‘My heart poured forth understanding’

Abstract

This paper argues that 4 Ezra 14 represents the climax of the sensory revelations experienced by Ezra, and as such, that this is the episode which finally facilitates Ezra’s understanding of divine wisdom. In each of episodes one through six Ezra is incapable of making sense of what has been revealed to him, even though Ezra’s sensory revelations escalate throughout the text, from hearing to seeing. It is only when Ezra tastes heavenly food in the final episode, the cup filled with the fiery liquid, that he is able to transcend mortal understanding. I argue that 4 Ezra 14:38–41, where Ezra ingests the liquid from the cup, participates in the hitherto undefined literary trope of hierophagy—food given by an immortal to a mortal which transforms the eater in some way. In tasting the divine liquid, Ezra surpasses ordinary hearing and sight, and consumes God’s meaning directly.