THE APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSE

2 ESDRAS AND THE ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT*

by ALASTAIRHAMILTON

The 'Radical Reformation' is a vulnerable term'. It was originally

intended to describe that vast area between Roman Catholic orthodoxy
on the one hand and the Magisterial Reformation, the main Protestant
movements, on the other. Yet the borders of this area, which were always
vague, become increasingly difficult to define the more the idea of a
Magisterial Reformation is called in doubt. Recent studies2 have
emphasized the existence of numerous different reformations, determined
by time, place, and social conditions. The points of community often
barely go beyond an intense anti-clericalism or a sense of dissatisfaction
with the existing Church also to be found amongst Catholics who never
went so far as to break with Rome. The spectrum of both Protestantism
and Catholicism was broad and we encounter case after case of
theologians on the edges of the main movements. Some of their ideas can
perhaps be considered radical, while others were closer to the orthodoxy
of the existing ecclesiastical institutions.
Nevertheless the notion of a 'Radical Reformation' need not only
stimulate criticism. It can also encourage a quest for those features which
are indeed peculiar to the area between the larger movements. In this
paper I shall examine a characteristic of Anabaptism, the movement with
which the Radical Reformation started.
The Anabaptists themselves were far from forming a single group. Of
different social and national origin they frequently differed in their

* This
paper is an expandedversion in Englishof an inaugural lecture deliveredat the
Faculty of Theologyof the Universityof Amsterdamon 18 April 1988. I take this oppor-
tunity of thankingmy colleaguesat the Departmentof the History of Christianity, particu-
larly ProfessorS. de Boerand Dr B. Pranger. I also thank ProfessorHerman de la Fontaine
Verwey, Dr S. Verheus, and my friends at the Amsterdam University Library, Mr P.
ValkemaBlouwand Mr A.R.A. Croiset van Uchelen. Finally, for his encouragementand
assistance,I thank my predecessorProfessorIrvin Horst.
1 This is not intended as a slur on the cautious definitionof the Radical Reformation
given by George H. Williams(The RadicalReformation, Philadelphia1962, pp. xxiii-xxxi).
2 For exampleAlisterMcGrath, TheIntellectual Oxford
Originsof theEuropeanReformation,
1987.
2

attitude to ecclesiology and even to the one point they were supposed to
have in common-adult baptism. Anabaptism too can consequently be
regarded as a collection of personal positions of men who were opposed
to the doctrine of infant baptism as it was taught by the Church of Rome
and as it had been adopted by the Reformers. Yet there are certain
features which cut across the individual positions and the national groups,
which recur among the various sects into which the movement soon split,
and which lasted until well into the seventeenth century. One such feature
is the use of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament-and particularly
of the most apocryphal of all, the second book of Esdras.
Until the late seventeenth century 2 Esdras (the fourth book of Ezra in
the Vulgate) was only known in Western Europe in Jerome's Latin
translation of a Greek text which has since disappeared. No Hebrew ver-
sion had-or has-come to light. The book itself was mainly a Jewish
composition of the second half of the first century A.D., but the received
version contained later additions and Christian interpolations. It recounts
a series of visions pointing to the end of time, and three passages were
found to be either especially attractive or especially repugnant: the dream,
in Chapter 11, of the three-headed eagle which gradually loses its heads
and its feathers and which gave rise to a variety of prophecies; the legend,
in Chaper 13, of the lost ten tribes of Israel which must be reunited before
the end of time; and the scene, in Chapter 14, in which the 'lost books'
of the law are dictated to Esdras3.
I do not claim that everyone associated with Anabaptism laid the same
emphasis on the apocryphal books in general and on 2 Esdras in par-
ticular, or that those who did necessarily believed them to be canonical
or credited them with the same value as the canonical books. Above all
I do not suggest that it was only Anabaptists who quoted them. What I
argue is that the apocrypha of the Old Testament, and above all 2 Esdras,
were used to a striking extent by certain Anabaptists in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, that they came to form part of an Anabaptist tradi-
tion, and that, for this, there was a reason.
The opponents of Anabaptism remarked on the phenomenon at an
early stage. 'Ce genre d'hommes', wrote Martin Bucer in 1527 (with
Hans Denck in mind who frequently quoted the books of Baruch and
Wisdom), 'préfere couramment s'en tenir aux apocryphes et d6valoriser

3 Cf. Alastair Hamilton, 'The Bookof "vaine fables": the receptionof 2 Esdras from
the fifteenthto the eighteenthcentury', in: Kerkhistorische
opstellen aanProf dr.J. van
aangeboden
denBerg,Kampen 1987, pp. 45-62.
 3

les vraies écritures' 4. Although an opponent of Anabaptism Bucer was

moderate in his hostility. Indeed, he had once been sympathetic to the
spiritualists and Anabaptists he encountered in Strasbourg. When it came
to the apocrypha, however, he drew the line.
But what were the current attitudes towards the apocrypha, both in the
main Churches and amongst those individuals who are often regarded as
links between the Magisterial and the Radical Reformations?
First the Roman Catholic Church. Although Jerome had made a clear
distinction between the canonical and non-canonical books the Old Testa-
ment apocrypha were included in the Vulgate amongst the canonical
books. After the Council of Trent two exceptions were made which were
subsequently either omitted from the Bible altogether or added in an
appendix clearly defined as apocryphal: 1 and 2 Esdras. Until the mid-
sixteenth century, however, 1 and 2 Esdras appeared in Bibles as an
integral part of the Old Testament, even if they were frequently
accompanied-and this in contrast to the other apocrypha-by a state-
ment that they were indeed apocryphal.
The Protestant attitude was slightly different. Luther always treated the
apocrypha as separate from the canon and translated them into German
to be added in an appendix. Like Erasmus, who held the traditional con-
viction that `nothing forbids the use of evidence from apocryphal writings
in a suitable place' S, Luther believed that they were 'useful' and 'good
to read', but that they could never occupy the same place as the canonical
books. And even in his appendix he omitted the two Esdras books, for,
he said, 'they contain nothing that cannot be found far better in Aesop
or in still lesser works' 6. Elsewhere he repeated the words of Jerome: 1
and 2 Esdras were full of 'dreams'.

4 Quoted from Bucer's Commentaryto the Epistleto the Ephesiansin Bernard Roussel,
'Martin Bucer tourmenté par les "Spiritualistes". L'exégèse polémique de l'épître aux
Ephésiens(1527)', in: Bibliotheca
Dissidentium, scriptaetstudiaNo. 3.Anabaptistes
etdissidents
au
XVIesiècle,Baden-Baden-Bouxwiller1987, p. 440.
5 The Correspondenceof Erasmus,VII, Toronto 1987, p. 311 (Letter 1112 to Thomas
Wolsey).
6 The statementappearsin Luther's prefaceto his German translationof theapocryphal
Bookof Baruch: 'Das ich gar nahe, in hette mit dem dritten und vierden buch Esra lassen
hin streichen, Denn die selben zwey bücher Esra, haben wir schlechts nicht wollen
verdeudschen,weil so gar nichts drinnen ist, das man nicht viel besserinn Esopo,oder noch
geringern büchern kan finden, on das im vierden buch dazu eitel trewme sind, wie S.
Hieronymus zwar selbst sagt, und Lyra nicht hat wöllenauslegen, dazu im Griechischen
nicht funden werden. Es sol und mag sie sonst verdolmetschenwer da wil, doch inn dieser
bücher zal nicht mengen...' (Martin Luther, Werke.DieDeutsche Bibel,XII, Weimar 1961,
p. 290.)
4

We find a still more specific definition of the position and value of the
Esdras books in the writings of a man who, after having supported
Luther, came far closer to the Anabaptists: Andreas Bodenstein von
Karlstadt. In 1520 he published his Welche bucher Biblisch seint in which he
followed the canon established by Jerome and made certain distinctions.
The Old Testament apocrypha, he wrote, were neither divine (gotlich) nor
biblical (Biblisch), but some of them were indeed sacred (heylig)-Wisdom,
Sirach, Judith, Tobit and the two books of Maccabees. The implication
is that their value was as great as that of the Church Fathers for whom
Karlstadt had such veneration. But there were also some apocryphal
books which were neither divine, biblical, nor sacred: the Prayer of
Manasseh and the two Esdras books'.
Aversion towards, or at the very least suspicion of, the two Esdras books
was thus widespread in the sixteenth century. The verdict of the Council
of Trent shows the extent to which even the Roman Catholic Church
objected to them. But at the same time it was precisely the Esdras
books-and above all 2 Esdras-which exercised a special fascination in
certain circles-a fascination all the more striking if we keep in mind the
urgent warnings issued by Protestant divines and repeated in Protestant
Bibles 8. The decision by some Anabaptists to quote the books so often
should, I believe, be judged in the light of Roman Catholic suspicion and
Protestant hostility.
The Anabaptists started to quote 2 Esdras in the 1520s, soon after the
beginning of the movement. Yet the first man I wish to discuss, Melchior
Hoffman, who was to become one of the most influential figures in early
Anabaptism, first quoted 2 Esdras while he was still officially a Lutheran.
In 1526, when he was preaching in Livonia, he published his commentary
on the twelfth chapter of Daniel9. The many refutations of the freedom
of will with which the commentary is interspersed are clear indications of

7 Welche bucherBiblischseint,Wittenberg 1520,sig. a4r.: 'Das die zweyletztebucher Esdre

ye und ye, fur kein heyligbiblischeschriftgehaltenseynt...' He too quotesJerome on 1 and
2 Esdras, sig. C3r.: 'Zwey letztebucher, soo Esdremit frevelzugeschrieben,werdenofftmals
von Hieronymo verlacht, und abwitzigund tholl reedgenent.'
8 The warningabout the apocryphain the far later Staten-Bijbel(1637)is littlemore than
a repetitionof what we find in most Protestant Bibles:'Waarbij nog komt, dat in meest al
deze boekengevondenwordenverscheidcnonware, ongerijmde,fabuleuzeen tegenstrijdige
zaken, die met de waarheiden met de Canoniekeboekenniet overeenkomen.Uit zeer vele
kunnen deze weinigetot klaar bewijsdaarvan zijn. Het gehelevierdeboek Ezra is meest niet
anders dan een gedurig verhaal van verzonnendingcn, die nooit zijn geschied...'
9 On the circumstancesin which Hoffmannwrote the commentarysee Klaus Depper-
mann, MelchiorHoffman:SozialeUnruhenundapokalyptische VisionenimZeitalterderReformation,
Göttingen 1979, pp. 57-78.
 5

his enduring allegiance to the Reformation, but at the same time the text
reveals the signs of a profound dissatisfaction with Lutheranism. It also
contains an expression of those prophetic and apocalyptic convictions
which were to characterize Hoffman's future writings and the movement,
so attractive to the Dutch Anabaptists, to which Hoffman gave his name.
Already in his commentary on Daniel Hoffman's familiarity with 2
Esdras is striking: he clearly knew the book thoroughly and was not rely-
ing, as so many of his contemporaries may have done, on a concordance.
He quoted it nearly always in a prophetic and apocalyptic context, appeal-
ing to Chapters 5,6 and 7 to show that the hidden light was about to be
revealed, and referring to the dream of the three-headed eagle in Chapter
111°.
Esdras' eagle was to acquire a considerable popularity in the late
Renaissance, the loss of its heads and its feathers stimulating a number
of predictions well into the eighteenth century. Even if the dream of the
eagle, which is ultimately destroyed by a lion, was used mainly against
the Catholic Church and the Catholic powers, there were also interpreta-
tions of it which were favourable to the Papacy-the first I know
of was published in 1547 by the historian and professor of medicine at the
university of Vienna, Wolfgang Lazius 11. Yet one feature tends to recur
in these many predictions. After the loss of its first head the eagle, with
two heads left, bore a marked resemblance to the eagle of the Habsburgs,
the greatest persecutors of the Anabaptists. For Lazius, the prot6g6 of Fer-
dinand I, the dream of the eagle announced the triumph of the
Habsburgs, but for the Anabaptists it signified their imminent fall 12 .
Melchior Hoffman appears to have been one of the first writers in the
sixteenth century to exploit the political possibilities of the eagle. And
after he had broken away from the Lutherans-the rift started in 1526,
the year of the Daniel commentary-his use of 2 Esdras intensified. He
was especially prolific in 1530, when he actually joined the Anabaptists,
and his publications contain numerous references to the apocryphal book.
In his commentary on the book of Revelation, for example, he
systematically harmonized the predictions in 2 Esdras with the prophecies
in Revelation, and he introduced a new-but telling-element: he cited
the passage in Chapter 14 on the dictation of the lost books as an example
of prophetic inspiration 13. The scene of the lost books, we shall see, was

10Das XII CapiteldesprophetenDanielisaussgelegt...,

Stockholm1526.
11Fragmentum Vaticinii...Methodii,Vienna 1547.
12Cf. A. Hamilton, 'The Book of "vaine fables", art. cit., n. 3.
13Auslegungderheimlichen s.1., 1530, sig. N2v.
Offenbarung Joannis...,
6

to play an important part in the renewed interest in 2 Esdras in the

Renaissance, but for different reasons, on account of the Jewish Cab-
balah. That Hoffman should have selected the passage shows how the
book could appeal to those self-styled prophets-David Joris and Hendrik
Niclaes are two other cases-in that same area of Netherlandish Anabap-
tism in which Hoffman was so influential and messianism so widespread.
Besides citing 2 Esdras in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans
(which appeared in 1533) for the more obvious purpose of showing that
the truth would soon be revealed and what rewards those who heard it
might expect ", Hoffman also quoted it in a publication like his Ordonnantie
Godts (1530) to support his 'Pelagian' ideas on salvation. For this purpose
he selected a passage which was to become particularly popular in the
seventeenth century-8:59: 'it was not (God's) will that men should come
to nought' 15.
Melchior Hoffman was by no means unique in his use of 2 Esdras,
although his emphasis on it was greater than that of most of his contem-
porary Anabaptists and may account for the importance it acquired
amongst his followers. The other early Anabaptist leaders who quoted 2
Esdras did so less than Hoffman, but when they did they either quoted
it word for word or, in contrast to the other Scriptural books they cited,
gave a detailed paraphrase of it. They tended to advance it at important
points in their argument and their choice of passages was followed by later
members of the movement.
I shall give three instances. The first is Michael Sattler, above all in his
letter written to the Anabaptist community at Horb in 1527. In order to
console his persecuted brethren he referred to the destruction of the two-
headed eagle-he confused the eagle with a wolf but the explicit reference
leaves no doubt as to his source. He then quoted a long passage from
Chapter 2 as a testimony of the rewards reserved for the elect. The
passage (2:34-47) contains six verses which were later to be cited
repeatedly by Anabaptists and Mennonites, 42-47: 'I Esdras saw upon the
mount Sion a great people, whom I could not number, and they all
praised the Lord with songs. And in the midst of them there was a young
man of a high stature, taller than all the rest, and upon every one of their
heads he set crowns, and was more exalted; which I marvelled at greatly.
So I asked the angel, and said, Sir, what are these? He answered and said

14Die eedele
hogheendetroostlike s.1., 1533.
.. to denRomeren...verclaert,
sendebrief.
15Die Ordonnantie
Godtsin Bibliotheca
Reformatoria V, 's-Gravenhage 1909, p.
Neerlandica,
149.
 7

unto me, These be they that have put off the mortal clothing, and put on
the immortal, and have confessed the name of God: now are they
crowned, and receive palms. Then said I unto the angel, What young per-
son is it that crowneth them, and giveth them palms in their hands? So
he answered and said unto me, It is the Son of God, whom they have con-
fessed in the world' 16.
Another eminent Anabaptist to quote 2 Esdras was Jacob Hutter. He
did so in the petition he dispatched to the Moravian authorities in 1535,
and referred to the last two chapters of the book, 15 and 16, to show that
persecution is a sign of election and that God will avenge the innocent ".
The same passages were quoted in the first part of the Hutterian chronicle
composed by Kaspar Braitmichel in the late 1560s 18.
Peter Riedemann was also adopted by the Hutterites: his Rechenschaft,
written when he was in prison in Marburg in 1540, was regarded as the
confession of faith of the movement. And it was in the Rechenschaft that
Riedemann quoted 2 Esdras. His choice of passages was different to that
of the Anabaptists I have discussed so far. He preferred to quote from
Chapter 3 in order to demonstrate man's share in the sin of Adam, and
he referred with especial relish to 3:7: 'And unto him thou gavest com-
mandment to love thy way: which he transgressed, and immediately thou
appointedst death in him and in his generations, of whom came nations,
tribes, people, and kindreds, out of number.' But he also gave a detailed
paraphrase of 5:20-7, a passage concerning God's choice of Israel-'And
among all the multitudes of people thou hast gotten thee one people: and
unto this people, whom thou lovedst, thou gavest a law that is approved
of all''9.
Melchior Hoffman, Michael Sattler, Jacob Hutter and Peter
Riedemann belonged to the main streams of Anabaptism, but to different
streams: Hoffman was associated with his own movement, the
Melchiorites; Sattler was regarded as a 'Bindeglied' of the Swiss
Brethren2°; and Hutter gave his name, and Riedemann a confession of
faith, to the Hutterian Brethren. This diversity shows how widespread the

16The most recent versionof the letter is in TheLegacyof MichaelSattler,translated and

edited by John H. Yoder, Scottdale(Pa.) 1973, pp. 55-63.
17 TheChronicleof theHutterianBrethren,I, Rifton 1987, pp. 138,140.
18Ibid., pp. 225, 277, 312, 337.
19Peter Rideman, Confession of Faith,Rifton 19702,pp. 52, 56, 57, 60, 64, 68, 77, 89,
102, 143-4, 214,215. G.H. Williamscommentedon the popularityin Anabaptistcirclesof
2 Esdras 3 and 7, TheRadicalReformation, op. cit., n. 1, p. 799.
20Cf. Clarence Bauman, Gewaltlosigkeit im Täufertum,Leiden 1968, p. 31.
8

taste for 2 Esdras was. It is further confirmed by those who had once been
Anabaptists, or who had consorted with and recruited Anabaptists, but
who had subsequently dissociated themselves from the movement. Two
of the better known are Hendrik Niclaes and David Joris. Above all the
latter appealed to 2 Esdras more than to any other apocryphal book in
nearly all his writings as evidence of the truth revealed to a select group
of believers and of the inner word received in the heart.
The case I now wish to discuss is of a man who, despite his dissociation
from the main Anabaptist movement, actually remained closer to it than
David Joris or the founder of the Family of Love: Augustin Bader, who
lived with a small group of followers in the vicinity of Augsburg in 152 921.
Bader was convinced of the imminence of the Kingdom of God on earth
in which he was to play a providential rôle. He was to be king and his
followers apostles. Before this could take place the Habsburgs had to be
defeated and Bader predicted that it would be the work of the Turks. Nor
were the Turks alone involved: Bader also approached the Jewish com-
munities of Leipheim and Bühl and tried to persuade them that the
Turkish victory would be to their advantage-were not both Turks and
Jews descended from Ishmael and Abraham? What exactly would become
of the Jews in the millennium which Bader expected is not clear. Bader's
plans were interrupted by his arrest and his execution in 1530. All we
know for certain is that he believed in the legendary reunion of the lost
ten tribes of Israel and that his source for both this belief and his predic-
tion of the fall of the Habsburgs was 2 Esdras.
When Bader was imprisoned he was discovered to be in possession of
a small manuscript-a transcription of three chapters from 2 Esdras,
Chapters 11,12 and 13, containing the dream of the eagle and the account
of the ten tribes 22. The manuscript is of some interest since it is connected
with a development which started in 1529. It was copied from the German
translation of 2 Esdras made by Leo Jud and printed in that same year
in Zürich by Zwingli's publisher Christoph Froschauer. Not only were
Froschauer's editions of the Bible to acquire particular popularity in
Anabaptist and Mennonite circles but Zürich, we shall see, was to play
a decisive part in the reception of 2 Esdras in the sixteenth century.

But let us now return to those thinkers belonging to the central Anabap-
tist movement who referred to 2 Esdras. Bernhard Rothmann quoted it
21 See G. Bossert, 'Augustin Bader von Augsburg, der Prophet und König, und seine
Genossen,nach den Prozessaktenvon 1530', in:Archiv für 10, 1912-13,
Reformationsgeschichte,
pp. 117-165,209-241,297-349; 11, 1914, pp. 19-64, 103-33,176-99.
22 Ibid., 10, pp. 210-12, 232; 11, pp. 185-93.
 9

in his Restitution and other of his works written in Milnster at the time of
the Anabaptist Kingdom 23, but with far less emphasis than Hoffman or
Bader. He seemed in fact to display a preference for 1 Esdras which he
cites in his justification of polygamy 24. Where we again encounter a
marked use of 2 Esdras is amongst the founders of the Mennonite move-
ment : Menno Simons, and, to a lesser degree, Dirk Philipsz. Strikingly
enough they avoid the more apocalyptic passages so dear to Melchior
Hoffman-the dream of the eagle never seems to have been cited by them.
Dirk Philipsz preferred those passages quoted by Michael Sattler and
Peter Riedemann on our share in the sin of Adam, on the persecution and
purification of the pious (especially 16:73: 'Then shall they be known,
who are my chosen; and they shall be tried as the gold in the fire'), and
on the rewards to be expected by the elect (especially 2:42-43)25.
Menno Simons went further. In the first edition of his Fundament des
ChristelyckenLeers ( 1540) he quoted 2 Esdras twice in his argument against
the use of force. The passage is 13:28: 'And that he held neither sword,
nor any instrument of war, but that the rushing in of him destroyed the
whole multitude that came to subdue him...' On the first occasion Menno
was referring to the 'righteous pastors' whose only weapon is the Word
of God26. On the second occasion he was describing the battle between
Christ and Antichrist: the latter fights with weapons, while the former
fights with the Word alone 27. Aversion to violence was of course an im-
portant issue for Menno Simons and he supported it with other quotations
besides 2 Esdras. But what is remarkable about his treatment of this
apocryphal book is his quotation of passages which he could just as easily
have found in other, canonical books of the Old Testament, and that he
should quote them at a highly significant moment. The examples I shall
give are amongst the three final quotations of the 1540 edition of the Fun-
dament des Christelycken Leers. Since they mark the end of this important

23DieSchriftenBernhardRothmanns, bearbeitetvon Robert Stupperich, Münster 1970,pp.

273, 282, 358, 359, 364.His preferenceis for Chapters 6,7, 14 and 16.
24Ibid., p. 264.
25See, for example,Degeschriften vanDirkPhilipszin Bibliotheca
ReformatoriaNeerlandica,
X,
's-Gravenhage 1914, pp. 319, 418, 444, 687.
26DatFundament Leers,uitgegevendoor H.W. Meihuizen,Den Haag 1967,
desChristelycken
p. 131.About the 'oprechtelerers' Menno writes:'Si waren met alle vlite hoeren opgelechte
ampte, uthgedrongen doer den hilligen geest, vol van die liefde Godes under hoerder
naesten, stridendeals den vromenridders Gods, noch met spiesnoch met wapen, dan allene
met dat doersnidendegeestlycksweert, welckis Godes woort...'
27Ibid., p. 160: 'Antichrystwil syn saekemit den sweerdebewerenunde voorstaen,men
ChristusJesus allene in lydtsaemheitmet sinen hilligewoort, heeft oock anders noch mes,
noch sweert op.'
10

treatise they acquire a particular weight. One, the last of all, is from
Isaiah. But the first two are both from 2 Esdras. They are quoted in Latin,
from the Vulgate. The first is 2:8-9: '0 thou wicked people, remember
what I did unto Sodom and Gomorrha: Whose land lieth in clods of pitch
and heaps of ashes: even so also will I do unto them that hear me not, saith
the Almighty Lord.' The second is 15:24: 'Woe to them that sin, and keep
not my commandments! said the Lord' 28.
The use of 2 Esdras just here, the choice of banal passages which
could easily have been found elsewhere in the Bible, indicates that the
book had a special meaning for Menno Simons. It points to the awareness
of a dissenting tradition, the determination of a movement, which was
itself endeavouring to turn into a visible church, to separate itself from the
other churches-a determination which we can see as one of the character-
istics of the Radical Reformation.

Admiration for 2 Esdras ran far deeper than the Anabaptist and Men-
nonite leaders. To see how impregnated the entire movement was with an
esteem for the book we have only to look at the martyrologies where
numerous martyrs quoted 2 Esdras in their hymns, in their admonitions
to the authorities, and in their last epistles to their family, their brethren,
and their friends. These epistles were mainly written in prison, after the
writers had been tortured and while they were awaiting execution. There
could be no better evidence of their acquaintance with the book. One of
the more striking examples is Hans van Overdamme who evoked the
dream of the eagle to prophesy the overthrow of the godless magistrates
in his letter to the authorities of Ghent in 155029The others tended to
quote those passages familiar to us from the writings of Hoffman, Sattler,
Riedemann and others. There was a marked preference for 2:42-4530.
Another popular quotation was 7:6-8: 'A city is builded, and set upon a
broad field, and is full of all good things: The entrance thereof is narrow,
and is set in a dangerous place to fall, like as if there were a fire on the

28Ibid., p. 213. For other references to 2 Esdras see Menno Simons, OperaOmnia
Theologica,Amsterdam 1681,pp. 82, 85, 116, 141, 155, 157, 158, 166, 168, 170, 176, 183,
245, 296, 343, 365, 366, 369, 411, 461, 630.
29Cf. HetOffer des Heerenin Bibliotheca Neerlandica,
Reformatoria II, 's-Gravenhage1904,pp.
110,113.
30Ibid., pp. 120, 482, 516, 528, 562, 567, 586. Cf. also the Historieende
ghesciedenisse
ChristophoriFabritii ende OliveriiBockiiin BibliothecaReformatoria Neerlandica,VIII, 's-
Gravenhage 1911, pp. 345, 440, 452, 458, 297, 365, 366, 397; and Hans de Ries, Historie
Haarlem 1615, dl.1.pp. 23, 31, 112, 123, 128, 201, 373, 380, 382, 394;
der Martelaren...,
dl.2, pp. 20, 91, 95, 109, 179, 181, 188, 275, 284, 356, 374; dl. 3, pp. 22, 53, 83.
 11

right hand, and on the left a deep water: And one only path between them
both, even between the fire and the water, so small that there could but
one man go there at once 31.' This was a passage cherished by both
Melchior Hoffman and Menno Simons. Then there were the more
obvious quotations: 2:36: 'Flee the shadow of this world, receive the
joyfulness of your glory: I testify my Saviour openly'; 8:3: 'There be
many created, but few shall be saved'; and 16:75-76: 'Be ye not afraid,
neither doubt; for God is your guide, And the guide of them who keep
my commandments and precepts, said the Lord God: let not your sins
weigh you down, and let not your iniquities lift up themselves32.'
The Anabaptist preference for 2 Esdras was not by any means limited
to the sixteenth century. We find it in Mennonite circles in the seven-
teenth century, again running through the various currents within the
movement. 2 Esdras is quoted by Hans de Ries33, the leader of the
Waterlanders, but it is quoted still more frequently by the Old Frisian
Pieter Jansz Twisck. Indeed, Twisck quotes it with an emphasis which has
few parallels. In the preface to the Historie der Warachtlghe getuygenjesu
Christi (his 1617 edition of Hans de Ries's Historie der Martelaren, which had
appeared two years earlier), the dream of the eagle is cited as proof of both
the cruelty and the imminent fall of the Papacy 34. Besides the other
references to 2 Esdras in the preface the book is extensively quoted in that
most important of Mennonite documents, the Bekentenisse des Gheloofs
which Twisck added to the martyrology. Here it is used with the manifest
purpose of proving points of faith. On the Fall the author quotes in full
3:7 as Peter Riedemann had done, together with 7:48: '0 thou Adam,
what hast thou done? for though it was thou that sinned, thou art nor
fallen alone, but we all that come of thee 35.' On divine providence he
advances 6:6: 'Then did I consider these things, and they all were made
through me alone, and through none other: by me also they shall be
ended, and by none other 36 Under the article on the Creation he quotes
6:38: 'And I said, 0 Lord, thou spakest from the beginning of the crea-
tion, even the first day, and saidst thus: Let heaven and earth be made;

31HetOfferdesHeeren,op. cit., n. 29, pp. 419, 559, 561, 580 Historie...

; Fabritii,
Christophori
op. cit., n. 30, dl. 1,pp. 61, 94, 201, 437;
op. cit., n. 30, pp. 452, 338; HistoriederMartelaren,
dl.2, pp.155, 196, 276; dl.3, p.73.
32HistoriederMartelaren,op. cit., n.30, dl.1, pp.62, 123, 157, 201, 222, 227, 348;dl.2,
pp. 72, 375.
33Ibid., sig.* 5v. The quotation is 2 Esdras 2:45.
34Historieder Warachtighe getuygen Jesu Christi,Hoorn 1617, sig.† 7r.
35Ibid., sig.*4v.
36 Ibid., sig.*6v.
12

and thy work was a perfect work".' On the religious community we find
5:27, again familiar to us from Peter Riedemann 38. For the damnation of
the wicked 14:35 is alleged: 'For after death shall thy judgement come,
when we shall live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be
manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared' 39, and for eter-
nal life 2:37: '0 receive the gift that is given you, and be glad, giving
thanks unto him that hath called you to the heavenly kingdom ' 40.
Marginal references to Esdras are provided, moreover, in the articles on
Christ, the incarnation, and freedom of wi1l41.
2 Esdras was thus quoted to support a number of points. For Melchior
Hoffman (and for Hendrik Niclaes) the passage of the dictation of the lost
books in Chapter 14 was advanced as a description of that same divine
inspiration to which they laid claim themselves, while the dream of the
eagle was associated with the fall of the Habsburgs. For others-indeed,
for the majority of the Anabaptists-2 Esdras was preferred as a descrip-
tion of the suffering but chosen minority about to be rewarded at the end
of time. Yet there is a further use of 2 Esdras, with which the Anabaptists
were charged by Calvin42-the allegation of 7:32: 'And the earth shall
restore those that are asleep in her, and shall the dust those that dwell
in silence, and the secret places shall deliver those souls that were commit-
ted unto them.' This passage could be quoted to prove the doctrine of
psychopannychism, the belief that the soul sleeps after death until the
resurrection. The extent to which such a conviction was actually held by
the Northern European Anabaptists is in itself disputable, however.
Augustin Bader is said to have believed in something similar43 although
his view that death would be substituted by a painless sleep appears to
have applied only to the millennium. What I have never found is an

37 Ibid., sig.* 4r.

38 Ibid.,sig.† 6r.-v.
39 Ibid.,sig.** 2r.
40 Ibid., sig.** 3r.
41 Quotationsof 2 Esdras to support the idea of the freedomof willwere not uncommon
in the seventeenthcentury. Cf. A. Hamilton, 'The Bookof "vaine fables"', art. cit., n. 3,
p. 54.
42 Psychopannychia, herausgegebenvon Walther Zimmerli, Leipzig 1932, p. 38. The text
is discussedin W. Balke, Calvijnendedoperse radikalen,Amsterdam1973,pp. 23-32.See also
G.H. Williams,The Radical Reformation, op. cit., n.1,pp. 580-92.On p. 819 Williamsclaims
that 2 Esdras7:32 'served other Anabaptistsas a proof textfor psychopannychism'but gives
no examples.Christian Neff denies that the Anabaptistsever held the doctrine (Mennonite
Encyclopedia, s.v. 'Sleep of the Soul': 'There is no convincingevidencethat such a belief was
held by the Anabaptistsor Mennonitesanywhere').
43 G. Bossert, 'Augustin Bader von Augsburg', art. cit., n.21,10, p. 152; 11, p. 58.
 13

instance of an Anabaptist quoting the passage in 2 Esdras in support of

psychopannychism.

That 2 Esdras was part of an Anabaptist tradition was as clear at the

time as it is now. It was remarked on by a number of Protestant scholars,
including one of the most learned men of his day, Johann Albert
Fabricius. We shall see, however, that by the time Fabricius published his
Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti in 1713 44, the taste for the
apocrypha had diminished amongst the descendants of the Anabaptists.
But it is in connection with the Anabaptist and Mennonite attitude to the
apocrypha as such that a further question has to be answered. Did the
Anabaptists and the Mennonites regard the Old Testament apocrypha as
canonical, or did they attach the same value to them as they did to the
canonical books? I said earlier that it is not my intention to generalize
about the entire movement. There were different opinions on the subject
and these have given rise to a recent polemic. In his study on Menno
Simons of 1914 Karel Vos45 stated that Menno did indeed attach the same
value to the apocrypha as to the canon since he quoted the apocryphal
book of Wisdom to support one of the most important points of his
teaching-his doctrine on the incarnation 46. Since then this has been con-
tradicted by J.H. Wessel 41 and H.S. Bender 48. Their denial is based on
two texts. The first is the interrogation of Jacques d'Auchy by Lindanus
in Leeuwarden in February 1558, contained in the great martyrology, Het
Offer des Heren. D'Auchy, a learned merchant of French origin, told the
inquisitor that he could not accept the apocrypha as conclusive proof for
points of faith. He regarded them as human and not divine, and said that
they had not been accepted by Christ or His Apostles'9. The second text
is Adam Pastor's Underscheit tusschen rechte leer unde valsche leer, written after
the author's rift and dispute with Menno Simons in 1552. In the final sec-
tion of the book Pastor distinguishes between the apocrypha and the
canon-he lists the apocrypha and even adds that no Hebrew version of

44 CodexPseudepigraphus VeterisTestamenti,Hamburg 1723, II, p. 178: 'Anabaptistae

etiam... sacrisScripturisquartum Esdrae, visionesquein eo recensitasdivinisannumerant.'
45MennoSimons1496-1561.Zijn levenen werkenen zijnereformatorische denkbeelden,Leiden
1914, p. 194.
46 He does so in his Vande menschewerding, where he quotes Wisdom 7:3. Cf. Menno
Simons, OperaOmniaTheologica, op. cit., n. 28, p. 359.
47De leerstellige
strijdtusschenNederlandscheCereformeerden in dezestiende
en Doopsgezinden eeuw,
Assen 1945, pp. 108-9.
48Mennonite Encyclopedia, s.v. 'Apocrypha'.
49Het OfferdesHeren,op. cit., n.29, pp. 302-3.
14

2 Esdras existed, but that the book had been translated from the Greek
by Jerome. Similarly to d'Auchy he claims that it is permissible to quote
the apocrypha-he does so himself, albeit to a limited extent-but that
they have far less value than the canon 50.
Although these two texts do indicate an awareness in Anabaptist circles
that a distinction existed between apocryphal and canonical writings they
do not prove that the distinction in value was universally accepted.
Menno and Twisck, let alone the early Anabaptists, did not hesitate to
quote apocrypha in support of their deepest convictions. They cited them
frequently, and they cited them amongst the canonical books, making no
explicit distinction. I therefore agree with Vos: Menno and many others
attributed just as much weight to the apocrypha as to the canon. Where
I disagree with Vos is as to why they did so. Vos regards it as a sign that
Menno had been unable to free himself sufficiently from Roman Catholic
influence. I see it, rather, as an indication of his desire to distinguish his
movement above all from Protestantism, but also from the Church of
Rome.
Yet the Mennonite taste for the apocrypha seems to have waned in the
second half of the seventeenth century when the views of Jacques d'Auchy
and Adam Pastor prevailed. In reply to the attacks of Reformed
theologians, particularly of the two Spanheims, Frederik the Older and
Frederik the Y ounger51, the more eloquent members of the Mennonite
movement started to draw up catechisms with a clear distinction between
the canon and the apocrypha in which they obviously avoided quoting the
latter. In 1692, for example, Engel Arendszoon van Dooregeest published
his Onderwysinge in de ChristelykeLeere na de Belij'denissender Doopsgezinden. He
firmly stigmatized the apocrypha: they were the work of humans, written
neither by prophets nor by saints: they were rejected by the Jews; they
were never used by Jesus; and they were of dubious veracity and fre-
quently contradictory 52. In his Korte Grondstellingen vande Christelyke leereder

50 Underscheit
tusschenrechteleerundevalscheleerin Bibliotheca
ReformatoriaNeerlandica,V, 's-
Gravenhage1909,p. 516: 'Dat veerdeBockEsdrewerth nicht gefundenyn Hebreesch,noch
Greecks:sunder yn Latyn Dusse leste Boeckeleest ein yeder als he wil, dan de, dar Jhesus
unde syne Apostelengetüchenisseuth genamen hebben: de werden nicht vorwerpennoch
vann Joeden noch van Christen. Sint welckeBoeckemehr, offte werden nu ock Boecke
gemaket,de mach men wal lesen:averst war se nicht bestan moegenmit de vorbenoemede
unverworpen Boeke, so solmen den nicht geloeven.' Pastor himselfeven quotes 2 Esdras
(p.433).
51 Cf. the younger Spanheim's De ReligioneControversiarum cumDissidentibushodieChris-
tianis... Elenchusin his Opera,III, Leiden 1703,p. 778. He here repeats the charge that the
'Anabaptists' attributed a canonicalvalue to the apocrypha.
52 Onderwysinge Leere,Amsterdam 1692, pp. 11-13.
in de Christelyke
 15

Doopsgezinden, which appeared in 1699, Galenus Abrahamsz de Haan

made the same distinction, but was more moderate than Dooregeest in his
condemnation of the apocrypha. It was not clear, he said, whether or not
they were divinely inspired, but they did contain some sound doctrine and
could be of use53. He himself hesitated to cite them, however.

How, finally, does the interest of so many Anabaptists in 2 Esdras fit

in with the recent hypotheses on the movement? Is it a sign of continuity
or of novelty? Is it a link between the Anabaptists and a medieval tradition
or does it make of Anabaptism a phenomenon of the Renaissance and the
Reformation?
We can by no means exclude the possibility of a medieval tradition in
which the prophecies contained in 2 Esdras were transmitted. The dream
of the eagle is treated so naturally in the early sixteenth century as to sug-
gest that it was indeed part of a popular tradition, possibly an oral one.
Yet I have been unable to find any evidence of this tradition. On the con-
trary : from the Church Fathers-some of whom did indeed refer to 2
Esdras-to the Renaissance, the book was hardly ever quoted except by
Bonaventure and in the Catholic liturgy 54. Even Nicholas of Lyra refused
to provide a commentary to it. What is certain, on the other hand, is that
the true interest in 2 Esdras is a phenomenon of the Renaissance. This
interest was first expressed in 1486 by Pico della Mirandola who cited the
dictation of the lost books to Esdras as proof that the Jewish Cabbalah was
mentioned in the Old Testament 55. From then on the humanists who
quoted 2 Esdras nearly all referred to Pico-not only the 'Christian Cab-
balists', concerned with the single passage in Chapter 14, but also scholars
commenting on the ten tribes and the dream of the eagle and pleading so
passionately for the book's canonicity. They tended to harmonize 2
Esdras with Daniel and Revelation, as Melchior Hoffman and other
Anabaptists did, as well as with spurious texts like the Sibylline oracles 56.
Was there a connection between this humanist interest in 2 Esdras and
the Anabaptists? I know of no concrete evidence. There are only indica-
tions pointing to a spiritual climate in which certain ideas were circulated

53KorteGrondstellingen vandeChristelyke
leere...,Amsterdam 1699, p. 4.
54 Cf. Thomas Denter, Die Stellungder BücherEsdrasim KanondesAllenTestaments. Eine
Untersuchung,
kanongeschichtliche Marienstatt 1962.
55Pico first referred to 2 Esdras in this connectionin his Oratiowritten in 1486. The
referencewas expandedin his Apologia of the followingyear. Cf. GiovanniPico della Miran-
dola, Opera,Basel 1501, I, pp. 81-2.
56Cf. A. Hamilton, 'The Bookof "vaine fables", art. cit., n. 3.
16

by unverifiable means. The town in which the first important sixteenth-

century commentaries of 2 Esdras were written was Zürich-a town of
such importance for the whole Anabaptist movement. It was in Zurich
that Leo Jud published his German translation of the book and in Zilrich
that Conrad Pellican wrote his glosses 57 and Bibliander his commentary
on the dream of the eagle 58. Pellican and Bibliander, although no
Anabaptists, were amongst those theologians who frequently approached
the dim borders between the Magisterial and the Radical Reformation.
But Pellican wrote his commentary in 1534 and Bibliander his in about
1553. The Anabaptist interest in 2 Esdras started far earlier. Did the
Anabaptists know about the writings of Pico della Mirandola? Had the
more learned members of the movement divulged his ideas to the less
learned? Or had they encountered 2 Esdras in another manner? I
emphasized Augustin Bader's dealings with the Jewish communities of
Leipheim and Bühl for they coincide with the earliest evidence that the
Jews, who appear to have disregarded the book since its inclusion in the
Vulgate, were again taking an interest in it. There is even a Hebrew
translation, dated 1487 and now at the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, of
Chapter 13 59, the chapter with the legend of the ten tribes of which Bader
had a transcription. Can the Bader episode be regarded as further confir-
mation of this Jewish regard for the book? Perhaps. The answers can only
be hypothetical, but the facts emphasize the internationalism of the
Radical Reformation, and they point to the cross currents which charac-
terize Anabaptism and to the various directions which research into the
movement can take.

57In Libros,quosvocant velpotiusEcclesiasticos,

Zürich 1582.
Apocryphos,
58De FatisMonarchiaeRomanae,Basel 1553.
59Mss. CodicesHebraiciBiblioth.I.B. De Rossi,Parma 1803, I, p. 155, Cod. 272.