Ezekiel's Visionary Temple in Babylonian Context by Tova Ganzel

Author:Tova Ganzel
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2021-09-20T13:29:23.859000+00:00

6.4

An Overarching Goal: Preserving the Temple’s Sanctity

The first-month rituals in Ezekiel’s visionary temple diverge from biblical texts in a number of ways and should be examined in light of the world in which the exiles lived. The purification ceremony envisioned in the Temple Vision is consistent with the overall theme we have noted throughout: the strict preservation of the temple’s holiness. 50 This goal is achieved by a variety of means. First is the ceremony of purification of the temple on the first and seventh days of the first month (45:18, 20). The ritual’s performance, combined with the other unique elements designed to prevent defilement and ensure the temple’s purity in Ezekiel’s vision – the enlargement of the courtyard surrounding the temple and guarding the gates (42:15–20), the prohibition against sinning (non-Zadokite) priests participating in the temple rites in the future temple, and the unique fact that all sacrifices are public ones – guarantees that the divine presence will remain in the temple in the future (44:11–16). 51 Reforms in Ezekiel’s vision also include other means of preserving the future temple’s sanctity, as we have noted: the distancing of the temple from the city; the absence of many temple utensils, also intended to keep out impure persons; 52 and the hermetic sealing of one of its entrances (44:2).

The date chosen in Ezekiel, at the beginning of the first month, parallels the period during which celebrations for the Babylonian gods were at their height. 53 Moreover, it is no coincidence that Passover and Sukkot – in the first and seventh months – parallel the period during which celebrations for the Babylonian gods were common, in Nisannu and Tašrītu. This too may have contributed to the creation of fixed dates for purification ceremonies in Nisan.

Verses 44:18–20, as we saw, are the subject of much debate: they may be guidelines for an annual ceremony to be carried out in the future temple 54 or, as noted by some scholars, they may relate to a one-time purification ritual. Based on the discussion above, it appears most likely that the explicit mention of dates indicates that this is a fixed ritual whose purpose is to purify the temple annually, so that the purity of the temple in which the presence of God resides (44:4) will be preserved. If this were a dedication ceremony, it would be held on the completion of construction and not on a fixed calendrical date. Furthermore, the purification of the temple prior to the mid-Nisan festival, while not discussed in the Pentateuch, clearly has precedents in the Prophets, which describe similar rituals in advance of Ḥag ha-Maṣot.

Ezekiel’s transfer of the ceremony’s location to the interior of the temple is, once again, consistent with his overarching principle of preserving the temple’s purity. And while Ḥag ha-Maṣot appears in Ezekiel, the Pesaḥ holiday (biblical paschal sacrifice on 14 Nisan) is not found because the concept of mass attendance at the temple has no relevance in the Temple Vision.

While the Temple Vision’s functionaries for

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.