lusions he lets us know that he had been engaged in trade, that his
wife was a termagant, and that his children were ill brought up. Various
views have been held as to the identity of the author. Thus some have
made him out to be the Hermas to whom salutation is sent at the end of
the Epistle to the Romans, others that he was the brother of Pius,
bishop of Rome in the middle of the 2nd century, and others that he was
a contemporary of Clement, bishop of Rome at the close of the ist
century. Zahn fixes the date at 97, Salmon a few years later, Lipsius
142. The literature of this book (see HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF) is very
extensive. Among the chief editions are those of Zahn, _Der Hirt des
Hermas_ (1868); Gebhardt and Harnack, _Patres Apostolici_ (1877, with
full bibliographical material); Funk, _Patres Apost._ (1878). Further
see Harnack, _Gesch. d. altchristl. Literatur_, i. 49-58; II. i.
257-267, 437 f.

_5 Ezra._--This book, which constitutes in the later MSS. the first two
chapters to 4 Ezra, falls obviously into two parts. The first (i. 5-ii.
9) contains a strong attack on the Jews whom it regards as the people of
God; the second (ii. 10-47) addresses itself to the Christians as God's
people and promises them the heavenly kingdom. It is not improbable that
these chapters are based on an earlier Jewish writing. In its present
form it may have been written before A.D. 200, though James and other
scholars assign it to the 3rd century. Its tone is strongly anti-Jewish.
The style is very vigorous and the materials of a strongly apocalyptic
character. See Hilgenfeld, _Messias Judaeorum_ (1869); James in Bensly's
edition of 4 Ezra, pp. xxxviii.-lxxx.; Weinel in Hennecke's _N.T.
Apokryphen_, 331-336.

_6 Ezra._--This work consists of chapters xv.-xvi. of 4 Ezra. It may
have been written as an appendix to 4 Ezra, as it has no proper
introduction. Its contents relate to the destruction of the world
through war and natural catastrophes--for the heathen a source of menace
and fear, but for the persecuted people of God one of admonition and
comfort. There is nothing specifically Christian in the book, which
represents a persecution which extends over the whole eastern part of
the Empire. Moreover, the idiom is particularly Semitic. Thus we have
xv. 8 _nec sustinebo in his quae inique exercent_, that is [Hebrew:
nasa be]: in 9 _vindicans vindicabo_: in 22 _non parcet dextera mea
super peccatores_ = [Greek: pheisetai] ... [Greek: epi