EZEKIEL, BOOK OF

Old Testament book containing the message of exilic Prophet ezekiel. This article treats of the book's authenticity, structure and contents, literary character, and theology.

Authenticity. From time immemorial the Book of Ezekiel was listed, practically without opposition, in the Jewish canon as one of the Major Prophets; as a matter of course it passed into the canon of the Church. Criticism, too, initially dealt very kindly with the book. Its rigid and straightforward chronology, its logical development from first to last, its distinctive and consistent style, were all taken at face value as proclaiming it throughout the literary work of the exilic Prophet whose life was so thoroughly implicated in the communication of its message.

At the beginning of the 20th century, however, critical opinion began to change. Literary criticism established the redactional character of the book, and on this followed the attempt to determine the quantity of authentic Ezekielian material. Gustav Hölscher (1924) set this material at somewhat less than half the book and assigned its substance to a redactor of the fifth century b.c. The most radical solution was probably that of Charles C. Torrey (1930), for whom the Prophet Ezekiel never existed as a historical personage, and for whom the book was a pseudepigraphon of the Hellenistic age. William A. Irwin (1943) also considered the substance of the book to be Hellenistic; however, he salvaged a Prophet Ezekiel from it by fragmenting the text verse by verse and sometimes word by word, leaving the prophet about one quarter of the work. At least one Catholic author, A. van den Born (1953, 1954), followed the tendency to make the book pseudepigraphical.

Opposing such critics were always others who adhered in varying degrees to the traditional acceptance of the book and its author, and it is this conservative view that has prevailed. Though they may differ on many details, especially concerning the chronology of the Prophet's ministry, most contemporary critics and commentators would probably agree that the substance of Ezekiel goes back to an authentic Prophet of the Exile and portrays with essential accuracy the significance of his prophecy. The redactional character of Ezekiel no longer stands in isolation; this was the rule rather than the exception in the composition of the works of the "literary" Prophets, which have reached us through the collections and redactions made by their disciples. By the same token, supplementation and expansion of the prophetic material was the rule rather than the exception in the schools that transmitted it. Thanks to archeology, the exilic experience with which Ezekiel deals is now much better known and understood, and there is less temptation to dismiss or reconstruct the Biblical records. Finally, even though Ezekiel stands out among the preexilic Prophets in his concern for ritual matters, modern-day study of prophetism no longer finds the joining of prophetic and priestly religions the anomaly it was once thought; moreover, this association is typical of the postexilic Prophets, among whom Ezekiel ought perhaps better to be classified.

Structure and Contents. To set the nature of the Book of Ezekiel in clearer light, a detailed analysis of its structure and contents is given here. By its very structure the book falls into three main sections: (1) oracles for Israel before the destruction of Jerusalem: ch. 1–24; (2) oracles against the foreign nations: ch. 25–32; (3) oracles for Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem: ch. 33–48.

Oracles for Israel before the Destruction of Jerusalem: ch. 1–24. Apart from certain redactional insertions from a later period, all the oracles in ch. 1–24 antedate the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 b.c. In this part of the book the following 20 sections (of unequal length) may be distinguished:

1. 1.1–3.15 (dated July 31, 593): Ezekiel's vision of the glory of God and his call to prophecy; the account is redactional, and doublets of the same or of similar visions have been combined to form it.
2. 3.16a: an introduction that probably went originally with the symbolic actions described in ch. 4–5.
3. 3.16b–21: an account from a later part of Ezekiel's ministry that has been set at the beginning of the book by the redactor in view of the Prophet's over-all significance for Israel; historically, it belongs with 33.1–20.
4. 3.22–27: another redactional anticipation; this is the first part of the symbolic dumbness of Ezekiel (when his prophecy consisted in deeds rather than words) before the final fall of Jerusalem; historically it goes with 24.25–27 and 33.21–22.
5. 4.1–5.15: symbolic actions signifying the coming siege and destruction of Jerusalem.
6. 6.1–7.27: prophecies in word signifying the same destruction to come; as is true of the preceding, this is a collection of similar prophecies from various occasions.
7. 8.1–11.21 (dated Sept. 17, 592): Ezekiel's vision of Jerusalem and the Temple; this is a redactional account, composed from multiple visions, which can be separated with some certainty.
8. 12.1–20: acts symbolic of the Exile from Jerusalem.
9. 12.21–14.11: a collection of oracles concerning prophecy, true and false, in Judah and Chaldea.
10. 14.12–23: discourse on personal responsibility.
11. 15.1–16.52: allegories concerning Jerusalem; to these have been added two passages symbolizing Jerusalem as a vine and as a faithless spouse.
12. 16.53–63: two prophecies concerning the doom and the future salvation of Israel.
13. 17.1–19.14: allegories on the kings of Judah; these involve Zedekiah's rebellion against Chaldea (allegory in 17.1–10, explained in 17.11–21), a passage to which a messianic prophecy has been appended (17.22–24, postexilic, probably not by Ezekiel), and two "dirges" over Zedekiah (19.1–9 and 19.10–14); before the dirges a prophetic-priestly discourse or a series of discourses on personal responsibility has been inserted (ch.18).
14. 20.1–44 (dated Aug. 14, 591): a discourse or series of discourses on Israel's religious infidelity, concluded with a prophecy of restoration.
15. 21.1–37: prophecies connected by the catchword "sword"; these are of mixed character: the sword of Yahweh against Judah (21.1–10; complemented by a symbolic act, 21.11–12), the song of the sword of the Lord (21.13–22), the sword of the Chaldeans against Jerusalem (21.23–28; complemented by an "antimessianic" prophecy in 21.29–32), and the sword of the Lord against the Ammonites (21.33–37; topically connected with the preceding, but probably not Ezekiel's).
16. 22.1–31: a series of prophetic-priestly discourses on the sins of Jerusalem and Israel.
17. 23.1–49: the allegory of the two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, representing Samaria and Jerusalem.
18. 24.1–14 (dated Jan. 15, 588): symbolic action and prophecy announcing the investing of Jerusalem.
19. 24.15–24: symbolic action prophesying the destruction of the city.
20. 24.25–27: announcing the end of Ezekiel's dumbness; cf. 3.22–27 above.

Oracles against the Foreign Nations: ch. 25–32. As is usually the case in the postexilic editions of the prophetic works, the prophet's words against foreign nations have been gathered here and used to separate his prophecies against Israel from those that speak of its salvation. Successively they deal with Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Phoenicia, and Egypt. It is evident that they have been arranged topically rather than chronologically; however, seven of them are dated, including (in 29.17–21, against Egypt) one that bears the latest date of any Ezekielian prophecy (April 26, 571).

Oracles for Israel after the Destruction of Jerusalem: ch. 33–48. In this part of the book the following 12 sections may be distinguished:

1. 33.1–9: the prophet as watchman; cf. 3.16b–21.
2. 33.10–20: on individual responsibility.
3. 33.21–22 (dated Jan. 8, 585): the end of Ezekiel's dumbness; cf. 3.22–27; 24.25–27.
4. 33.23–29: prophecy against the Judaite survivors.
5. 33.30–33: against Ezekiel's critics in Babylon.
6. 34.1–31: the false shepherds of Israel's past and present contrasted with the Lord, the Good Shepherd; the promise of restoration.
7. 35.1–15: a series of prophecies against Edom, which had cooperated in the Chaldean devastation of Judah.
8. 36.1–38: prophecies concerning the regeneration of Israel, the land and the people.
9. 37.1–14: the vision of the dry bones prophesying Israel's resurrection.
10. 37.15–28: symbolic action portraying the restoration of Israel and Judah.
11. 38.1–39.29: prophecies against Gog, an apocalyptic and symbolic figure; the eschatological purview probably indicates that these are not Ezekiel's.
12. 40.1–48.35 (dated April 28, 573): an extended vision of the new Temple-to-be, described in loving detail, together with a utopian view of the new Israel, its laws and institutions; while the nucleus of the material is certainly Ezekiel's, it has doubtless been much expanded and developed by later writers.

Literary Character. As the foregoing analysis indicates, the Book of Ezekiel contains a mixture of many types of prophetical literature, some of them peculiar to this prophet. It abounds in symbolic actions to a greater degree than do the other prophetic books, and the symbolisms tend to be more involved and allegorical and more systematically connected with the prophetic message than was the case with earlier prophets. The allegorical vision, too, is quite typical of Ezekiel; its involved and often bizarre symbolism becomes the model for the subsequent apocalyptic style. A strong priestly influence may be felt in some of the discourses that adopt a legal approach to morality. The same kind of influence is even more apparent in the final chapters with their concern for the Sadocite priesthood, its laws and institutions, and the ritual and practice of the new Temple.

The text of Ezekiel is often very obscure in details and is more than usually overladen with glossings and expansions. Ezekiel's own style is ponderous and baroque, more adapted to prosaic moralizing and discursive description than to the poetry of the prophetic oracle. Most of Ezekiel is, indeed, prose; the attempt to reanalyze it according to the norms of a supposed Kurzvers (e.g., by W. Rudolph) has not been entirely convincing, especially as this generally involves considerable rearrangement and deletion in order to support the hypothesis. When Ezekiel does use poetry, it is ordinarily rather rough and poorly sustained; neither his vocabulary nor his choice of images is "poetic." All this is said, however, without prejudice to the genuine prophetic eloquence of the book. Behind the redactional form in which the oracles often appear and despite the overloading of the text, we hear the authentic voice of a passionate and deeply committed man who lived intensely the word that he preached. Not in form, it is true, but in spirit certainly, Ezekiel stands in the great prophetic tradition; it is not "armchair prophecy."

Theology. Besides the profound influence that Ezekiel exercised on the development of the spirit and forms of judaism, certain of its theological emphases deserve special note in relation to its place in the record of the history of salvation. Among them are: (1) The concept of the "glory of the Lord" (1.1–28; 3.12–15; 8.1–4; 10.1–20;11.22–23; 43.1–9), represented in a series of visions having as their point of departure the doctrine of the presence of God, signified by the ark of the covenant. This concept, similar to Isaiah's vision of the Lord in the Temple (Is 6.1–13) and allied to other ancient concepts of the divine presence, in Ezekiel strikes a special note of transcendence (the glory of the Lord moves from Jerusalem to Babylonia), while at the same time there is no doubt of its identification with the Temple, which becomes a symbol of the source of all blessings (47.1–12). The combination of these ideas has much influenced later Jewish and Christian theology, including that of the Gospel according to St. john. (2) The personalism involved in the repeated emphasis on individual responsibility was particularly relevant in the emergence of the Judaism of which Ezekiel has been called the father. This doctrine brought to a culmination the prophetic teaching on the remnant of Israel and made possible the Jewish "church" that came out of the Exile (see israel). (3) The willingness of Ezekiel to rethink salvation history (Heilsgeschichte ) in a manner sharply contrasting with that of earlier prophecy (e.g., in ch. 16; 20) indicates both a new attitude to history and an openness to the changes that would be introduced through the development of doctrine leading down to Christianity. As part of this can be included Ezekiel's teaching on the Davidic Messiah, which can in one sense be termed an antimessianism[e.g., Ez 21.23–28 (alluding to Gn 49.10); 46.16–18]. In the concept of Ezekiel there would be a new and spiritual covenant with Israel (Ez 11.19; 36.26) in which, as a matter of course, there would be a Davidic prince (34.23–24;37.24–25). This prince, however, has been deprived of every trace of the mystique of royalty: he is a lay figure, a servant of the Lord who alone is the Savior of Israel. Ezekiel's doctrine represents a culmination of a prophetic tradition that, as subsequently developed by other Prophets, would be reflected in the antitriumphalist spirit in which Jesus proclaimed the messianic fulfillment.

Bibliography: h. h. rowley, "The Book of Ezekiel in Modern Study," The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 36 (Manchester 1953–54) 146–190, a discussion of the history of criticism of Ezekiel. The most recent critical commentaries are those of g. fohrer, Handbuch zum Alten Testament 13, ed. o. eissfeldt (Tübingen 1934–) and w. zimmerli, Ezechiel, in Biblischer Kommentar, ed. m. noth (Neukirchen 1955–) v.13. In Eng., g. a. cooke, The Book of Ezechiel, 2 v. (International Critical Commentary, ed. s. r. driver et al.; New York 1937), retains its usefulness. Briefer but still serviceable commentaries. h. g. may and e. l. allen, g. a. buttrick, et al., eds., The Interpreters' Bible (New York 1951–57) 6:40–338. j. muilenburg, in Peake's Commentary on the Bible, ed. m. black and h. h. rowley (New York 1962) 568–590. e. f. siegman, The Book of Ezechiel (30–31; New York 1961). j. steinmann, Le Prophète Ézéchiel et les débuts de l'exil (Paris 1953), excellent study of the prophet, his message and meaning, with commentary. h. gese, Der Verfassungsentwurf des Ezechiel (Tübingen 1957), discusses the manifold problems of the final ch. General. w. zimmerli, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 2:847–850. j. ziegler, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65); suppl., Das Zweite Vatikanishe Konsil: Dokumente und Kommentare, ed. h. s. brechter et al. (1966) 3:1327–28. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963) from a. van den born, Bijbels Woordenboek, 739–742.

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