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What holds a people together when their holy city falls and justice seems beyond reach?
2 Baruch, also called the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, is a Jewish apocalyptic text by an unknown author writing in Baruch’s name. Set during Babylon’s capture of Jerusalem, it speaks to the grief that follows the later destruction of the Temple by Rome. At its heart stands a searching question: why does God let his holy city fall?
Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah, mourns, fasts, and questions God. Their long conversation asks why the righteous suffer alongside the wicked and what value the Law holds amid ruin. Visions of a forest and a vine, dark and bright waters, and revelations about resurrection widen the story from a fallen city to the text’s hope for a world to come.
What you’ll discover
- Grief that asks questions Follow Baruch’s laments as he brings the pain of Jerusalem’s destruction into conversation with God.
- A forest and a vine Explore a striking vision through which the text considers power and the coming Messiah.
- Dark and bright waters Encounter a cloud’s contrasting waters within the book’s searching visions of suffering and divine purpose.
- Life beyond the grave Consider Baruch’s questions about resurrection, including what form the dead will take when they rise.
- Guidance for scattered people Explore the text’s insistence that the Law of Moses remains a guide amid devastation and exile.
Is it for you?
This is for readers of apocalyptic writing, for students of Judaism and early Christianity after 70 CE, and for anyone who wants to hear how a people made sense of catastrophe. Readers who want a simple storyline may find its visions heavy going.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A book written after the Temple fell
- Jerusalem is doomed and its treasures hidden
- Baruch questions God and hears a hard answer
- The forest, the vine and the coming Messiah
- Resurrection, Adam, and the dark and bright waters
- A letter to the exiles and how to read it
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A book written after the Temple fell
Second Baruch belongs to a family of Jewish writings called apocalypses, meaning unveilings. In these books a seer receives secrets about God's plans, often through visions and an angel's explanation. This one claims to come from Baruch, son of Neriah, who in the Bible writes down the words of Jeremiah. Scholars call such a signature pseudonymous. Writers often borrowed an ancient name to give their words weight.
Most scholars place the book in the late first or early second century CE. The strongest clue is its grief. The Babylonian siege it describes mirrors the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, and the writer plainly lives in the shadow of that loss. Many think the book is close in time and in themes to a Jewish work called Fourth Ezra, and they debate which one came first.
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What is the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch about?
It tells how Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, mourns the fall of Jerusalem and questions God. He receives visions of the Messiah, resurrection and the course of history, and then writes a letter urging the exiles to keep the Law.
When was 2 Baruch written?
Scholars generally date it to the late first or early second century CE, after the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 CE. It is set in 586 BCE, but the Roman disaster is what the writer seems to have in mind.
Why is 2 Baruch not in the Bible?
It was not accepted into the Jewish canon, and most Christian churches did not include it in their lists of Scripture. Some Syriac Bible manuscripts, though, carry its closing letter.
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