The Sword of the Messiah 47 poses a great dilemma for Ezra (3,36; 7,51.60.138-140; 8,1-3.55- 56.61-62; 9,15-16.21; 12,34; 13,48; 14,9) (37). 4 Ezra contains three messianic passages. First, 7,28-29 shows that the messiah will be revealed and live for four hundred years after which he will die, but this passage does not assign any specific role to him. Second, the so-called “eagle vision” (chaps. 11–12) describes the pronouncement of judgment on the eagle, i.e., Rome, by the lion, which is identified as the Davidic messiah in 12,31-32 (38). Third, in the vision of “the man from the sea” (chap. 13), the messiah reappears at the eschaton to judge the wicked and liberate “Israel”. Although the “man from the sea” in 13,1-13 is not explicitly identified as the messiah, the similarity in task (judgment and liberation), the allusions to Isa 11,4 in 13,4.10-11, the designation of the messiah and “the man from the sea” as “son” in 7,28; 13,32, and the parallel between 13,25-26 and 12,31-32 strongly suggest that this figure is none other than the messiah (39). This messianic figure will judge and destroy the wicked, deliver the righteous and establish justice and peace (12,31-34; 13,10-13.25- 50) (40), and once more we need to consider how the Davidic messiah will accomplish this. The messiah will destroy the wicked by means of, inter alia, “a flaming breath from his lips” (de labiis eius spiritum flammae [13,10-11]), which closely resembles the killing of the wicked by the wytpc jwr in Isa 11,4. Since the Latin spiritus has the same ambiguity as the Hebrew jwr, denoting “breath” or “Spirit”, the expression could refer to the messiah’s Spirit-imbued word (cf. section I.2 above). This view coheres with the powerful fiery voice from the messiah’s mouth in 13,4.33, and the forensic speech of the lion in 11,37-38; 12,1.31. The lion-messiah in chapters 11–12 seems to be less violent than the man-messiah in chapter 13: whereas the function of the former is judicial and his speech to the eagle reads like a legal indictment, the voice of the latter has a violent effect (13,4.10-11), although the legal element is also present (13,37-38) (41). (37) Cf. STONE, Fourth Ezra, 151, 171, 209; COLLINS, Imagination, 209; ELLIOTT, Survivors, 504-513. Note also the concept of “survivors” (6,25; 7,28; 9,7- 8; 13,16.19), and in 4,38; 7,68, Ezra even contends that everyone is unrighteous. (38) The three heads most probably represent the emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian (STONE, Fourth Ezra, 10; Collins, Imagination, 206). (39) Cf. CHARLESWORTH, “Messianology”, 38. (40) Elliott argues that in 12,32-34 the messiah judges Israel and no longer the eagle (Survivors, 506-507). (41) Cf. STONE, Fourth Ezra, 40, 209-213, who consequently denies royal- military terminology to refer to the messiah’s activities.