The Theology of the Book

The judgment process extends to other nations as well and has as its ultimate aim restoration rather than destruction. When the final blow comes (the destruction of the Temple), the judgment process enters a new phase, that of restoration. Again, this phase uses relational metaphors---a loving shepherd, the mountain lands of Israel, dry bones, and a stick rejoined. The restoration phase addresses the problem of permanent and residual evil in the universe in the greaat victory over Gog of Magog. Only after that evil is destroyed (in some future time) is it possible for the Lord's own palace and city to be constructed. Chapters 33 through 37 speak of the immediate future and chapters 38 through 48 of the indefinite future.

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The Theology of the Book

Another important contribution of the book is its careful literary structure. Ezekiel is a writer as well as a speaker. The structure in a sense frees Ezekiel from his immediate context to address a wider audience. In the book, one sees the glorious Lord, obligated to no human institution, choosing an individual to announce a painful judgment on beloved Israel that will eventuate in the renewal of the people. The metaphors for this process are dominantly those of love (marriage and betrothal) and personal presence (departing and returning), even though Ezekiel employs the metaphors in his peculiarly concrete and dramatic way.

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The Theology of the Book

In fact, the prophet insists on this point with such vehemence that some modern readers are offended. The text locates the authority of the prophetic oracle in the Lord: the prophet is constantly referred to as "son of man," that is, mere human in comparison with God. The phrase "oracle of the Lord" occurs eighty-five times; the so-called recognition formula "that they may know that I am the Lord" occurs fifty-four times; and the assertion that the Lord acts so his name will not be profaned among the natiions is constant. Although at first reading they might suggest a self-centered deity, they actually make a positive statement, for they locate the reason for God acting in God's very self in the divine character. How dangerous it would be if God acted because of human righteousness! God acts because of who he is, not because of who Israel is. That is the basis of true hope, and it is why Ezekiel is so intent on destroying all human grounds for hope. True hope is based in God, not in human beings.

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The Theology of the Book

Though not cited as often by Christians as other prophetic books, Ezekiel says much to modern Christians. It insists on the Lord's transcendence and freedom; one can be over whelmed and transformed by the presence of the Lord whom one cannot see. The Lord moves easily from the Temple to the exile and back to a restored Temple. Yet this utterly free and sovereign Lord has fallen in love with Israel and cannot leave or abandon her. Ezekiiel insists more than any other prophet that the Lord acts because of the Lord's own reasons, not because of Israel's virtues or miseries.

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The Theology of the Book

Those empires will be the instruments of Israel's purification ("judgment") and eventual return to the Lord. Hence, exile and destruction are not the end of the relationship; rather they constitute the judgmnent process that will establish justice, that is, uphold the righteous and put down the wicked. God is not absent from the process. Ezekiel does not hesitate to affirm that the Lord is present among the exiled population and that if people give up their delusions and their sinful ways, the Lord will raise them from the death of exile and give them a new city and temple. In the general picture of exile and restoration just presented, Ezekiel did not differ significantly from his prophetic predecessors. What then was his peculiar contribution to the Bible and to the contemporary church?

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The Theology of the Book

The great empires, Assyria and then Babylonia, and the writing prophets' assessment that Israel had failed to live up to its covenantal responsibilities, changed forever the situation of Israel, in a sense "requiring" the Lord to do a new thing. What is the "new thing"?

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The Theology of the Book

Like Micah's prediction, affirmed by Jeremiah, that the Temple was not sacrosanct and could be destroyed (Mi 3,12; Jer7,4), and like Isaiah's prediction that the Lord was doing a new thing (Is 43,19; 48,6), Ezekiel strikes a blow for the freedom of God. It is important to note, however, that the Lord does not leave the Jerusalem Temple to become a spiritual presence available in every time and place. Rather, the Lord will come back to a specific place, there to meet the people in a purified and sacred place.

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The Theology of the Book

At the basis of his theology was the great founding moment of Israel--the Exodus from Egypt and entry into Canaan as seen through priestly eyes. It has already been pointed out that the Priestly source deeply influenced the prophet. An example of its influence is the dominant structuring device of the glorious Lord on the throne of wheels: the glory appeared to the exiled prophet (1,28;3,23), departed from the Jerusalem Temple (10,18;11,23), and will return to the templecity (43,2-5), to fill the Temple (44,4) as the glory once filled the tabernacle in the wilderness in Exodus 40,34. The mobility expressed by the throne with wheels is very important: the Lord is not tied down to one place or to a particular way.

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The Theology of the Book

Ezekiel's theology originated in his prophetic interpretation of the situation of his community---the Judeans living as exiles in Babylonia---and his counsels on how they should live in their new circumstances. His theology includes praxis, or observance. Although Ezekiel is concerned with the actions of the Lord and the course of Israelite history, he must also deal with the people's immediate anxieties and concerns, among which are concerns about whether they have title to their land and whether they have a future as a people. In other words, should they give up their dreams of being the Lord's special people and, instead, acculturate themselves into the babylonian empire? As many exiles saw things, their ancestors' sins definitively severed the relationship of the Lord to Israel. This bitter truth was especially visible among the landless and unhappy exiles. Ezekiel thus had to explain concrete issues without losing sight of the overall purposes of the Lord whose spokesman he was.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The next section of the vision (43,13---46,24) is concerned with the altar, the reorganization of the clergy making the Zadokites alone full priests (45,15--31), the territory set apart for them (45,1-9), and the princes's responsibilities for supporting the temple (46) and overseeing justice (45,9). "Prince" is an ancient premonarchic title that Ezekiel revives in place of "king," which for him had become a symbol of failed leadership. The third section is intoduced by 47, 1-11, the water flowing from the temple throughout the land, which serves as a transition from temple to land. Water in Ezekiel is associated with the deity (1, 24 and 43, 2). The sacred mountain is the garden of God, the source of all fertilizing water (Gn 2, 10-14; cf. Ez. 28, 13; 31, 8-9; 36 35). Mount Zion is also associated with that tradition (e.g., Ps 46, 4 and Is 12, 3; 33, 20-24). One of the four great rivers arising in the garden of Eden was the Gihon, which is according to 1 Kings 1, 33, the river of Jerusalem. The remaining chapters speak of the boundaries of the future land of Israel (essentially the same as Nm 34, 1-12), the redistricting of the tribes in equal east-west strips, each with coastal land, uplands, and territory in the Jordan-Dead Sea depression. The new name given to Jerusalem, "The Lord is there," is the last verse in the book.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The order of topics in 40 through 48 follows generally those of the priestly writings of the Pentateuch (Ex 25-31;33-40; Lv; Nm 1-10; 32; 34-35). The temple plan follows generally the latest form of the Solomonic Temple but with an emphasis on safeguarding the sanctity of the temple from profane contact. For example, the eastern gate ("the gate which faced the east," 40,5) is a military gate, like gates found in Gezer, Hazor, and Megiddo, which contain four successive recesses so that guards can interrupt chariots rushing the gate. The nearness of the king's palace to the temple in the old system is vigorously criticized (43,6-12). The Lord returns to the temple (43,1-5), and Ezekiel sees "that the temple was filled with the glory of the Lord" (v.5).

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

According to the combat myth, after winning the cosmic battle, the victorious deity is recognized as the supreme god and builds his palace (temple), announcing his decrees for the ruling of the world. In chapter 40, 1-4, the hand of the Lord brought Ezekiel in a vision to the land of Israel and set him down on a very high mountain on which there was a city and a temple. An angelic figure shows him the ground plan (there are no elevations in the plan) of the Temple area; the tour is a counterpart to the tour of chapters 8--11.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Divine initiative is stressed repeatedly, just as it is in the Exodus accounts. Gog does not attack on his own initiative; the Lord brings the army into the holy land so that he can destroy it on the mountains of Israel. The text seems to presume that there is some primordial evil, greater than any one empire that must be identified and destroyed before Israel can live in complete peace. In a sense, the composite battle and victory is a theological reflection on evil and a statement of the hope that god will someday eradicate every vestige of that evil.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Furthermore, Exodus texts said that the Lord was glorified by the defeat of the Egyptians: "Thus will I make Pharaoh so obstinate that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord: (Ex 14,4). Such a statement sounds very much like Ezekiel 39,13, which describes the victory as the day the Lord reveals his glory. To a first-time reader, the text of chapters 38 and 39 seems confused, and indeed there may have bveen revisions or additions to underline the meaning.. Its structure, however, seems clear: 38, 1-16, Gog's attack on Israel; 38, 17-23, God's war against Gog; 39,1-16, God's victory (39,1-3 is parallel to 38,1-6); 39,17-29, God's glory is revealed to all. Although based vaguely on historical characters (Gog seems based on the Lydian ruler Gyges; Magog, his hiomeland, was probably created to rhyme with Gog: Gomer is from the Cimmerians), the scene is transhistoriclal; it is an event that will happen at an unspecified future time.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The final part of the book begins with chapter 38, not chapter 40, for the battle of God of the land of Magog against the Lord is the necessary prelude to the construction of a new temple-city, its regulatilons, and the positioning of the holy people around it. Chapters 38 and 39 presume that Israel has returned from exile and dwells peacefully on its own land (38,12). In a grand finale, God, the divine warrior, musters the armies of the world and lures them into a massive battle that results in their annihilation and his glory. Such a divine initiative was, according to 38,17, predicted in such earlier prophetic passages as Isaiah 29,7; Micah 8,11-13; Jeremiah 1,14, Isaiah 14,24-27 predicted that the great empire Assyria would be destroyed in the midst of the holy land.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Ezekiel 36, 16-38 makes points similar to those in Jeremiah 31,31-37. Both passages speak of an interior renewal. As a priest, Ezekiel introduces a number of ritual details to accompany the interior transformation: cease to profane my holy name; witness to my holiness; sprinkle with clean (or holy) water; be cleansed of idols; observe my decrees. Chapter 37 uses two different images to recount Israel's revival: dry bones scattered across a field are fitted together, covered with sinews and flesh, and broght to life by the breathing of the spirit and the two sticks brought together.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Chapters 33 through 37 contain a message of restoration. The opening chapter recalls earlier passages and moves one into a new age for Israel. The prophet as watchman (33,1-9) harks back to 3, 16-21 and Ezekiel's initital call; the passage on individual retribution (33, 10-20) has relevance for chapter 18, which treats sin, guilt, and punishment; the arrival of the fugitive from Jerusalem and the end of Ezekiel's muteness (32, 22) alludes to 3, 22-27 and 24, 25-27. Ezekiel 33, 23-33 insist that salvation is reserved for those in exile who have been transformed. It anticipates 36,16-38. Chapter 34, the divine king as shepherd, stands in the tradition of referring to kings as shepherds: 2 Sm 5, 2 Mi 5,4; Jer2,8; 3,15; 23, 1-6. Ezekiel's passage in turn in fluenced Zec 11, 4-17, and together they helped to form New Testament passages on the divine shepherd like Mark 6,34 and John 10.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

One is prepared for the concentration on Egypt by the lengthy oracles against Tyre (26-28). The placement of the oracles in this part of the book contributes to the meaning of the prophet's message in at least three ways: (1) since the Lord of all the world has judged Judah and Jerusalem, surrounding nations are affected by that judgment; (2) the punishment of the nations that persecuted Judah is the first step in the restoration of Judah, which will be announced in more positive form in chapters 33-37; (3) chapters 25 through 32 prepare for chapters 38 and 39: just as the defeat of the nations makes possible the restoration of Judah upon its land, so the defeat of all human and cosmic evil in chapters 38 and 39 makes possible the definitive kingdom in chapters 40 through 48.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Geographically, one would expect the list to end with the north, the direction from which the enemy of Israel at this time. Babylon, would invade. Jeremiah 25, 9 even calls Babylon the "the enemy from the north." For Ezekiel, however, Babylon is not the enemy but the instrument of the Lord's judgment, even exercising judgment against the seven nations (e.g.,Ez 26,7;19,18;30,10). Instead, the book places Egypt in the seventh and climactic arrangement. Moreover, there are seven oracles against Egypt (29-32).

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The oracles against the foreign nations are in chapters 25 through 32, the center of the book, the same placement as Isaiah (chapters 13-27) and the Greek text of Jeremiah (25, 13; 31). Ezekiel's arrangement is careful: chapters 25-28 are oracles against six nations (Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, and Sidon), beginning with the nation directly east (Ammon) and then proceeding clockwise ending in the directrion of northwest (Sidon).

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Unlike chapters 16 and 23, chapter 20 speaks without allegory about the people's past and future. The occasion for this essay is an inquiry to Ezkiel by some of the elders for an oracular response. Instead, the Lord tells the prophet to indict them, to make known to them the abominations of their ancestors (v.5). To indict them, he tells the history of the people in four stages: Egypt (vv.5-10), the first wilderness generation (vv. 11-17), the second wilderness generation (vv. 18-26), and in the land (vv. 27-29). Verses 30-44 are the application and consequences: God refuses again to respond to an inquiry (vv. 3-31) and then reveals a new exodus (vv32-44): "I will lead you to the desert of the peoples, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face: (v.35), and the people will finally come into the land and serve the Lord on the holy mountain (v. 40). The prophet retells the history in such a way as to take away all cause for pride. The people's task is to allow the Lord in the future to redo the Exodus so that the result will be a faithful people.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Furthermore, either Ezekiel or an editor in 23, 46-49 goes on to make the story a warning against all women's lewd behavior. The warning, of course, makes a legitimate point: lewd conduct is wrong in women (as well as in men). One must be careful, however, not to imply that women are usually unfaithful. In speaking about such biblical passages, it is pastorally advisable to speak of the marriage metaphor as a favored metaphor for the relationship of the Lord and Israel. The metaphor expresses a relationship that is mutual, passionate, self-giving, nurturing, and faithful.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Ezekiel's retellings of the story in chapters 16 and 23 can offend modern readers. Two things must be noted. First, Ezekiel has a peculiar strategy of dramatizing a reality and, to modern tastes, exaggerating it. His use of the marital metaphor for the relationship of the Lord and Israel is an example. The metaphor was at least as old as Hosea 1---3; Ezekiel makes it concrete far beyond any usage in Hosea, drawing out the personification and dwelling on its sexual aspect. Second, Ezekiel describes the infidelity of Israel as flagrant sexual misconduct: she is a prostitute and deserves to be humiliated and punished. The prophet is a child of his time, portraying the broken relationship as a woman's betrayal of a man, and the deity's act of justice as satisfying his male rage and jealousy (e.g., 16, 23-24).

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

  Other chapters of the book are long essays detailing the history of the Lord's relationship with the people---chapters 16 (the Lord's relationship with personified Jerusalem), 20 (the retelling of the Exodus), and 23 (the story of the two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, respectively Samaria and Jerusalem). In the two allegories (16 and 23), the Lord came upon helpless women and made them noble, yet they fought him every step of the way. What is the purpose of these exceedingly negative retellings of Israel's history? One must be aware that Israel found its identity by telling its national story. A comparison may be helpful. A modern person's identity arises largely from his or her own story: who one's parents were and of what social class; where one grew up, went to school, where one worked , and whom one married. If one becomes unhappy or dysfunctional, one examines one's story and seeks to find a new and more productive way of telling that story. Similarly, Ezekiel felt the people misunderstood their national story; they had to be shown that their version no longer made sense; it was not uniformly glorious as the people commonly believed. So Ezekiel retold the story in new and perverse ways. He said that the people were unfaithful from the beginning; their history gave them no reason for pride.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Chapter 18, one of the most famous chapters in Ezekiel, gives priestly decisions (torah) on questions that had become especially pressing because of the people's situation. Though sometimes misinterpreted as a charter of religious individualism, chapter 18 makes two distinct points: (1) 18,1-20 teaches that one generation will not have to suffer for the sins of a previous generation, contrary to an older view preserved in Exodus 20,5. "For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, infllicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation"' (2) 18,21-28 teaches that past sins do not encumber a person currently leading a good life. These teachings were provoked by a fashionable proverb of the time, "Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children's teeth are on edge." The proverb implicitly accused God of punishing the innocent descendants of wicked forbears. The prophet denies any "vertical" guilt (between generations) but insists on "horizontal" guilt, that is, the present generation must bear its own guilt. The people are not simply victims of someone else's sin.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

In the section framed by this chiasm (8,4-11,21), the angelic guide gives Ezekiel a tour of the corrupt practices that have polluted the Temple and the social wrongs that have ruined the people (8,5-18). Punishment is imposed (9,10-11). Meanwhile, the glory of the Lord begins to move, on its way to leave the Temple (10,4-5); the cherubim stop at the entrance of the east gate (10,8-22). Next, in a passage that balances the description of the first group of men in Chapter 8, the spirit brings Ezekiel to the east gate to view more evidence of wicked behavior (11,1-13). In 11, 14-21, a reassuring word comes to Ezekiel that the exiles will not lose their property back in Judah. Though the Lord removed them far away among the nations, yet he has been a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they have gone (11,16, different translation from NAB). The Lord abandons his Temple. At the time of this vision, perhaps not too long after the prophet's commission in 593, the exiles were unprepared for the possibillity that the Temple might be destroyed.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

The vision of the corruption of the Temple and the departure of the glory (8,1-11,25) can be confusing. Chapters 8 through 11 are linked to the opening vision in chapters 1 through 3 in reverse order: the luminous figure in 8,2 is linked to 1, 27; the throne in 10,1, to the throne in 1,26; the sounds of wings in 10,5, to the sounds of wings in 1,24; the wheels in 10,9-13, to the wheels in 1,15-18, and the faces in 10,14, to the faces in 1,10. The "cherubim" in chapter 10 are the same as the "living creatures" in chapter 1. A chiasm, or sandwich structure, shapes chapters 8 through 11: A. Ezekiel converses with the elders "8,1a) B. The hand of the Lord fell upon him (8, 1b) C. A lulminous figure (8,2-3) The glory of the Lord (11,22-23) B. The spirit lifted him up (11,24b) A. Ezekiel tells the exiles what the Lord has revealed to him (11,25)

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

More than any other prophet, Ezekiel uses gestures to provoke his audience to question him. The gestures are a kind of street theater to capture the attention of an unreceptive audience, On one occasion, Ezekiel was told to take a brick, sketch a city on it, build miniature siege works against it, and put a metal plate between himself and city; he then was told to lie on his left side for 390 days, then on his right side for forty days. He had also to eat bread made of different grains (as one might in a siege) and ration his water. This action was an anticipation of the disasters lying ahead for the people when Jerusalem would be destroyed (chapter 4). The prophet was evidently actiing out the disaster that the people were refusing to face as they clung to hopes of a speedy return to their normal lives in Judah. The people will lie helpless as they "bear their punishment." The prophet's sign of not mourning one's wife in 24, 15-27 is an example of a sign provoking a reactiion: "Then the people asked me, Will you not tell us what all these things that you are doing mean for us?" (24,19)

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

Though the gesture of eating the scroll seems bizarre, it was typical of Ezekiel to use traditional material with unusual concretization and dramatization. In any event, Ezekiel's writings seem to have been arranged with exceptional artistry and confidence in the power of the written word to instruct and teach. One last point; the mobile throne shows the Lord able to leave the Jerusalem Temple and meet the exiles in their new residence; such mobility will be demonstrated negatively by the departure in chapter 11 and positively by the return in chapter 43.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

To perceive the full significance of the divine manifestation, one must take into consideration the commission in 1,28-3,15. One can assume from the commission to preach to a hardhearted people that Ezekiel was already an outcast from his community. Instead of facing the impending disaster, the people put their faith in prophets who said the whole thing would soon be over. The majestic vision vindicated the prophet's minority view; the Lord told him his community would not believe his message and yet he must speak, saying, "Thus says the Lord God." Further, in 3,1-3 the Lord commanded him to eat the scroll like Jeremiah, "When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart: (Jer 15,16; cf. Pss 119,103).

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

They moved as one; below and alongside each there was a wheel rimmed with eyes, and above them was a shining expanse. As the creatures; wings slackened and the apparition came to a halt, the prophet looked up and saw a sapphire throne upon which a human figure sat, glowing, ringed by a rainbow. It was the throne of God. The order of the narrative is the order of the prophet's perception: sights, then sounds; the lower part of the vision, then the upper; the movement of the apparition, then the halting. (These remarks do not apply to 1,8b-12, which are dislocated.) Though unparalleled in its bold portrayal of divinity, the vision is also traditional; Psalms 18,8-14 (parallel in 2 Sm 22) is a similar storm appearance; the composite creatures are found in Isaiah 6 and attested in Mesopotamian and Syrian religious symbolism.

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Some Key Chapters in the Book

In the vision of the throne chariot and the commission (1,2-3,15), the prophet stood alone beside the Chebar canal and saw a large luminous cloud moving in his direction. It was radiant (1,4), like the luminous clouds that accompanied appearances of the Lord in such ancient traditions as Exodus 19,9;24,16;33,9; and 34,5. As it came near, he discerned four creatures, all radiant, in its lower part; they had human feet and hands but with four wings and four faces.

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Outline of the Book of Ezekiel

1. Impending Doom (1-24)

     A. Title and introduction (1, 1-3)

     B. Vision of the Enthroned One and Commission of Ezekiel

          1. Vision of the divine throne (1, 1-28)

          2. Commissioning of the prophet (2,1-3,27)

     C. Symbolic Acts and Oracles

          1. Three symbolic actions (4,1-5,4)

          2. Three matching oracles (5,5-7,27)

      D. Vision of Divine Judgment on the Temple

           1. The abominations committed in the Temple (8,1-9,11)

           2. God departs from the city (10,1-11,25)

       E. Condemnation of Leaders and People

            1. Symbolic gesture foreshadowing the exile (12,1-28)

            2. Condemnation of false prophets (13,1-23)

            3. Idolatry versus right behavior (14,1-23)

         F. Allegories and Metaphors of Judgment

            1. Allegory of the vine wood (15,1-8)

            2. Allegory of Jerusalem as God's faithless wife (16,1-63)

            3. Allegory of the two eagles (17,1-24)

            4. Priestly decisions on intergenerational responsibility (18,1-32)

            5. Two allegories on the king (19,1-14)

        G. Final Indictment and Condemnation

            1. Review of the Exodus (20,1-44)

            2. The sword oracles (20,1-21,32)

            3. The guilt of Jerusalem (22,1-31)

            4. The allegory of the two sisters (23,1-49)

            5. Two signs of the end (24,1-27)

II. Restoration (33-48)

        A. Oracles against Foreign Nations

            1. Against neighboring states (25,1-17)

            2. Against Tyre (26,1-28,19)

            3. Against Sidon (28,20-26)

            4. Against Egypt (29,1-32,32)

        B. Justice in the Land

            1. The second commission of the prophet (33,1-33)

            2. The good Shepherd replaces false shepherds (34,1-31)

            3. Oracles against the mountains of Edom (35,1-15)

            4. Blessings on the mountains of Israel (36,1-15)

            5. Renewal of Israel (36,16-38)

            6. The people are brought back to life

                a. Vision of dry bones (37,1-14)

                b. The two sticks rejoined (37,15-28)

        C. The conquest of Gog of Magog

            1. Gog's attack on the people of God (38,1-23)

            2. God's victory (39,1-29)

        D. The New Temple and the New Worship

            1. Description of the new Temple

               a. The Temple court (40,1-47)

               b. Inside of the Temple (40,42-48,20)

               c. The return of the Lord (43,1-12)

            2. Prescriptions for worship

               a. Altar of sacrifice (43,13-27)

               b. Priestly ministers (44,1-31)

               c. Division of the land (45,1-17)

               d. Regulation of the feasts (45,18-46,24)

            3. The river issuing from the door of the Temple (47,1-12)

            4.Boundaries of the new land

               a. National boundaries (47,13-23)

               b. Land allotments for each tribe (48,1-29)

               c. The new city (48,30-35)

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The Literary Structure of the Book

Within the structure, there are some correspondences between chapters 1 through 24 and 25 through 48. The news of the destruction of Jerusalem plays a key role in the book. Shortly before the city fell in July 586, Ezekiel's wife died, and the propet was forbidden to perform the mourning rites for her as a symbol of the loss of the city (24, 15-27). He was also struck dumb (3, 26-27; 24, 27). When the news comes, he was able to speak (34, 21-22) and proclaimed the Lord's restoration. In 3, 16-21, Ezekiel was made a sentinel charged with telling his people of their impending destruction. When the destruction took place, his sentinel task was reaffirmed (33, 1-9) for the new phase in God's plan for the people. In 36, 1-5, the prophet blessed the mountains of Israel, reversing his earlier dununciations in 6, 1-10; the mountains evidently stand for the entire land.

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The Literary Structure of the Book

Angelic servants kill all those within who have not been marked as contrite, a harbinger of the slaughter that will take place when the Temple is destroyed. In the ancient Near East no temple is destroyed unless its god has already abandoned it. The glory abandons the city, lifted up by the wings of the cherubim. Ezekiel describes the vision to his fellow exiles and attempts to show them its significance. In the last vision (40-48) the Lord returns to the temple-city, rebuilt on a heavenly model and protected from all corrupting foreign influence. A new torah or authoritative teaching is given and all is made ready for a new people.

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The Literary Structure of the Book

This opening scene foreshadows the departure of the glory from Jerusalem in 10, 1-11, 25 and the return in 43, 1-12. A deity able to move, unlike the traditional picture of the deity dwelling in the Temple in Jerusalem, is an ominous beginning to the book. Ezekiel's unpopular message has evidently isolated him from the other exiles as he sits alone at the banks of the canal. God finds him by a canal outside the city. The next vision (8-11) is pivotal in the book: an angelic figure transports Ezekiel from Babylon to Jerusalem, gives him a tour of the Temple, and points out men committing cultic abominations and injustice against others.

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The Literary Structure of the Book

Three visions provide a complementary structure: chapters 1 to 3, 8 to 11, and 40 to 48. The first depicts the prophet's call, the second is the judgment against Jerusalem and the Temple, and the third is the restoration of the Temple and the arrangement of the holy land. Ezekiel 43, 3 expressly relates the three visions: "The vision was like that which I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like that which I had seen by the river Chebar." Although there are visions in other prophetic books (Zec 1-6), only in Ezekiel are they woven into the architecture of the book. In the first vision, Ezekiel sees the glory (Hebrew kabod) of God that dwelt in the tabernacle in the wilderness and in the Temple in Jerusalem. Phrasing carefully in order to safeguard the sacrality and otherness of the glory, the prophet describes only the wheels of the divine throne. The throne is mobile; it is in Babylon rather than Jerusalem.

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The Literary Structure of the Book

The first part announced the fall of the city and urged Israel to give up its delusions and false hopes of speedy relief. Divine judgment had to come, for only a divine action makes possible the reign of God. The reign of God means, fist, the overturning of the false rule of the pagan nations (25-32) and, second, the implementation of the justice of God in the land (33-48). The implementation has three aspects: (1) a new exodus and conquest of the land (33-37); (2) the vanquishing of primordial evil greater than that in any one nation (38-39); and (3) the new temple-city, the return of the Lord who departed in chapter 11, the regulations of the new worship, the river coming from the Temple, and the new encampment of the tribes around the temple-city (40-48). A detailed outline illuminates the significance of the structure...(coming later this week)

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The Literary Structure of the Book

Of all the prophetic books, Ezekiel is arranged with the most skill and purpose. To some extent, the structure is the message. Chapter 1 through 24 are oracles against Judah; 25 through 32 are oracles against foreign nations; and 33 through 48 are oracles of restoration for Judah and Jerusalem. Since the oracles against the foreign nations are by that fact for Judah, they can be viewed under restoration. The whole book falls into two equal parts, doom (1--24) and restoratiion (25-48). Like a good sentinel (3, 16-21; 33, 1-6). Ezekiel preached doom and warning right up to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. After that great event, his task was to preach restoration. The two halves of the book are closely connected.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

That enemy is Gog of the land of Magog. Only when he and his armies are defeated (38-39) can the Temple be built. With Gog of the land of Magog eliminated, the Lord can build his city and decree new ordinances. When one appreciates the mythic nature of these chapters, one realized that Ezekiel is speaking of the far future in these chapters. Before the new world can come in definitively, evil itself, which is more than the evil of any one nation, has to be defeated. One can see how a mythological perspective enables the prophet to speak of matters that transcend history as such, yet without cutting loose from history, for he is speaking of history's goal.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

Though every version of the combat myth was unique, there was a basic polot; a power (often depicted as a monster) threatens the cosmic and political order of the universe. The assembly of the gods cannot find a senior god to repel the monster; the assembly appoints a young god, promising him kingship if he succeeds. Defeating the monster, the god restores the prethreat order (in some versions creates the world), builds a palace, and is acclaimed king by the gods. In biblical adaptations of the combat myth, the victory of the warrior God is normally the creation of the world or the creation of Israel. Ezekiel's adaptation of the combat myth is clearest in chapters 38 through 48. Before the Lord can build his palace and city, an enemy, greater and more resistant than the historical nations mentioned in chapters 25 through 32, must be faced and defeated.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

The Lord is here portrayed as the divine warrior, a familiar portrayal in ancient Near Eastern religion and art (and in the Bible as well, for example, in Ex 15; 1Kgs. 18,41-46; 19, 1-18). How much more effective and "true" is Ezekiel's mythic-historical report of his experience in 1, 3-3, 15 than a bare and unadorned statement that the Lord had appeared to him! Ezekiel's language conveys a sense of the transcendent. The mythic motifs are not mere decoration, however. They occur within a story, called by modern scholars " the combat myth," which was widely known in the ancient Near East from the third millennium BC to well into the common era. Ezekiel assumes that his hearers and readers know the story.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

Ezekiel also draws on mythological traditions. According to one definition, a myth is a traditional story set in the promordial past and involving supernatural elements. Myth and history are not necessarily opposed; mythological concepts and language were emmployed by biblical authors to show the transcendent significance of the historical laws and events they interpreted. Ezekiel, for example, used mythological language to describe his vision at the Chebar canal: the Lord appears to him in a storm cloud, luminous yet dark with water, borne by four composite figures having traits of animals and humans.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

Each tradition has distinctive ideas about sin and holiness. In P, the Temple is the primary locale of holiness, and in H, it is the land. Ezekiel seems to straddle the two viewpoints: Chapter 8 through 11 focus on the holiness in the Temple, and chapters 40 through 48 focus on the holiness in the land in its concern to arrange the tribal allotments around the Temple in the center. His priestly outlook is consistent. For him, Israel's sin consisted in defiling the sanctuary (5, 11), in committing "abominations" (a term used in worship, e.g., 5, 9; 7,4; chapters 8 and 11), and in worshipping images (14, 3-5). An important metaphor for him is the priestly one of uncleanness (e.g., 20, 30-31; 22, 26; 36, 18). Uncleanness plays an important role in the long allegory of the two sisters in chapters 16 and 23, and in his attack on against the mountains, corrupted by the people's abominations. In chapter 18, Ezekiel gives a priestly torah, or teaching, on the question whether the guilt of one generation is passed on to the next.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

The most important traditions of Ezekiel are priestly, although it is difficult to trace exactly all the antecedents of his vision in the existing priestly traditions in Exodus 25-31 and 35-40 (the tabernacle with its equipment and rituals). Leviticus, and Numbers 1 through 10. There are similarities in Ezekiel to the so-called Holiness Code (Lv 17-26), a collectrion of laws concerned with the holiness of the people and the land they are entering. Examples of such similarities are the phrase, " for I, the Lord, am your God" (Lv. 26, 2; in Ezekiel, " I am the Lord") as a motive to act rightly, and the mixing of "ritual" and "moral" laws (e.g., Lv.19). Some scholars distinguish two traditions in Leviticus, a "priestly code" in chapters 1 through 16 (abbreviated P) and a "holiness code" in chapters 17 through 26 (abbreviated H).

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

In contrast, the ancestor of Zadok, Phineas, had shown himself a zealous defender of orthodox worship, and so it is only fitting that his descendants, the Zadokites, are made priests in the renewed liturgy. One may also note that the mountain in chapters 40 through 48 is associated with Mount Sinai; chapters 40 through 48 is the only body of law not uttered by Moses; and Ezekiel plays the role of Moses providing the plans for a Temple and arranging for the encampment of the tribes. To Ezekiel is revealed the blueprint of the divine dwelling, as it was to Moses in Exodus 25, 9. The purpose of the revelation on the mountain in Ezekiel is right worship and the proper ordering of the community, the same purpose as the legal material in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

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The Traditions That Exzekiel Used

The warrant for demoting one group and promoting another was apparently inspired by the people's apostasy and punishment in Numbers 25. Phineas, of the line of Aaron, killed the apostates and it was reckoned "for him and for his descendants after him the pledge of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous on behalf of his God and thus made amends for the Israelites" (Nm 25, 13), A true priest rejects all foreigners in worship. The Levitical priests had been lax in excluding them from preexilic worship (Ez 8-11; 44, 10-14).

The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

Another instance of the centrality of the Exodus is found in the account of the new temple-city and worship in chapters 40 through 48. Ezekiel 45, 7-17, 21-25 and 46, 1-18 speak of the (Hebrew nasi) instead of the king. Why? Because, it seems, the prophet wants to return to the ideals of the Exodus period, before there was a king. In ancient tradition, the nasi was the leader of each tribe in the march in the desert (Nm 2 and 7). Another indication of the importanace of the Exodus is Ezekiel's demotion of the Levitical priests and promotion of the Zadokites (44, 6-16; 48, 11).

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

The prophet must unmask the false hopes that have deluded the people up to this point. He could not allow even the Exodus, the sacred moment of foundation, to be a source of pride. Israel was unfaithful even then. The people's only hope was the Lord, and in the last part of chapter 20 (vv. 33-44) Ezekiel outlined in glowing terms how the Lord, with a dazzling display of power, would enter into judgment with the people and lead them in a new exodus.

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

Why did Ezekiel radically devalue the revered traditions of the Exodus? The elders consulted him in 591 (20,1); in four years the siege would begin that will bring down Jeruusalem and the Temple. Ezekiel had to prepare the people to believe that the destruction would be the Lord's doing...

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The Traditions That Ezekiel Used

Ezekiel employed several traditions: the Exodus (especially the building of the tabernacle with its kabod, "glory") and the wilderness journey; Israelite and ancient Near Eastern traditiions about the Temple and temple-city; and mythological traditions about the creation and maintenance of the world.

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