understood as coming from the "deutero-canonical" Book of Baruch in our Apocrypha. It may have been a Christian addition to the end of Chapter iii., where words occur which are regularly quoted as a prophecy of the Incarnation.
(c) In Solomon of Basrah's Book of the Bee (ed. E. A. W. Budge, 1886: c. xxxvii. p. 81) we read, "The Prophecy of Zaradosht concerning our Lord. This Zaradosht is Baruch the scribe." The prophecy is uttered to the disciples of Zaradosht, the King Gushnasp (Hystaspes) and Sasan and Mahmad. The Virgin-birth, crucifixion, descent into hell, resurrection, ascension, and second coming are predicted, and in answer to a question of Gushnasp, Zaradosht says, "He shall descend from my family. I am he and he is I; he is in me and I am in him," and more to the same effect. I do not know any other source which identifies Baruch with Zoroaster.
Of these passages I think the first, from Cyprian, is the only one that can be counted as a possible fragment of a lost book.
Ezra
With a word about Ezra, Esdras, we actually end our treatment of the lists. The book which they name is, we may be sure, that known as 4 Esdras, or 2 Esdras of the Apocrypha, which, with Enoch, is the most famous of all apocryphal Apocalypses, and need not be described here. I should, however, just like to put on record a caution against what I believe to be a misapprehension about it.
In the opening words (iii. 1) the supposed author describes himself as "I Salathiel, who am also Esdras," and this has served critics as an argument in favour of the thesis that the book is composed of a plurality of documents welded together by a final editor, and that one of these—the principal one—was an Apocalypse of Salathiel. But I believe I have found evidence to show that there was a Jewish tradition which identified Esdras with Salathiel independently of this book.
