shall rejoice: moreover, also, they shall behold marvels every day.
70–135 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Baruch

Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.33.3

Early Christian
Moreover, in what way did he inherit much grain and wine here, he who emigrated to Egypt because of the famine which possessed the land in which he was dwelling, and became subject to Pharaoh, who was then ruling over Egypt? The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising from the dead; when also the creation, having been renovated and set free, shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, from the dew of heaven, and from the fertility of the earth: as the elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from him how the Lord used to teach in regard to these times, and say: The days will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give five and twenty metretes of wine.
175–190 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 5

References

"... This study looks at three of the most prominent instances of eschatological viticulture in early Judaism and Christianity, namely 1 Enoch 10:19, 2 Baruch 29:5, and the presbyters of Papias in Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.33.3, paying particular attention to their tradition histories and intertextual relationships. All three of these texts imagine that the grape vine will be fantastically productive in God’s renewed creation, but they develop this image in different ways based on different biblical texts. First Enoch uses the trope in conjunction with its use of the account of Noah’s renewal of the earth after the Flood in Genesis 9. Second Baruch uses it to complement an eschatological banquet feasting upon the primordial beasts of Leviathan and Behemoth, followed by a return to the fragrant fruits of paradise of Genesis 2. Papias, by contrast, applies the trope to the Blessing of Isaac in Genesis 27:28 ..."
Stephen C. Carlson, “Eschatological Viticulture in 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and the Presbyters of Papias,” VC 71.1 (2017): 37–58.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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2 Baruch 29:5 and Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.33.3

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