NT Allusions to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

 

4 EZRA

 

 1.      3.21-26:  For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him.  Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the hearts of the people along with its evil root; but what was good departed, and the evil remained.  So the time passed and the years were completed, and you raised up for yourself a servant, named David.  You commanded him to build a city for your name, and there to offer you oblations from what is yours.  This was done for many years; but the inhabitants of the city transgressed, in everything doing just as Adam and all his descendants had done, for they also had the evil heart.

         Rom 5.12:  Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned –          

        *1Cor 15.45: Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

 2.      4.8:  perhaps you would have said to me, ‘I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into Hades, neither did I ever ascend into heaven.’

        Jn 3.13:  No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

        Rom 10.6:  But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)

3.      4.35-37:  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 the harvest of our reward come?’  And the archangel Jeremiel answered and said, ‘When the number of those like yourselves is completed; for he has weighted the age in the balance, and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not more or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.’

          Rom 11.25:  So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery:  a hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

          *Rev 6.9-11:  When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?”  They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.

 4.      6.25:  It shall be that whoever remains after all that I have foretold to you shall be saved and shall see my salvation and the end of the world.

          Mt 10.22:  and you will be hared by all because of my name.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

          Mk 13.13: and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

 5.      7.6-14: Another example: There is a city built and set on a plain, and it is full of all good things; but the entrance to it is narrow and set in a precipitous place, so that there is fire on the right hand and deep water on the left. There is only one path lying between them, that is, between the fire and the water, so that only one person can walk on the path.  If now the city is given to someone as an inheritance, how will the heir receive the inheritance unless by passing through the appointed danger?"
 I said, "That is right, lord." He said to me, "So also is Israel's portion.  For I made the world for their sake, and when Adam transgressed my statutes, what had been made was judged.  And so the entrances of this world were made narrow and sorrowful and toilsome; they are few and evil, full of dangers and involved in great hardships.  But the entrances of the greater world are broad and safe, and yield the fruit of immortality.  Therefore unless the living pass through the difficult and futile experiences, they can never receive those things that have been reserved for them.

          Mt 7.13 (*-14):  Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

 6.      7.11: For I made the world for their sake, and when Adam transgressed my statutes, what had been made was judged.

          Rom 8.19:  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.

 7.      7.14: Therefore unless the living pass through the difficult and futile experiences, they can never receive those things that have been reserved for them.

          Mt 5.11:  Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

 8.      7.36: The pit of torment shall appear, and opposite it shall be the place of rest; and the furnace of hell shall be disclosed, and opposite it the paradise of delight.

          Lk 16.26:  Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.

          *Lk 16.23:  In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.

 9.      7.72: For this reason, therefore, those who live on earth shall be tormented, because though they had understanding, they committed iniquity; and though they received the commandments, they did not keep them; and though they obtained the law, they dealt unfaithfully with what they received.

          Rom 7.23:  but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

 10.     7.75: I answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, show this also to your servant: whether after death, as soon as everyone of us yields up the soul, we shall be kept in rest until those times come when you will renew the creation, or whether we shall be tormented at once?"

          Rom 8.19:  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.

 11.     7.77: For you have a treasure of works stored up with the Most High, but it will not be shown to you until the last times.

          Mt 6.20: but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.

 12.     7.113: But the day of judgment will be the end of this age and the beginning of the immortal age to come, in which corruption has passed away,

          Mt 13.39: and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

 13.     7.118-119: O Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants.  For what good is it to us, if an immortal time has been promised to us, but we have done deeds that bring death?

          Rom 5.16: And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.

 14.     8.3:  Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved.

          Mt 22.14:  For many are called, but few are chosen.

 15.     8.41: For just as the farmer sows many seeds in the ground and plants a multitude of seedlings, and yet not all that have been sown will come up in due season, and not all that were planted will take root; so also those who have been sown in the world will not all be saved.

          Mt 13.3 (*-8; par Mk 4.3-8)): And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

          Mk 4.14: The sower sows the word.

          Mt 22.14:  For many are called, but few are chosen.

 16.     8.60: but those who were created have themselves defiled the name of him who made them, and have been ungrateful to him who prepared life for them now.

          Rom 1.21: for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

 17.     9.31-37: For I sow my law in you, and it shall bring forth fruit in you, and you shall be glorified through it forever.'  But though our ancestors received the law, they did not keep it and did not observe the statutes; yet the fruit of the law did not perish--for it could not, because it was yours.  Yet those who received it perished, because they did not keep what had been sown in them.  Now this is the general rule that, when the ground has received seed, or the sea a ship, or any dish food or drink, and when it comes about that what was sown or what was launched or what was put in is destroyed, they are destroyed, but the things that held them remain; yet with us it has not been so.  For we who have received the law and sinned will perish, as well as our hearts that received it; the law, however, does not perish but survives in its glory.

         Mt 13.3 (*-8; par Mk 4.3-8)): And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

         Mk 4.14: The sower sows the word.

18.     9.37: the law, however, does not perish but survives in its glory.

         Rom 7.12: So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

19.     10.9: Now ask the earth, and she will tell you that it is she who ought to mourn over so many who have come into being upon her.

         Rom 8.22: We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;

20.     12.42: For of all the prophets you alone are left to us, like a cluster of grapes from the vintage, and like a lamp in a dark place, and like a haven for a ship saved from a storm.

         2Pt 1.19: So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

21.     13.30-32: And bewilderment of mind shall come over those who inhabit the earth.  They shall plan to make war against one another, city against city, place against place, people against people, and kingdom against kingdom.  When these things take place and the signs occur that I showed you before, then my Son will be revealed, whom you saw as a man coming up from the sea.

         Mk 13.8: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.