2 Baruch 4

Related ancient text — scholarly reference

Extra-canonical text — not LDS scripture and not in the KJV Apocrypha. Provided as scholarly reference for parallel literature of the Second Temple period and the early Christian era. Read with discernment; the Apostle Jude quotes 1 Enoch and Paul knew this material, but inclusion here is for study, not doctrine.

1And the Lord said unto me: 'This city shall be delivered up for a time, and the people will be chastened during a time, and the world will not be given over to oblivion.

2[Dost thou think that this is that city of which I said: "On the palms of My hands have I graven thee"?

3It is not this building which is now built in your midst; (it is) that which will be revealed with Me, that which was prepared beforehand from the time when I took counsel to make Paradise, and showed it to Adam berfore he sinned, but when he transgressed the commandment, it was removed from him, as also Paradise.

4And after these things I showed it to My servant Abraham by night among the portions of the victims.

5And again also I showed it to Moses on Mount Sinai when I showed to him the likeness of the tabernacle and all its vessels.

6And now, behold, it is preserved with Me, as also Paradise.

7Go, therefore, and do as I command thee.']

Public-domain text (R.H. Charles 1913 and equivalents). These works are not canonical, but several were widely read in antiquity and one (1 Enoch) is quoted by name in Jude 1:14–15. Useful for understanding the doctrinal landscape from which the apostles and earliest saints taught.