Interestingly, Augustine, in The City of God Book 18 Chapter 36, quotes
1 Esdras (in some Catholic circles, III Esdras; alt. Esdras A) as canonical scripture:
After these three
prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, during the same period of the
liberation of the people from the Babylonian servitude Esdras also wrote, who
is historical rather than prophetical, as is also the book called Esther, which
is found to relate, for the praise of God, events not far from those times;
unless, perhaps, Esdras is to be understood as prophesying of Christ in that
passage where, on a question having arisen among certain young men as to what
is the strongest thing, when one had said kings, another wine, the third women,
who for the most part rule kings, yet that same third youth demonstrated that
the truth is victorious over all. For by consulting the Gospel we learn that
Christ is the Truth. From this time, when the temple was rebuilt, down to the
time of Aristobulus, the Jews had not kings but princes; and the reckoning of
their dates is found, not in the Holy Scriptures which are called canonical,
but in others, among which are also the books of the Maccabees. These are held
as canonical, not by the Jews, but by the Church, on account of the extreme and
wonderful sufferings of certain martyrs, who, before Christ had come in the
flesh, contended for the law of God even unto death, and endured most grievous
and horrible evils.
On the issue of Esdras and the canon dogmatised at the fourth session of
the Council of Trent (April 1546), see:
Edmon L. Gallagher and John D. Meade on "Esdras"
The Freestanding Books of the Apocrypha and Early Christian Lists of the Old Testament
