Ezekiel 38-48 by Cook Stephen L.;

Author:Cook, Stephen L.; [Cook, Stephen L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300240375
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2018-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Comments

Having described the temple building and its annexes, Ezekiel now doubles back to describe interior decorations and structures. Redaction critics may suspect that an editor, perhaps the prophet himself, has here fleshed out the earlier description in 40:48–41:4. Against Zimmerli (1983, 387), however, the singling out of what is thematically significant (e.g., cherubim, the table in v. 22, the lintel in v. 25) speaks against pragmatic building concerns as the editorial motivation. As Duguid (1999, 477) notes, the text passes over the preexilic shrine’s gourd and flower motifs to highlight spiritually weighty symbols.

The present canonical form of the text invites the reader to assume that Ezekiel is simply recalling details that he observed earlier and narrated in 40:48–41:4. Working from memory, the prophet is tying up loose ends and emphasizing particularly rich archetypes. The guide is offstage, and the quotation in v. 22 of his statement about the table of the bread likely recalls what was said around the time of the quotation in 41:4.

The decoration of Ezekiel’s temple departs markedly from Solomon’s golden interior of 1 Kings 6. As elsewhere, the temple’s beauty is expressed in geometry, not in bullion. The term “gold,” in fact, is actually absent in Ezekiel 40–48. Is this a cue that God’s physical presence is infinitely more precious than gleaming metal (see Ezek 7:19)?

Key preexilic furnishings, such as the ark of the covenant and the golden lampstand, are remarkably absent. This has nothing to do with the contingencies of Israel’s history, in which enemies plundered such items. As Joyce (2007a, 224–25) aptly notes, a visionary utopia, especially one “so bold in other respects,” is clearly not constrained by such contingencies. Rather, as Kasher (1998, 192–98) astutely observes, iconographic representations of God’s presence such as arks and menorahs are superfluous in a highly anthropomorphic vision of God’s bodily occupation of the temple (see 43:5). Kasher’s insight relates directly to what I wrote above about Ezekiel’s “naked” architecture pointing the reader toward a living, embodied Presence indwelling the temple building.

Instead of gold overlay, Ezekiel’s interior has intricately framed windows and carved paneling with composite beings guarding God’s sacred realm. Cherubim on the main hall’s doors (41:25) and perched above the adytum’s portal (41:17–18) inspire fear and awe. No fool, swaggering with arrogance, dare breach the cosmic center. Genesis 3:24, with its sword-wielding cherubs, illustrates the fierce guards that these creatures could be.

Ezekiel’s God still needs cherub guards, like those on the cella’s curtain in the tabernacle and on the doors to the adytum of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 6:31–32). According to 2 Chr 3:14, Solomon even added a cherubim-embroidered veil to the wood doors already sealing the Holy of Holies. A double barrier protecting the room was in no way considered excessive. The continuing presence of cherub iconography reminds us that Ezekiel is writing about a utopia, not about realized eschatology. In Ezekiel 40–48 hubris is still of concern; the Holy is still lethal.

Parallel imagery of monstrous, guardian beings positioned about a cosmic center is common both in the ancient Near East and in world cultures.

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