Who formed man, and put a heart in the midst of his body, and gave him breath and life and understanding and the spirit of Almighty God: See Gen 2.8. Once again the word who introduces a statement, not a question. Who formed man may be rendered “The Lord created human beings” (Good News Bible). The pronoun his refers to all human beings, so put a heart in the midst of his body may be translated “put a heart right in the middle of their bodies.” Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version say “gave each of them a heart.” The Latin word for spirit (spiramentum) actually means “breath” or “breathing.” It is not the word spiritus, which is usually used of God’s spirit. The word spiritus does occur in these verses. Revised Standard Version translates spiritus as breath, which is another possible meaning for this word. Good News Bible takes the spirit of Almighty God to be equivalent to understanding, and perhaps to breath and life as well. We take it to be fourth in the series of things that the Lord gave to humanity (see our model below).

Who made all things and searches out hidden things in hidden places: Compare Deut 29.29. For the verb searches, see the comments on verse 57. This sentence may be expressed as “He made everything, and he knows everything that people try to keep secret.”

An alternative model for verses 61-62 is:

• 61 The Lord formed human beings, and put their hearts right in the middle of their bodies. He also gave them a spirit, and life, and understanding, 62 and even gave them his own breath, the breath of God Almighty, who created everything, and knows everything that people try to keep secret.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.