Ezekiel

Ezekiel the Prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures is depicted on a 1510 Sistine Chapel fresco by Michelangelo.

Ezekiel or Yechezkel (Hebrew: יְחֶזְקֵאל — "God will strengthen") was a major prophet in the Hebrew Bible. His prophetic ministry spanned the period between 592 to 570 B.C.E., and he is regarded as the author of much of the biblical Book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was the most important prophet of the Jewish exile in Babylon. He was apparently a younger contemporary of Jeremiah, who also addressed many of his prophecies to the exiles but remained for the most part in Jerusalem. A former priest, he bemoaned the fate of Israel and Judah and called for a revival of faith centering on the hope of a rebuilt Temple of Jerusalem and a messianic king. Although his book gives a good deal of attention to priestly issues, its more lasting contributions deal with the moral principles of what later become known as ethical monotheism. Ezekiel also gave encouragement to the exiles, assuring them that God has not abandoned them and that the sins of their immediate ancestors will not be held against them (Ezekiel 18).

Many of Ezekiel's prophecies take the form of poetry. He participated viscerally in his prophetic pronouncements through fasts and other mortifications of the flesh. The death of his own wife was, to Ezekiel, directly associated with the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, which God Himself ordained (Ezek. 24:15-24). His expressions of God's pain and anger are striking, even disturbing, to modern readers in the violent sexual imagery the prophet uses to describe God's rage against Israel's and Judah's idolatrous "fornication" (Ezek. 16; 23).

More than any other prophet, Ezekiel was a visionary. His several visions of angelic beings and vehicles are particularly vivid (Ezek. 1, 10). These later became important elements in the mystical traditions of the kabbalah. His revelation of the restored Temple in Jerusalem goes into minute architectural detail (Ezek. 40-44). Moreover his vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezek. 37), although originally referring to the revival of Israel as a people, became an important basis for the belief in the resurrection of the dead, both in Jewish and Christian traditons.

The exiled elders of Judah consulted Ezekiel, although it is debateable whether his prophecies had much immediate impact on the consciousness of exile community. His writings certainly became very important in later Jewish life as well as in both Jewish and Christian apocalypticism.

Biography

He was the son of Buzi, a priest of Jerusalem (Ezek. i. 3), and consequently a member of the Zadok family, As such he was among the aristocracy whom Nebuchadnezzar (597 B.C.E.), after the first capture of Jerusalem, carried off to be exiles in Babylonia (II Kings xxiv. 14). Ezekiel therefore reckons the years from the abduction of Jehoiachin (Ezek. i. 2, xxxiii. 21, xl. 1). He lived among a colony of fellow sufferers in or near Tel-abib on the River Chebar (not the River Chaboras), which probably formed an arm of the extensive Babylonian network of canals (iii. 15). Ezekiel was married (xxiv. 16-18), and lived in his own house (iii. 24, viii. 1). On the fifth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of his exile (Tammuz, 592 B.C.E.), he beheld on the banks of the Chebar the glory of the Lord, who consecrated him as His prophet (i. 1-iii. 13). The latest date in his book is the first day of the first month in the twenty-seventh year of his exile (Nisan, 570); consequently, his prophecies extended over twenty-twoyears. The elders of the exiles repeatedly visited him to obtain a divine oracle (viii., xiv., xx.). He exerted no permanent influence upon his contemporaries, however, whom he repeatedly calls the "rebellious house" (ii. 5, 6, 8; iii. 9, 26, 27; and elsewhere), complaining that although they flock in great numbers to hear him they regard his discourse as a sort of esthetic amusement, and fail to act in accordance with his words (xxxiii. 30-33). If the enigmatical date, "the thirtieth year" (i. 1), be understood to apply to the age of the prophet—and this view still has the appearance of probability—Ezekiel must have been born exactly at the time of the reform in the ritual introduced by Josiah. Concerning his death nothing is known.

Ezekiel occupies a distinct and unique position among the Hebrew Prophets. He stands midway between two epochs, drawing his conclusions from the one and pointing out the path toward the other. Through the destruction of the city and the Temple, the downfall of the state, and the banishment of the people the natural development of Israel was forcibly interrupted. Prior to these events Israel was a united and homogeneous nation. True, it was characterized by a spirit totally unlike that of any other people; and the consciousness of this difference had ever been present in the best and noblest spirits of Israel. The demands of state and people, however, had to be fulfilled, and to this end the monarchical principle was established. There is undoubtedly an element of truth in the opinion that the human monarchy was antagonistic to the dominion of God, and that the political life of Israel would tend to estrange the nation from its eternal spiritual mission. The prophecy of the pre-exilic period was compelled to take these factors into account, and ever addressed itself either to the people as a nation or to its leaders—king, princes, priests—and sometimes to a distinguished individual, such as Shebna, the minister of the royal house mentioned in Isa xxii. 15-25; so that the opinion arose that the Prophets themselves were merely a sort of statesmen.

Introduction

Ezekiel is a prophet who was instructed to act his prophesies. He was a prophet who loved drama and songwriting unlike the other prophets. He would sometimes do unbelievable things such as taking a potter's flask and smashing it to symbolize that Jerusalem will be destroyed and the people in Jerusalem will be scattered to the winds. His name means "Whom God makes strong."

The elders of the exiles repeatedly visited him to obtain a divine oracle (chapters 8, 14, 20). He exerted no permanent influence upon his contemporaries, however, whom he repeatedly calls the "rebellious house" (2:5, 6, 8; 3:9, 26, 27; and elsewhere), complaining that although they flock in great numbers to hear him they regard his discourse as a sort of aesthetic amusement, and fail to act in accordance with his words (33:30-33). If the enigmatical date, "the thirtieth year" (1:1), be understood to apply to the age of the prophet, Ezekiel was born exactly at the time of the reform in the ritual introduced by Josiah. Concerning his death nothing is known.

He had a house in the place of his exile, Tel-Aviv, where he lost his wife, in the ninth year of his exile, by some sudden and unforeseen stroke (Ezek. 8:1; 24:18).

His ministry extended over twenty-three years 595 - 573 B.C.E. (29:17), during part of which he was contemporary with Jeremiah, and probably also with Obadiah. According to tradition, he would also have been contemporary with Daniel (however, Daniel is regarded by some as being written much later, with Ezekiel's references to "Daniel" being seen as references to an ancient Ugaritic hero of that name, not a contemporary). The time and manner of his death are unknown. His reputed tomb is pointed out in the neighbourhood of Baghdad, at a place called Keffil.

After being led away by the Babylonians somewhere between 597 and 596, Ezekiel, along with the other Israelites, was resettled in Babylon. Ezekiel himself lived in his own home in exile at Tel-abib near Chebar canal, which was near Nippur in Babylonia.

Generally speaking, life was good in captivity. Unlike their ancestors who were enslaved by Egypt before being led to their land by Moses, the Jews of Ezekiel's time were able to become part of the society they found themselves in. The Israelite Exiles were told by Jeremiah not to worship the foreign gods, but he told them that they could become part of the Babylonian Culture. They did this well, often being called upon by the Babylonians to complete projects using their skills as artisans.

Unlike other enemies, the Babylonians allowed the Jewish people to settle in small groups.

While keeping their religious and national identities, many Jewish people did start to settle into their new environment. From building homes to opening businesses, the Jews seemed to settle into their exile land for the long haul.

This growing comfort in Babylon helps to explain why so many Jewish people decided not to return to their land. Many people would have been born in exile and would know nothing of their old land, so when the opportunity came for them to reclaim the land that was taken from them, many decided not to leave the Babylonian land they knew. This large group of people who decided to stay are known to be the oldest of the Diaspora communities along with the Jews of Persia.

His mission

With the Exile, monarchy and state were annihilated, and a political and national life was no longer possible. In the absence of a worldly foundation it became necessary to build upon a spiritual one. This mission Ezekiel performed by observing the signs of the time and by deducing his doctrines from them. In conformity with the two parts of his book his personality and his preaching are alike twofold. The events of the past must be explained. Although God has permitted His city and Temple to be destroyed and His people to be led into exile, yet God has by this inaction betrayed no sign of impotency or weakness; Ezekiel asserts that God was compelled to do it because of the sins of the people. Nevertheless, there is no reason to despair for God does not desire the death of the sinner, but his reformation. The Lord will remain the God of Israel, and Israel will remain His people. As soon as Israel recognizes the sovereignty of the Lord and acts accordingly, God will restore the people, in order that they may fulfil their eternal mission and that He may truly dwell in the midst of them. This, however, can not be accomplished until every individual reforms and makes the will of the Lord his law.

Ezekiel's personality

Herein lies the individualistic tendency which distinguishes him from his predecessors. He conceives it as his prophetic mission to strive to reach his brethren and compatriots individually, to follow them, and to win them back to God; and he considers himself personally responsible for every individual soul. Those redeemed were to form the congregation of the new Temple, and to exemplify by their lives the truth of the word that Israel was destined to become a "kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6). Law and worship—these are the two focal points of Ezekiel's hope for the future. The people become a congregation; the nation, a religious fraternity. Political aims and tasks no longer exist; and monarchy and state have become absorbed in the pure dominion of God. Thus Ezekiel has stamped upon post-exilic Judaism its peculiar character; and herein lies his unique religio-historical importance.

Yet another feature of Ezekiel's personality is the pathological. With no other prophet are vision and ecstasy so prominent; and he repeatedly refers to symptoms of severe maladies, such as paralysis of the limbs and of the tongue (3:25 et seq.), from which infirmities he is relieved only upon the announcement of the downfall of Jerusalem (24:27, 33:22).

Ezekiel also exhibits one of the most down to earth and bawdy attitudes of all the biblical authors, comparing the idolatry of Israel to the behaviour of a prostitute in a notorious passage (chapter 23). Ezekiel describes the prostitute's lovers as having genitals which resemble those of donkeys and whose ejaculate was like the issue of horses.

Ezekiel in Jewish literature

Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is said to have been a descendant of Joshua by his marriage with the proselyte Rahab (Talmud Meg. 14b; Midrash Sifre, Num. 78). Some scholars claim that he (Ezekiel) was Jeremiah or the son of Jeremiah, who was (also) called "Buzi" because he was despised by the Jews. He was already active as a prophet while in Palestine, and he retained this gift when he was exiled with Jehoiachin and the nobles of the country to Babylon (Josephus, Ant. x. 6, § 3: "while he was still a boy"; comp. Rashi on Sanh. 92b, above). In the event Jeremiah and Ezekiel were indeed the same person, Hilkiah the priest was his father.

Although in the beginning of the book he describes the appearance of the throne of God, this is not due to the fact that he had seen more than Isaiah, but because the latter was more accustomed to such visions; for the relation of the two prophets is that of a courtier to a peasant, the latter of whom would always describe a royal court more floridly than the former, to whom such things would be familiar (Ḥag. 13b). Ezekiel, like all the other prophets, has beheld only a blurred reflection of the divine majesty, just as a poor mirror reflects objects only imperfectly (Midrash Lev. Rabbah i. 14, toward the end).

According to midrash Canticles Rabbah, it was Ezekiel whom the three pious men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, (Shadrach, Miesheck, and Obednigo in Christian Bibles) asked for advice as to whether they should resist Nebuchadnezzar's command and choose death by fire rather than worship his idol. At first God revealed to the prophet that they could not hope for a miraculous rescue; whereupon the prophet was greatly grieved, since these three men constituted the "remnant of Judah". But after they had left the house of the prophet, fully determined to sacrifice their lives to God, Ezekiel received this revelation: "Thou dost believe indeed that I will abandon them. That shall not happen; but do thou let them carry out their intention according to their pious dictates, and tell them nothing" (Midrash Canticles Rabbah vii. 8).

Resurrection of the dead

Ezekiel's greatest miracle consisted in his resuscitation of the dead, which is recounted in chapter 37 of the Book of Ezekiel. There are different traditions as to the fate of these men, both before and after their resurrection, and as to the time at which it happened. Some say that they were godless people, who in their lifetime had denied the resurrection, and committed other sins; others think they were those Ephraimites who tried to escape from Egypt before Moses and perished in the attempt. There are still others who maintain that after Nebuchadnezzar had carried the beautiful youths of Judah to Babylon, he had them executed and their bodies mutilated, because their beauty had entranced the Babylonian women, and that it was these youths whom Ezekiel called back to life.

The miracle was performed on the same day on which the three men were cast into the fiery furnace; namely, on the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement (Cant. R. vii. 9). Nebuchadnezzar, who had made a drinking-cup from the skull of a murdered Jew, was greatly astonished when, at the moment that the three men were cast into the furnace, the bodies of the dead boys moved, and, striking him in the face, cried out: "The companion of these three men revives the dead!" (see a Karaite record of this episode in Judah Hadasi's "Eshkol ha-Kofer," 45b, at foot; 134a, end of the section). When the boys awakened from death, they rose up and joined in a song of praise to God for the miracle vouchsafed to them; later, they went to Palestine, where they married and reared children.

As early as the second century, however, some authorities declared this resurrection of the dead was a prophetic vision: an opinion regarded by Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed, II:46) and his followers as the only rational explanation of the Biblical passage.

Ezekiel the Tragedian

There was another ancient Jewish Ezekiel, other than the one discussed above, who according to Eusebius wrote Greek tragedies on biblical matters, including one called Exagoge, recounting the Exodus, of which fragments have survived.

Ezekiel and Other Faiths

Some Muslims believe that Ezekiel may be Dhul-Kifl, a figure who is mentioned in the following Qur'anic verse:

"And (remember) Ismail (Ishmael) and Idris (Enoch) and Dhul-Kifl, all were from among those who observe patience." (Surah 21: 85-86)

Other Muslims believe Dhul-Kifl may be the same person as Gautama Buddha, taking 'Kifl' to be the Arabic pronunciation of Kapilvastu, a place where he spent 30 years of his life, and use this as evidence to describe the Buddha as a prophet.

Ezekiel and Epilepsy

Some scholars have suggested that Ezekiel may have suffered from epilepsy. Specifically, it is claimed that Ezekiel may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy, which has several characteristic symptoms that are apparent from his writing. These symptoms include hypergraphia, hyperreligiosity, fainting spells, mutism and pedantism, often collectively ascribed to a condition known as Geschwind syndrome.

See also

• Book of Ezekiel, a book in the Hebrew (Tanakh) and Christian Bibles.
• List of names referring to El.
• The Prophecy That Is Shaping History: New Research on Ezekiel's Vision of the End, 2003[1]

Notes

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