Description of 4 Baruch
Fourth Baruch is regarded as pseudepigraphical by all Christian churches, except in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (see Rest of the Words of Baruch).
The text is known in both full-length and reduced versions. The full-length versions came down to us in Greek (older manuscripts dated 10th-11th centuries and 15th century ), in Ethiopic Ge'ez (titled Rest of the Words of Baruch, the older manuscript dated 15th century), in Armenian and in Slavic. The shorted versions have come down to us in Greek (named Meneo), Romanian and Slavic.
4 Baruch is usually dated in the first half of 2nd century AD. Abimelech's sleep of 66 years, instead of the usual 70 years of Babylonian captivity, makes think to the year AD 136, that is 66 years after the fall of the Second Temple in AD 70. This dating is coherent with the message of the text.
4 Baruch uses a simple and fable-like style with speech-making animals, fruit that never rot, and an eagle sent by the Lord that revives the dead.
Some parts of 4 Baruch appear to have been added in the Christian era, such as the last chapter: due to these insertions some scholars consider 4 Baruch to have Christian origins. Like the greater prophets, it advocates the divorce of foreign wives and exile of those who will not. According to 4 Baruch, the Samaritans are the descendants of such mixed marriages.
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