Ezekiel S Hierarchical World

From the Seminar on Theological Perspectives on the Book of Ezekiel, which meets at each annual meeting of the Society, 12 essays and two responses representing a range of perspectives and methods explore the ancient and modern meanings and implications of hierarchy in the Old Testament book. Priesthood in exile, creation as property, and Ezekiel i

Can we live with the God of Ezekiel? Can we relate to a God who has established a multilayered hierarchy that separates the divine from the human, who creates boundaries that segregate people from the temple, the priesthood, and the glory of the Lord? In contrast to those who suggest that Ezekiel should no longer be read as an authoritative part of the canon, the essays in this volume engage Ezekiels hierarchical world directly, neither dismissing it out of hand nor accepting it uncritically.

Jason Gile argues that the ideas of Deuteronomy influenced Ezekiel's response to the crisis surrounding the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile in significant ways, shaping how he saw Israel's past history of rebellion against Yahweh, present situation of divine judgment, and future hope of restoration. By examining Ezekiel's use of Deuteronomy's language and concepts, Gile stresses that the prophet not only accepted distinctive elements of Deuteronomic theology but in some cases drew from specific texts. The main body of this volume describes Deuteronomy's influence on Ezekiel under five main categories: Ezekiel's language and conception of idolatry, the rise and fall of Israel in chapter 16, Ezekiel's view of Israel's history in chapter 20, the scattering of Israel as an image for exile, and the related motif of gathering as an image for return to the land. Gile concludes that Ezekiel's use of its language for his messages of indictment, judgment, and hope shows that the prophet regarded Deuteronomy, along with the Holiness Code, as Yahweh's torah given to Israel in the wilderness.

The book argues that the relationship between Yahweh's ruah and Yahweh's word in the book of Ezekiel is to be understood not so much in terms of the inspiration and authentication of the prophet but in terms of the transformation of the book's addressees.

Ezekiel is one of the best-structured books in the Old Testament. It is commonly recognized that the strongly interrelated vision accounts (Ez 1:1–3:15; 8–11; 37:1–14; 40–48) contribute greatly to this impression of unity. However, there is a marked lacuna in publications focusing on the vision accounts in Ezekiel as an interconnected text corpus. The present study combines redaction-critical analysis with literary methods that are typically used in a synchronic approach. Drawing on the paradigm of Fortschreibung, it is the first to present a united redaction history that takes into account the growing interconnections and dependencies between the vision accounts. Building on these results, the second part follows the development of selected themes, such as the relationships between characters, the roles of intermediate figures and anthropological and theological implications, throughout the stages of redaction. The study thus represents an important step towards an understanding of the complex redaction history of the book of Ezekiel, and indeed of its theology. The combination of diachronic and synchronic methods makes it relevant for scholars of both directions and is itself a methodological statement.

This powerful collection of essays focuses on the representation of God in the Book of Ezekiel. With topics spanning across projections of God, through to the implications of these creations, the question of the divine presence in Ezekiel is explored. Madhavi Nevader analyses Divine Sovereignty and its relation to creation, while Dexter E. Callender Jnr and Ellen van Wolde route their studies in the image of God, as generated by the character of Ezekiel. The assumption of the title is then inverted, as Stephen L. Cook writes on 'The God that the Temple Blueprint Creates', which is taken to its other extreme by Marvin A. Sweeney in his chapter on 'The Ezekiel that God Creates', and finds a nice reconciliation in Daniel I. Block's chapter, 'The God Ezekiel Wants Us to Meet.' Finally, two essays from Christian biblical scholar Nathan MacDonald and Jewish biblical scholar, Rimon Kasher, offer a reflection on the essays about Ezekiel and his God.

Ezekiel's Visionary Temple in Babylonian Context examines evidence from Babylonian sources to better understand Ezekiel's vision of the future temple as it appears in chapters 40–48. Tova Ganzel argues that Neo-Babylonian temples provide a meaningful backdrop against which many unique features of Ezekiel's vision can and should be interpreted. In pointing to the similarities between Neo-Babylonian temples and the description in the book of Ezekiel, Ganzel demonstrates how these temples served as a context for the prophet's visions and describes the extent to which these similarities provide a further basis for broader research of the connections between Babylonia and the Bible. Ultimately, she argues the extent to which the book of Ezekiel models its temple on those of the Babylonians. Thus, this book suggests a comprehensive picture of the book of Ezekiel’s worldview and to contextualize its visionary temple by comparing its vision to the actual temples surrounding the Judeans in exile.

Focusing on concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the ancient Mediterranean, this volume contributes new aspects to the current discussion about the forming of religious traditions, from a comparative perspective that acknowldges individual developments, mutual exchanges, as well as transcultural processes.