Ezekiel

Hebrew prophet

• Born: c. 627 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Jerusalem, Judah (now in Israel)
• Died: c. 570 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Babylonia (now in Iraq)

As a visionary and prophetic leader, Ezekiel was one of a number of individuals who held the Jewish community together during the early years of the Babylonian Exile (586-538 b.c.e.). His visions and consolatory prophecies encouraged those in exile to look toward the day of the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem.

Early Life

All knowledge about Ezekiel (ih-ZEEK-yuhl) is drawn from direct statements in the biblical book of Ezekiel or inferences from it. To develop a picture of his life, one must compare this material with that gathered from other books of the Hebrew Bible and additional contemporary texts. The twentieth century tendency to discount much of the book of Ezekiel as later editorial writing has given way to an acceptance of the bulk of the material as coming from Ezekiel; later revisions are assumed to have originated from Ezekiel himself or those close to him.

Ezekiel was born in Jerusalem around the time of the Josiah reforms (c. 627) to a priestly family of the Zadok line. His father’s name is given as Buzi. Ezekiel in his writing shows great familiarity and concern with the temple cult, and it is likely that he was part of the priestly cult and an important member of the hierarchy.

Ezekiel’s life and career were played out against the background of ancient Near Eastern world events. By the end of the seventh century b.c.e.Nebuchadnezzar II had helped his father, Nabopolassar, defeat the Assyrians and take over the southern part of that empire, including the kingdom of Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar succeeded his father as king, Judah, under King Jehoiakim, rebelled against Babylon (2 Kings 24:2). In 598, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Judah. Jehoiakim was assassinated, and his eighteen-year-old son, Jehoiachin (also known as Coniah), was placed on the throne. Three months later, defeated, he and his court were taken into exile in Babylon, and his uncle, Zedekiah, was given control of the state.

Ezekiel was one of those taken with King Jehoiachin into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in 597. This event was sufficiently important for Ezekiel to use it as the starting point for calculating the dates of his prophecies. Those prophecies that are dated are based on the number of years from the beginning of Jehoiachin’s exile.

Ezekiel’s marriage is attested by a reference to his wife’s death in Babylonia. He had a residence that was sufficiently large to hold a gathering of the elders of the Israelites in Babylonia. His prophecies suggest that he was resident at Tel Aviv near Nippur in Babylonia. Ezekiel’s mystic personality and his prophetic role should not be allowed to mask his position as an important member of the priestly establishment who continued to function in a leadership role in exile. While there is no direct proof, the linguistic similarities and priestly concerns exhibited in Ezekiel’s writings are not inconsistent with his inclusion among the “priestly” writers who were responsible for the preservation of many of the Israelite traditions of history and worship, which culminated in the creation of the Torah.

Life’s Work

Ezekiel’s call to prophecy is dramatically described in the opening phrases of his book. He was thirty years old at the time, resident in Tel Aviv, and standing on the Chebar canal. Ezekiel, in his prophetic actions and utterances, is revealed to be a dramatic mystic. Some have described his condition as that of a catatonic schizophrenic, and his actions as reported by him are congruent with clinical descriptions of that condition.

After Ezekiel received his call, he apparently abandoned all normal discourse and spoke only to utter the words of the Lord, Yahweh, as revealed to him, accompanied on several occasions by graphic symbolic actions. In this first period, Ezekiel’s prophecies centered on the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem, the impious actions of Zedekiah (the regent in Jerusalem), the futility of depending on Egypt for deliverance, and the false nature of prophets who predicted such deliverance. The prophecies were written in a mixture of poetry and prose notable for graphic imagery, dramatic vocabulary, and extensive parables. In addition to the prophecies against Jerusalem, the prophecies against foreign nations reserved most of their invective for Tyre and Egypt, the two allies of Zedekiah against Babylon. In all these matters, Ezekiel’s prophecies were paralleled by those of Jeremiah writing from Egypt to Babylonia. In both cases, their prophecies stemmed from activities taking place in Jerusalem and the importance of the homeland for the exiles.

After the final fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 and the entrance of the second wave of exiles into Babylonia, the general tenor of Ezekiel’s prophecies changed from one of denunciation to one of hope and encouragement. It is assumed that at that time Ezekiel returned to normal, everyday activity. Even in this period, however, he seems periodically to have gone into a catatonic state in which he claimed to have visionary and out-of-body experiences, which he then recorded in detail. Of these, the most famous are the vision of the valley of the dry bones and that of the restored temple and the city of Jerusalem. This extensive passage shows the idealized Temple under priestly control.

In the period after 586 there were several overreaching problems facing the Israelite (or Jewish) community. First, and most important, was gathering the community together and encouraging it to continue the ancestral belief in Yahweh and the covenant agreement. To the exile this was no small problem, for the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians would have been regarded universally as a defeat of Yahweh by the chief Babylonian god, Marduk, through the actions of Nebuchadnezzar. With Marduk having proved himself the stronger god, there would have been no compelling reason to continue the cult of Yahweh, particularly in exile. It was uniquely Ezekiel in Babylonia and Jeremiah in Egypt who interpreted the actions of Nebuchadnezzar as directed by Yahweh against his own people for not upholding the covenant agreement. The emphasis on the position of the deity in Ezekiel is made clear by the constant use in the prophecies of the phrase “Adonai Yahweh,” which emphasizes his continuing power. (Because “Adonai” is usually translated as “Lord,” most translations use “Lord God,” which is the normal translation of the Hebrew “Adonai Elohim.” Grammatically, the form in Ezekiel is usually described as an emphatic form.)

Ezekiel’s prophecies either ceased or were not recorded after 571. There was a revision to the prophecy of the destruction of Tyre that suggests an unwillingness on the part of Ezekiel or his editor to change the wording of the earlier prophecy, preferring instead to add a corrected version. He may well have continued his nonprophetic activities after that date, including the preparation of the book of Ezekiel.

Evidence of Ezekiel’s death, although recorded late and not from the most secure sources, should not be neglected. Evidence from the third century c.e. Dura Synagogue wall painting and the fourth century Christian work on the lives of the prophets suggests that Ezekiel was arrested by the authorities and executed under the orders of Jehoiachin. What brought this about is unknown, but given Ezekiel’s orientation it is not hard to conclude that his words could have aroused official opposition. It has been suggested that Ezekiel had realistic expectations of the restoration of the temple in his lifetime. Only the death of Nebuchadnezzar and the incompetence of his successors postponed that event until the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Persian liberator of Babylon.

Significance

The personality of Ezekiel as expressed in his book is a forceful and enduring one that has become part of the religious heritage of Judaism and Christianity. He presents himself as a mixture of opposites. There is the mystic visionary and the priest concerned with minutiae of cult and religious law. He is a superb poet but at the same time can write in the most pedestrian prose. His words seem strange, even repulsive, but then reveal a sympathetic and sensitive nature. He revels in symbolic acts and elaborate allegories one moment and speaks with directness and bluntness the next. By uniting these contradictions, he has impressed himself on tradition.

Ezekiel was one of the primary architects of Judaism. Faced with a historical situation in which the abandonment of the covenant was a high probability, not only was Ezekiel one of the few who demanded that the Israelites keep the covenant, but he also outlined the procedures and methods for doing so in the exilic environment, thus laying the foundations for Judaism. In addition to emphasizing the importance of the covenant, Ezekiel was one of the first to stress the importance of individual responsibility over collective or familial responsibility. In the recognition of God working outside Judah and through non-Israelite rulers, Ezekiel developed a concept of a universal deity while still holding to particularistic practices that became basic to all subsequent Judaism.

The influences of Ezekiel on Christianity have been less obvious but are nevertheless significant. His concepts of salvation and divine grace point to the reinterpretations of the concepts by the Apostle Paul. The unique prophetic use of the term “Son of Man” (in Hebrew, ben-adam) to indicate Ezekiel’s special position as prophet had a strong effect on early Christian writers. His general mysticism found its way into the writings of the Apostle John and the book of Revelation. This influence is most clear in Ezekiel’s prophecies on Gog and Magog as the ultimate foes before the establishment of God’s kingdom.

Bibliography

Boccaccini, Gabriele. Roots of Rabbinic Judaism: An Intellectural History, from Ezekiel to Daniel. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdman’s, 2001. Examines early roots of the Rabbinic system of thought in the period from the Babylonian Exile to the Maccabean revolt, or from Ezekiel to Daniel.

Broome, Edwin C., Jr. “Ezekiel’s Abnormal Personality.” Journal of Biblical Literature 65 (September, 1946): 277-292. A fascinating and convincing account of the mental state of the prophet. Suggests that Ezekiel’s visions and descriptions are not incompatible with his being able to remember them in detail and to function normally while not in such a condition.

Eissfeldt, Otto. The Old Testament: An Introduction. Translated by Peter Ackroyd. New York: Harper and Row, 1976. This volume, with its skilled exposition and clear analysis, is still an excellent introduction, of which there are many.

Goodenough, Erwin R. Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period. Vols. 9-11 in Symbolism in the Dura Synagogue. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988. The short section in this rather large work concerned with the late Roman synagogue paintings at Dura is the best available clear exposition of the traditions of the death of Ezekiel.

Gottwald, Norman K. The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985. Well-written and up-to-date analysis of the Hebrew Bible. Useful for information on Ezekiel and his background. Includes excellent bibliography.

Greenberg, Moshe. Ezekiel, 1-20. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983. A definitive translation, with extensive introduction, translation, notes on the translation and textual problems, commentary, and bibliography. The notes and comments are particularly extensive.