Are the 400 years in 4 Esdras 7 eschatological or referring to Christ's ministry, etc.?

[rakovsky]

2 Esdras in the King James Version is known as 4 Esdras in the Vulgate Bible. It is part of the Bible's "Apocrypha" section, sometimes called the "Deuterocanon." Scholars believe that it was likely written in a Semitic language, particularly Hebrew, in the late First to Second Century AD. They also believe that the author either the whole book or major portions of it was Christian, particularly coming from a Jewish background. You can read it online here: Bible Gateway passage: 2 Esdras 7 - New Revised Standard Version

In Chapter 7, the angel Uriel describes a city with all good things that is reachable by a narrow, dangerous entrance. Then He predicts to the prophet Ezra that Christ will reign 400 years. Here is the NRSV text:

26. “For indeed the time will come, when the signs that I have foretold to you will come to pass, that the city that now is not seen shall appear, and the land that now is hidden shall be disclosed.
27. Everyone who has been delivered from the evils that I have foretold shall see my wonders.
28. For my son the Messiah [D] shall be revealed with those who are with him, and those who remain shall rejoice four hundred years.
29. After those years my son the Messiah shall die, and all who draw human breath.[E]
30. Then the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first beginnings, so that no one shall be left.
31. After seven days the world that is not yet awake shall be roused, and that which is corruptible shall perish.
32. The earth shall give up those who are asleep in it, and the dust those who rest there in silence; and the chambers shall give up the souls that have been committed to them.
33. The Most High shall be revealed on the seat of judgment, and compassion shall pass away, and patience shall be withdrawn.
34. Only judgment shall remain, truth shall stand, and faithfulness shall grow strong.

Footnotes
[D] Syriac Arabic 1: Ethiopian my Messiah; Arabic 2 the Messiah; Armenian the Messiah of God; Latin: my son Jesus
[E] Armenian version: "all who have continued in faith and in patience"

Following the Latin manuscript's usage of "Jesus", the KJV has for verses 28-29:

28. For my son Jesus shall be revealed with those that be with him, and those who remain shall rejoice within four hundred years.
29. After these years shall my son the Christ die, and all men who have life.

My Question is whether the 400 years are (A) an eschatological lengthy Messianic period of literally 400 years (similar to the theory of a 1000-year reign of Christ in Milleniallism), or (B) a metaphor for a period (like Christ's 3 1/2 year ministry) before Christ's death.

The Jewish Encyclopedia's article on Eschatology gives the theory that

Nevertheless the days of the Messiah, the time when the prophetic predictions regarding the reign of the descendant of David find their fulfilment, do not form the end of the world's history, but are merely the necessary preparatory stage to the kingdom of God, which, when once established, will last forever... The time of his kingdom is therefore limited according to some... to 40 or 70, to 365 or 400 years, or to 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, or 7,000 years (Sanh. 99a, 97b; Pesiḥ. R. 1, end; Midr. Teh. xc. 17); the number 400, however, based upon a combination of Gen. xv. 13 and Ps. xc. 15 (see Pesiḥ. R. 1), is supported by II Esd. vii. 28 et seq., where it is positively stated that after his 400 years' reign the Messiah will die to rise again, after the lapse of a week, with the rest of the righteous in the world's regeneration.

The article is quoting Sahedrin 99a of the Talmud, which says:

Another [Baraitha] taught: R. Eliezer said: The days of the Messiah will be forty years. Here it is written, And he afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna;10 whilst elsewhere it is written, Make us glad, according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us.[11] R. Dosa said: Four hundred years. It is here written, And they shall serve them,' and they shall afflict them four hundred years;[12] whilst elsewhere it is written, Make us glad, according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us.

Footnotes:
[11] Ps. XC, 15: hence, just as they were afflicted forty years in the wilderness, so shall they rejoice forty years under the kingship of the Messiah.
[12] Gen. XV, 13.

That is, in Genesis 15:13, God predicted 400 years of servitude in Egypt for Abraham's descendants, and then in Psalm 90:15, the prayer goes:

Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.

The Catholic Encyclopedia interprets the revealing of the Messiah and his companions in Chapter 7, verse 28 to refer to the re-appearance of Old Testament righteous persons who had been taken to heaven.

Then follows (vi, 35-ix, 25) a glowing picture of the Messianic age. "My son" shall come in his glory, attended by those who did not taste death, Moses, Henoch, Elias, and Esdras himself; they shall reign 400 years...
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Esdras (Ezra)

In his book Creation, Nature and Hope in 4 Ezra, Jonathan A. Moo also interprets the companions this way, writing:

The revelation of city an land are no doubt part of God's mirabilia (7:27) that are witnessed by those who escape the 'evils' that precede and accompany the avent of the Messiah and those who appear with him. The companions of the Messiah alluded to in 7:28 must be the same as those introuced at 6:26, the ones who were taken up without tasting death and who will be seen again at the end (cf. 14:9).

The passage in Chapter 6 to which Moo is referring goes:

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 my world.
26. And they shall see those who were taken up, who from their birth have not tasted death; and the heart of the earth’s inhabitants shall be changed and converted to a different spirit. ..."

In Chapter 14, the angel Uriel tells Ezra that Ezra will be taken up also:

8. Lay up in your heart the signs that I have shown you, the dreams that you have seen, and the interpretations that you have heard;
9. for you shall be taken up from among humankind, and henceforth you shall live with my Son and with those who are like you, until the times are ended.

In his essay "Not One World but Two. The Future in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature", John Collins finds the 400 years in 4 Esdras comparable to a period of 1000 years of Christ's reign in Revelation 20. Collins writes that in 4 Esdras,

The traditional messianic age will come first, and will last for four hundred years. But then “the messiah will die, and all who draw human breath. And the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first beginning” (4 Ezra 7:29–30). After seven days, the world is roused and the dead come back to life. Then the Most High appears on the seat of judgment, “and compassion shall pass away, and patience shall be withdrawn and only judgment shall remain.” (7:33–34)... Ezra complains that only a few will be saved, and is told that whatever is precious is always rare. The Most High has made not one world but two (7:50), and the present world is not the end (7:112). Ultimately, salvation is not to be found in this world but in the world to come.

A very similar view of the future can be found in the Book of Revelation (Frey 2012). At the climax of the book, in chapter 19, Christ comes from heaven on a white horse to strike down the nations. Satan is bound in a pit for a thousand years. Those who had been faithful to Christ, at the cost of their lives, come to life and reign with him for a thousand years (Rev 20:4). When the thousand years are ended, Satan is released, and there is a final battle, followed by the general resurrection of the dead, who are judged according to their works.

Both 4 Ezra and Revelation posit a period of fulfillment on earth, the messianic reign of 400 years in 4 Ezra and the millennium in Revelation, but this period of fulfillment is not the ultimate goal of history. That goal lies in another world beyond this one, a new creation after this world has been destroyed. This view of history has persisted through western history, and is has been more influential in Christianity than in Judaism.

It is noteworthy then that an Arabic manuscript has 1000 years instead of 400 years, presumably the Syriac translator edited his copy to say 1000.

In his essay, "Jesus, Fourth Ezra, and a Son of Man Tradition in the First Century AD", Martin Sheldon writes about 4 Esdras:

... the signs refer to the messianic woes which are the events leading to the end of the age. The seer [Ezra] is assured that the predicted signs will come to pass (7:26), and God will reveal the Messiah who will lead the remaining people into a temporal age of rejoicing (7:28)... God... will send his Messiah to inaugurate a temporal earthly kingdom (7:28-29). will judge the ungodly nations, and will re-establish Zion for the Remnant in the coming age.

Regarding those who accompany the Messiah when he arrives in Chapter 7, Sheldon writes:

Whether those who will accompany the Messiah refer to angels or to saints is not answered explicitly in 4 Ezra. This becomes more interesting when compared to some of Jesus' statements concerning the coming of the Son of Man with his holy angels (cf. Mat 24:31; 25:31) and to Paul's statement concerning Jesus' coming with his holy ones (cf 1 Th 3:13; 2 Th 1:7)

On pp. 82-83 of his essay, Sheldon cites references in Matthew and Mark to Christ coming with His angels during the Second Coming.
Regarding the 400 years, he writes:

Though the four hundred years kingdom is not specified elsewhere, it is implied in the interpretation of the eagle vision (12:32-34). Here it is said that the Messiah will reprove, judge, and destroy the ungodly nation (12:32-33), and then 'he will deliver in mercy the remnant of my people, those who have been saved throughout my borders, and he will make them joyful until the end comes, the day of judgment..." (12:34).

In his essay "The Concept of the Messiah in IV Ezra", Michael Stone comments about the 400 years and death of the Messiah that,

The only tradition similar to that of the death of the Messiah here is Apocalypse of Baruch 30:1
FOOTNOTE 2: This is similar to the idea of the snatching away of the Messiah remarked upon by W. Zimmerli and J. Jeremias, "The Servant of God" (London: SCM Press)

The passage in Apocalypse of Baruch 29-31 appears to refer to similar events, where the remnant survives to experience apocalyptic events, the Messiah is revealed, Leviathan becomes food for the Remnant, the earth produces bounties, then after this time is completed, the Messiah will return (implying that he temporarily disappeared), and then those who died in their hope of him resurrect. The passage in the Apocalypse of Baruch runs:

29: 1. And He answered and said unto me: 'Whatever will then befall (will befall) 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 shall 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 self-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.
30: 1. And it shall come to pass after these things, when the time of the advent of the Messiah is fulfilled, that He shall return in glory.
2. Then all who have fallen asleep in hope of Him shall rise again.

Lisbeth S Fried in her book Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition associates the prediction about the remnant who survive to the end of days with

the view in Mark 13:13, where it is stated that 'the one who endures to the end will be saved." In 4 Ezra, those who have survived will experience a great joy for four hundred years (12:34, 7:28).

That is, she sees the Messianic 400 years enjoyed by the remnant that follow the signs in 4 Esdras 7 as analogous to the apocalyptic time that the surviving righteous remnant will experience after the tribulation per Christ's prediction in Mark 13.

 

[rakovsky]

A key problem with the theory that the 400 years refers to a 400 year reign of the Messiah is that in the Christian scheme, Christ died, Ascended, and will return to reign. Even supposing that Christ's long reign on His return would be temporary (eg. 400 years, or as Millenialists theorize, 1000 years), we are met with the problem that 4 Esdras 7 says that the Messiah will die after those years. This would create two deaths for Christ: One at His crucifixion, and a second one after His 400 year reign. But Paul wrote in Romans 6:9, "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again".

Hasinting's Dictionary of the New Testament's entry on Apocrypha notes:

A Messiah who lived for 400 years and then died, and so ended his Messiahship, could not be Jesus Christ. Accordingly the Syriac reads ‘30’ instead of ‘400,’ evidently a Christian emendation. ... The reference to the death of the Messiah is not found in the Arabic or the Armenian versions; but it is easy to see how it came to be omitted, while there is no likelihood that it would be inserted later, either by a Jew, to whom the idea would be unwelcome, or by a Christian...

I think that since one version of the text handed down said 1000 years, and another version said 30 years, that the various translators themselves were non-unanimous of whether the document was referring to an apocalyptic Messianic reign like the 1000 years in Revelation, or if it was referring to a period leading up to the Messiah's first death, like Christ's 30 years before the crucifixion (ie. from ages 3 to 33).

As for Possibility (B), that Chapter 7 is alluding to a 400 year period before the Messiah's first death (eg. Christ's crucifixion), it is interesting that there is considered to be about a 400 year Intertestamental period between the prophet Malachi (c. 420 BC) and John the Baptist. But it's hard to equate that with 400 years of the Messiah's revealing or reign.

In his essay discussed earlier, Martin Sheldon finds 4 Esdras to be drawing on ideas found in the Book of Daniel, and he thinks that the death of the Messiah in Chapter 7 is reminiscient of the cutting off of the Anointed One in Daniel 9. One issue with equating 4 Esdras 7 with the events in Daniel 9 is that in my own reading of Daniel 9's wording, it isn't very clear that the coming of the Anointed/Messiah the Prince is to occur 400 years before the cutting off of the Anointed One, or that in Daniel 9 these two figures are the same person. Further, it would be pretty hard to say, even from the perspective of this 1st century author, that in the 6th or 5th century BC, the Messiah came or was "revealed", which such an interpretation of the 400 years would imply.

Stephen W. Kraner in his essay "Allusions to 2Esdras in the New Testament" theorizes that the document portrays Ezra as revealing Christ 400 years before Christ's death. Kraner writes:

Internally, 2Esdras claims to have been written 400 years prior to the birth of “Jesus.” This is so because 2Esdras contains a prophecy specifically naming our Savior and that He would die:
“27 For My Son Jesus shall be revealed with those that be with him, and they that remain shall rejoice within four hundred years.
28 After these years shall My son Christ die…” 2Esdras 7:27, 28.

Only two other persons in Scripture were named more than a hundred years before they were born, Josiah and Cyrus. See 1Kings 13:2 and Isaiah 44:28; 45:1. In the words above from 2Esdras, the Savior, as Messiah is specifically named, Yahushua [Jesus], four hundred years before His birth!
(SOURCE: Allusions to 2 Esdras in the New Testament - Sabbath More Fully)

I suppose that you could make the argument that like the Latin version, the original text did say "Jesus" because it is the less likely reading (there is a theory in Text Criticism that the less likely reading tends to be correct), and a Christian author could wish to use Jesus' name here in order to "reveal" it to the audience.
Further, the Messiah's "revealing" does not necessarily have to refer to his physical appearance on earth.
Krane did a good job showing allusions between 4 Esdras 1 and Matthew 23, which is not surprising because there is even scholarly agreement that at least the opening section of 4 Esdras was written by a Christian. But Krane also did a good job suggesting that 4 Esdras 8:62- 9:6 lines up with major elements of Matthew 24.
Although the document says that Ezra wrote the text thirty years into the Babylonian captivity (ie in 557 BC), this is curious because the historical scribe Ezra lived in c. 480–440 BC. The c. 440 BC date would be a bit better for the concept of the document making a 400 year revelation of the Messiah's identity.
You could also make the argument that 4 Esdras does not say that the Messiah would die exactly 400 years after Ezra wrote his text. The document says that the remnant will rejoice 400 years, and "After those years my son the Messiah shall die". So there could be a time period between the 400 years and the Messiah's death.

O.V. Binyukov, a Russian theologian, writes in his essay "What are the 400 years in 3 Esdras 7:26-34?": "The 400 years is not a literal quantity of years but a symbolic reference to the 3 years of earthly service of Christ the Lord. 400 years was the length of the Jews in Egypt." (Что такое 400 лет в 3Езд.7:26-34 ? (Бинюков О.В.) - Мои файлы - БОГОСЛОВСКИЕ РАБОТЫ, СТАТЬИ, МАТЕРИАЛЫ - ХРИСТИАНСКАЯ БИБЛИОТЕКА)

Binyukov goes on to compare the 400 years with Jesus' 3 years of service to show them to be metaphorically the same. He writes that when it says all those who have breath, the word here is actually a reference to the Spirit because it says in Jn 3:3-8, "the spirit breathes (dyshit) where it wants." Binyukov reinterprets the other numbers in this passage too in order that they fit into the story of the NT.
Binyukov takes Verse 26 to refer to the appearance of the Church, Verse 27 about the remnant seeing the signs to refer to Christ's followers seeing His miracles, and Verse 28 about the revealing of the Messiah with his companions to refer to Christ's birth and to his followers. Binyukov explains his view about the companions enjoying the Messiah for 400 symbolic years this way:

This is symbolic, because the number 400 is the product of 40 and 10. In Biblical symbolism the number 40 symbolizes a period of testing, and 10 points to the path and perfection. In this way, the Lord tested the Jews in Egyptian slavery, so that they turned to the Lord and, ultimately, knew the true path of perfection. In the course of four hundred years of Egyptian slavery, the Jews suffered, and in the course of the three year earthly ministry of Christ, people who accepted the Gospel followed Christ and remaining with Him, enjoyed the presence of God, and knew the true path of perfection (the truth) (John 14:6). The Truth made people free from the slavery of sin in which they were location (John 8:32). 400 years of pleasure (ie three years of the presence of Christ on earth in the Body of a man) - is in contrast to the 400 year suffering in slavery. For this our Lord Jesus Christ Himself took the form of a servant (Phillipians 3:7), in order to serve people (Matthew 20, Mark 10)

Binyukov interprets Verse 29 about the death of the Messiah's companions to refer to how they were in despair (that Binyukov compares to death) before the Messiah's resurrection. He interprets Verse 30 about the 7 days of silence to refer to the 3 days when the disciples were in hiding, as he compares this to the 7 days of creation in the Beginning before there was human speech.

I find Binyukov's explanation sometimes strained. For example, if Adam was made on the 6th day, and animals were made even earlier, then it doesn't appear that there were a full 7 days of silence on earth.