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Ezekiel
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This article is about the main speaker in the biblical Book of Ezekiel. For a summary and analysis of the book itself, see Book of Ezekiel.
According to religious texts, Ezekiel ((, Yehezkel, ), "God will strengthen", from , hazak, [xa'zaq], literally "to fasten upon", figuratively "strong", and , el, [?el], literally "strength", figuratively "Almighty" ) was a prophet and priest in the Bible who prophesied for 22 years sometime in the 6th century BC in the form of visions while exiled in Babylon, as recorded in the Book of Ezekiel.
Book of Ezekiel gives little detail about Ezekiel's life and mentions him only twice by name: 1:3 and 24:24.
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This article is about the main speaker in the biblical Book of Ezekiel. For a summary and analysis of the book itself, see Book of Ezekiel.
According to religious texts, Ezekiel ((, Yehezkel, ), "God will strengthen", from , hazak, [xa'zaq], literally "to fasten upon", figuratively "strong", and , el, [?el], literally "strength", figuratively "Almighty" ) was a prophet and priest in the Bible who prophesied for 22 years sometime in the 6th century BC in the form of visions while exiled in Babylon, as recorded in the Book of Ezekiel.
In Judaism
The Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel gives little detail about Ezekiel's life and mentions him only twice by name: 1:3 and 24:24. Ezekiel was a priest, the son of Buzi. He was one of the Israelite exiles who settled at a place called Tel-abib (mound of the deluge), on the banks the Chebar River "in the land of the Chaldeans." The place is thus not identical to the modern city Tel Aviv, which is, however, named after it. He was probably carried away captive with Jehoiachin (1:2; 2 Kings 24:14-16) about 597 BC.
Traditionally, the book of Ezekiel is thought to have been written in the 500s BC during the Babylonian exile of the southern Israelite kingdom, Judah. This date is confirmed to some extent in that the author of the book of Ezekiel appears to use a dating system which was only used in the 500s BC.
Other Jewish literature
Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is said by one source to have been a descendant of Joshua by his marriage with the proselyte Rahab, (Talmud Meg. 14b; Midrash Sifre, Num. 78). Some statements found in rabbinic literature go so far as to posit that Ezekiel was Jeremiah or the son of Jeremiah, who was (also) called "Buzi" because he was despised by the Jews.
Ezekiel was said to be already active as a prophet while in the Land of Israel, and he retained this gift when he was exiled with Jehoiachin and the nobles of the country to Babylon (Josephus, Ant. x. 6, § 3: "while he was still a boy"; comp. Rashi on Sanh. 92b, above). Hilkiah the priest was his father.
A rabbi in the Talmud states that although he describes the appearance of the throne of God (Merkabah), this is not due to the fact that he had seen more than the prophet Isaiah, but rather because the latter was more accustomed to such visions; for the relation of the two prophets is that of a courtier to a peasant, the latter of whom would always describe a royal court more floridly than the former, to whom such things would be familiar (?ag. 13b). Ezekiel, like all the other prophets, has beheld only a blurred reflection of the divine majesty, just as a poor mirror reflects objects only imperfectly (Midrash Lev. Rabbah i. 14, toward the end).
According to the midrash Canticles Rabbah, it was Ezekiel whom the three pious men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, (also called Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego in the Bible) asked for advice as to whether they should resist Nebuchadnezzar's command and choose death by fire rather than worship his idol. At first God revealed to the prophet that they could not hope for a miraculous rescue; whereupon the prophet was greatly grieved, since these three men constituted the "remnant of Judah". But after they had left the house of the prophet, fully determined to sacrifice their lives to God, Ezekiel received this revelation: "Thou dost believe indeed that I will abandon them. That shall not happen; but do thou let them carry out their intention according to their pious dictates, and tell them nothing" (Midrash Canticles Rabbah vii. 8).
Ezekiel's greatest "miracle" consisted in his resuscitation of the dead, which is recounted in chapter 37 of the Book of Ezekiel. Although the Hebrew Bible describes this event as an ecstatic vision rather than a historical occurrence, later interpreters speculated as to the fate of these men, both before and after their revitalization. Some say that they were godless people, who in their lifetime had denied the resurrection, and committed other sins; others think they were those Ephraimites who tried to escape from Egypt before Moses and perished in the attempt. There are still others who maintain that after Nebuchadnezzar had carried the beautiful youths of Judah to Babylon, he had them executed and their bodies mutilated, because their beauty had entranced the Babylonian women, and that it was these youths whom Ezekiel called back to life.
This miracle is said to have been performed on the same day on which the three men were cast into the fiery furnace; namely, on the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement (Cant. R. vii. 9). Nebuchadnezzar, who had made a drinking-cup from the skull of a murdered Jew, was greatly astonished when, at the moment that the three men were cast into the furnace, the bodies of the dead boys moved, and, striking him in the face, cried out: "The companion of these three men revives the dead!" (see a Karaite record of this episode in Judah Hadasi's "Eshkol ha-Kofer," 45b, at foot; 134a, end of the section). When the boys awakened from death, they rose up and joined in a song of praise to God for the miracle vouchsafed to them; later, they went to Palestine, where they married and reared children.
As early as the second century, however, some authorities declared this resurrection of the dead was a prophetic vision: an opinion regarded by Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed, II:46) and his followers as the only rational explanation of the Biblical passage.
In Christianity
Ezekiel is commemorated as a saint in the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church—and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite—on July 21 (for those churches which use the traditional Julian Calendar, July 21 falls on August 3 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). This date was chosen because it is the day after the feast day of the Prophet Elias. Ezekiel is commemorated on August 28 on the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church.
Certain Lutheran churches also celebrate his commemoration on July 21.
The Church Fathers interpret Ezekiel's vision of the human likeness upon the sapphire throne as a prophesy of the Incarnation of the Logos from the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), who in many ancient church hymns is called the "living Throne of God".
Ezekiel's statement about the "closed gate" is understood by Eastern Christianity as another prophesy of the Incarnation: the "gate" signifying the Virgin Mary and the "prince" referring to Jesus. This is one of the readings at Vespers on Great Feasts of the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches.
In Islam
Quranic verses
Islam refers to him as "Hizqil" or "Dhu al-Kifl"
21-85 (The Prophets)
38-45 (Sad)
Hadith and other Sources
Islamic View Of Ezekiel (Hizqil)
Ezekiel Ibn Buzi succeeded him as the prophet to the Israelites. The people had fled from Palestine for fear of the plague and settled on a plateau. Allah said to them: "Die you all," and they all perished. A few centuries passed, and then Ezekiel, passing by, stopped over them, wondering. There came a voice: "Do you want Allah to resurrect them while you watch?" He said: "Yes." Then he was commanded to call those bones to join one to the other and to be covered with flesh. So he called them by the power of Allah, and the people arose and glorified Allah in the voice of one man.
God resurrects the dead through Ezekiel
According to Ibn Abbas, this place was called "Damardan." Its people were inflicted with plague, so they fled, while a group of them who remained in the village perished. The Angel of Death called to the survivors: "Die you all," and they perished. After a long time a prophet called Ezekiel passed by them and stood wondering over them, twisting his jaws and fingers. Allah revealed to him: "Do you want Me to show you how I bring them back to life? He said: "Yes." His idea was to marvel at the power of Allah over them. A voice said to him: "Call: 'O you bones, Allah commands you to gather up.'" The bones began to fly one to the other until they became skeletons. Then Allah revealed to him to say; "Call: 'O you bones, Allah commands you to put on flesh and blood and the clothes in which they had died.'" And a voice said: "Allah commands you to call the bodies to rise." And they rose. When they returned to life they said: "Blessed are You, O Lord, and all praises is Yours." Ibn 'Abbas reported that the dead who were resurrected were four thousand, while Ibn Salih said they were nine thousand.
Hadith About the Plagues
Regarding plague, Abu Ubaidah Ibn Al-Jarrah related that 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab was on his way to Syria and had reached Sarg when the leader of the Muslim army, Abu Ubaidah Ibn Al-Jarrah, and his companions met him and told him of a pestilence that had broken out in Syria. 'Umar remember the Prophet's saying: "If it (plague) be in a country where you are staying, do not go out fleeing it, and if you hear it is in a country, do not enter it." Umar praised Allah and then went off.
Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq stated that we do not know how long Ezekiel stayed among the Israelites before Allah took him away. After him, the Israelites deviated from the right way of life, and deserted Allah's covenant with them. They worshipped many idols, among them Ba'al, so Allah sent to them the Prophet Elijah. This is distinctly different from the narrative of the Hebrew Scriptures, archaeology and history which demonstrate that all or virtually all of the Jewish people became solidly monotheistic during the Babylonian Exile. There is no record of Ba'al worship after Ezekiel's lifetime. It must be noted however, that there is no mention of this in the Quran, which is considered the primary source of knowledge for Muslims.
Secular Views
Altschuler has suggested that the person described by the Book of Ezekiel may have suffered from epilepsy. Specifically, it is claimed that Ezekiel himself may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy, which has several characteristic symptoms that are apparent from his writing. These symptoms include hypergraphia, hyperreligiosity, fainting spells, mutism and often collectively ascribed to a condition known as Geschwind syndrome. See list of people with epilepsy.
Tomb of Ezekiel
The tomb of Ezekiel is a structure located in modern day south Iraq near Kefil, believed to be the final resting place of Ezekiel. It has been a place of pilgrimage to both Muslims and Jews alike. After the Jewish exodus from Iraq, Jewish activity in the tomb ceased although a disused Synagogue remains in place.
See also
External links
- article from The Catholic Encyclopedia
- Orthodox icon and synaxarion
- By S. Scatolini Apostolo & Johan Lust, from www.glocality.net
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