A Messiah whom ‘The Many Do Not Know’? Rereading 4 Ezra 5:6–7

The mysterious figure who appears in 4 Ezra 5:6–7 (‘one shall reign whom those who inhabit the earth do not expect’; ‘one whom the many do not know shall make his voice heard by night, and all shall hear his voice’), usually understood to be the Antichrist, is better interpreted as a reference to the Messiah. It is argued that the description in 5:6–7 comports well with the way the Messiah is portrayed elsewhere in 4 Ezra, that there are strong links between this ‘eschatological signs’ passage and the visions of chapters 11–13, and that there is little evidence that an Antichrist figure plays any role in the author's eschatological schema. The results of this study suggest that there is greater coherence between the dialogues and visions of 4 Ezra than has sometimes been recognized and that the Messiah of the book is not only an agent of judgement who brings in the end of the age but is also a king.