Ezekiel's Vision Accounts as Interrelated Narratives

A Redaction-Critical and Theological Study

Janina Maria Hiebel

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9783110403640
• eBook ISBN: 9783110406825
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

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.

1 Introduction

1.1 Ezekiel and His Visions

“The prophecy of Ezekiel is a vast canvas of unearthly strangeness and beauty, filled with powerful images that at once fascinate and confound the interpreter. It is a difficult work by any standards …”1 In fact, Ezekiel is not one of those biblical books whose beauty and value catch the eye immediately. It is distinguished by an idiosyncratic, repetitious language with plenty of hapax legomena but with little human warmth and emotion, and no indication of divine love. Its eccentric and oftentimes violent imagery has had the prophet diagnosed with almost everything from repressed sexuality to schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.2 There are chapters that once were forbidden for anyone under thirty, and there are others that moral concern might define as X-rated.3 This is not to mention the immense cultural gap that generally separates us from a sixth-century-BCE Judean in Babylonia. Ezekiel truly is a challenge on all levels, and certainly “not the book with which you would begin, if you wanted to interest a newcomer in the Old Testament.”4

Having said this, we may add that the book of Ezekiel is also known as the best-structured prophetic book in the Old Testament, the most unified as regards language and layout. It is commonly recognized that, among other factors, the vision accounts contribute greatly to this impression of unity – most of all the three largest, 1:1–3:15; 8–11; 40–48, but also 37:1–14 and 3:22–27. This is because the visions share a certain terminology and key motifs and even refer explicitly to each other. Read in sequence, they tell a story from the commission of Ezekiel, through the departure of the Glory of YHWH out of the defiled temple in Jerusalem, up to YHWH’s return into a new temple.

The strong interrelatedness of the vision accounts raises questions. For example: Is this original, or else, how was it created? What theology underlies the sequence of vision accounts? These and other questions call for an in-depth investigation, especially as there is a marked lacuna in publications on the topic.5

Yet the primary attraction to the book of Ezekiel, in my case, is his time: one of the most fascinating and dramatic periods in the history of ancient Israel. For, with the majority of contemporary scholars, I generally believe the book’s claims that at its origin stood a man of priestly family and education who was deported to Babylonia, together with young king Jehoiachin and Jerusalem’s elite, in 598/597; a decade prior to the ultimate defeat of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple.6 Even though some scholars have doubted this socio-historical setting,7 it still explains best the stylistic-linguistic, iconographic and theological peculiarities of Ezekiel and sheds the most light on the content of his prophecies. It is equally evident that the book was written by more than one author, even though the redactors were obviously intent on copying the original style and had similar theological ideas8 – much to the despair of diachronically working exegetes.

Hence Ezekiel, as the first author of the correspondent book, is situated at the beginning of the Babylonian Exile – at the very point where the old political and religious systems collapse and new ones are yet to be born.

The Book of Ezekiel is the answer to profound questions. Why has this happened to us? Who are we? Do we have a future? Will we go home again? Born out of devastation, horror, and loss, these questions demand answers. They thunder with outrage, they moan with despair, they cry out with grief from a world torn apart, and taken away. No fact is more important for reading the Book of Ezekiel than this: the book is an effort to respond to the devastating experience of exile, to answer these questions and a thousand more. The basic question, the question which must be answered, the question which tears at hearts and minds and souls, is the most difficult of all. Where is God in all of this?9

In other words, how to make sense of the disaster with the theological tools available from the crumbling traditional faith? These questions illustrate that the political, cultural and theological crisis of the Babylonian Exile was likely to lead to the extinguishing of Judean cultural and religious identity.10 That this did not happen is merited in part to the teachings of Ezekiel, as he was able to interpret the catastrophic events in a meaningful way and to lay the foundations of an enduring hope. While many parts of the book of Ezekiel deal with those questions (as do, of course, other works of exilic literature), they are present in the vision accounts in a condensed form and impressive imagery. On an experiential-theological level, the visions in Ezekiel express in images what constitutes the deepest dimension of an existential crisis: the experience of being abandoned by God. They sketch out, in radically theological terms, a retrospective explanation for the disaster, as well as a prospective hope for restoration afterwards. They illustrate the anguish and violence at the beginning of the Babylonian Exile, but beyond that, they depict the intuition that something entirely new may come from the crisis.

For these reasons, a thorough study of the vision accounts in Ezekiel, with a focus on their redaction history, as well as from a theological viewpoint, seems a worthwhile endeavour. Before outlining the methods and the composition of this study, I shall begin by reviewing the existing literature.

1.2 Literature Review

Since the beginnings of historical-critical exegesis, much has been written on the prophet Ezekiel and on the book that bears his name. The number of perspectives and points of interest on Ezekiel is, as with any biblical book, nearly infinite. This literature review will begin by outlining the general tendencies in current Ezekiel scholarship with regard to redaction criticism. This will serve as a backdrop for the subsequent presentation of literature on the four major vision accounts, Ezek 1:1–3:15; 8:1–11:25; 37:1–14; 40:1–48:35. A selection has been made to include only publications discussing the vision accounts in terms of their redaction history. Moreover, save for few exceptions, this review embraces only writings published after 1969, i.e. after the completion of Zimmerli’s commentary.11 The survey will conclude with the scarce examples of literature focussing specifically on the interrelation of all, or several, vision accounts in Ezekiel.12

1.2.1 Redaction Criticism and the Book of Ezekiel

Due to the homogeneous character of the book, redaction criticism on Ezekiel began relatively late, well into the twentieth century. GUSTAV HÖLSCHER’S study of 192413 is typically seen as the first important critical work. Nonetheless, once critical interpretation was initiated, it soon arrived at extreme and mutually contradictory positions; few redaction-critical models could claim to represent something like a consensus. Perhaps it is safe to affirm that the prevalent contemporary positions regarding the genesis of the book of Ezekiel can be grouped into three main approaches:

– a model of subsequent expansions of Ezekiel’s writings by a “school” or group of disciples, essentially during the exile and in continuity with the prophet (Zimmerli);

– models of conflicting redactions over a longer period of time, combined with a late dating of most parts of the book (Garscha, Pohlmann);

– a “holistic” or synchronic model which focuses on the literary unity of the present book as an intelligible entirety, mainly disregarding redaction-critical issues (Greenberg).14

1.2.1.1 The “Ezekiel School” (Fortschreibungsmodell)

The most influential scholar on Ezekiel in the twentieth century was the Swiss professor Walther Zimmerli (1907–1983), whose monumental two-volume commentary (published 1955–69, second edition in 1979, English translation in 1979/83)15 is, after more than forty years, still unmatched in both comprehensiveness and quality. In addition, Zimmerli published numerous essays on Ezekiel as well as on other prophets and on biblical theology.16 With regard to the redaction history of the book of Ezekiel, he suggested a process of gradual expansion: after an initial oral phase and small units of Ezekielian writings, this authentic core of texts was first redacted by the prophet personally. Subsequently, a circle of “disciples” – what Zimmerli called the Ezekiel school – added more and more material to this “first edition” and rearranged existing material, until the book arrived at its final shape. In this view, the redaction process is essentially one of continuity. The different stages of redaction are not always clearly distinguishable as the Ezekiel school imitated the style and theology of their teacher. The expansion process is thought to be essentially completed during the exile.

Zimmerli dedicates some space in his introduction to the visions, in the context of the key literary forms employed in the book of Ezekiel. His emphasis at this point is, therefore, on the phrases and formal characteristics shared in particular by the three longest vision accounts (1:1–3:15; 8–11; 40–48), which feature an appearance of the Glory of YHWH. In terms of redaction criticism, Zimmerli sees especially the formulaic back-references among these three visions in the context of a late book-redactional stage.17 Though obviously criticized and corrected in details, Zimmerli’s idea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Content
• List of Tables and Charts
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• Part I: The Interconnected Redaction History of Ezekiel’s Vision Accounts
• Part II: Theology in a Diachronic Perspective
• Appendix A: The Text of Ezekiel 1:1–3:15 and 3:22–27
• Appendix B: The Text of Ezekiel 8–11
• Appendix C: The Text of Ezekiel 37:1–14
• Appendix D: The Text of Ezek 40:1–41:4*; 42:15–43:12; 44:1–6; 47:1–12
• Bibliography
• Index of Scripture References
• Endnotes