Ezekiel Series

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Introduction

Hebrew prophet

Alternate titles:

Ezechiel, Ye?ezqel, Ezekiel

Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel, Hebrew Ye?ezqel, (flourished 6th century BC), prophet-priest of ancient Israel and the subject and in part, the author of an Old Testament book that bears his name.

Flourished: c.600 BCE - c.550 BCE

Notable Works:

• The Book of Ezekiel

Scripture - religious literature

Key People:

St. Paul the Apostle St. Peter the Apostle Muhammad Isaiah Jeremiah

• Characteristics

• Scriptures in non-Western religions

• Scriptures in Western religions

• Other religious or devotional literature

• Article History

Introduction

In Jerusalem, there were reports of violence and destruction; his later statements addressed the hopes of the Israelites exiled in Babylon. The faith of Ezekiel in the ultimate establishment of a new covenant between God and the people of Israel has had a profound influence on the postexilic reconstruction and reorganization of Judaism.

Ezekiel's ministry was conducted in Jerusalem and Babylon during the first three decades of the 6th century BC. For Ezekiel and his people, these years were bitter ones because the remnant of the Israelite domain, the tiny state of Judah, was eliminated by the rising Babylonian empire under Nebuchadrezzar (reigned 605–562 BC). Jerusalem surrendered in 597 BC. Israelite resistance was nevertheless renewed, and in 587–586, the city was destroyed after a lengthy siege. In both debacles, and indeed again in 582, large numbers from the best elements of the surviving population were forcibly deported to Babylonia.

Before the first surrender of Jerusalem, Ezekiel was a functioning priest probably attached to the Jerusalem Temple staff. He was, among his fellow exiles, a person of uncommon stature. He was among those deported in 597 to Babylonia, located at Tel-Abib on the Kebar canal (near Nippur). Ezekiel's religious call came in July 592 when he had a vision of the "throne-chariot" of God. He subsequently prophesied until 585 and was not heard of again until 572. His latest datable utterance can be dated about 570 BC, 22 years after his first.

These two periods of prophesying, separated by 13 years, represent various emphases in Ezekiel's message. His earlier oracles to the Jews in Palestine were pronouncements of God's judgment on a sinful nation for its apostasy. Pagan rites abounded in the courts of the Temple. Ezekiel said that Judah was guiltier than Israel had been and that Jerusalem would fall to Nebuchadrezzar, and its inhabitants would be killed or exiled. According to him, Judah trusted in foreign gods and alliances, and Jerusalem was a city full of injustice.

After the fall of Jerusalem and his period of silence, Ezekiel now addressed himself more pointedly to the exiles. He sought to direct their hopes for the restoration of their nation. His theme changed from the harsh judgment of God to the promise of the future. Ezekiel prophesied that the exiles from Judah and Israel would return to Palestine, leaving none in the dispersion. In the impending new age, a new covenant would be made with the restored house of Israel, to whom God would give a new spirit and a new heart. The restoration would be an act of divine grace for the sake of God's name. Ezekiel's prophecies conclude with a vision of a restored Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple's form of worship would be reestablished in Israel, and each of the ancient tribes would receive appropriate allotments of land. In contrast to those hoping for national restoration under a Davidic king, Ezekiel envisioned a *theocratic community revolving around the Temple and its cult as the connection ( of the restored Jewish state).

*theocratic (Theocracy) is a form of government in which one or more deities of some type are recognized as the supreme ruling authority, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the day-to-day affairs of the government.

More than any of the classical biblical prophets, Ezekiel was given to symbolic actions, strange visions, and even trances (although it is entirely complementary to deduce from these, and from his words "I fell upon my face" [1:28], that he was cataleptic - comatose). He eats a scroll on which words of prophecy are written to symbolize his appropriation (seizure) of the message (3:1–3). He lies down to symbolize Israel's punishment (4:4ff). He is struck dumb on one occasion for an unspecified length of time (3:26). As other prophets have done before him, he sees the God-to-People relationship as corresponding to a husband to an unfaithful wife. He, therefore, understands the collapse of the life of Judah as a judgment for actual infidelity.

Scripture, also called sacred scripture, is the revered text, or Holy Writ, of the world's religions. Scriptures comprise a large part of the literature of the world. They vary significantly in form, volume, age, and degree of sacredness, but their common attribute is that their words are regarded by the devout as sacred. Sacred words differ from ordinary words. They are believed either to possess and convey spiritual and magical powers or to be the means through which a divine being or other sacred reality is revealed in phrases and sentences full of power and truth.