Ezekiel the Prophet
Ezekiel, as depicted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Prophet, Priest
Born	c. 622 BCE Jerusalem
Died	c. 570 BCE Babylon (?)
Honored in	Judaism Christianity (Roman Catholic Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Eastern Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church) Islam
Major shrine	Ezekiel's Tomb, Al Kifl, Iraq
Feast	August 28 - Armenian Apostolic Church July 21 - Lutheran Church

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.

Ezekiel ( /ɨˈziːki.əl/; Hebrew: יְחֶזְקֵאל‎‎, Y'ḥez'qel, Hebrew pronunciation: [jəħezˈqel]), Arabic:حزقيال Hazqiyal, 'God will strengthen' (from חזק, ḥazaq, [ħaˈzaq], literally 'to fasten upon,' figuratively 'strong,' and אל, el, [ʔel], literally 'God', and so figuratively 'The Almighty') is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible.

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet. In Judaism and Christianity, he is also viewed as the author of the Book of Ezekiel that reveals prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the Millennia Temple visions, or the Third Temple.

Ezekiel's life[link]

The author of the Book of Ezekiel shows himself as Ezekiel, the son of Buzi,[Ezekiel 1:3] born into a priesthood (Kohen) lineage ^[1] of the patrilineal line of Ithamar, and resident of Anathoth. The author dates ages, prophecies and visions by making references to the lengths of time King Jehoiachin of Judah was in exile. Under the direction of Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonian armies exiled three thousand Jews^[2] from Judah, deposing King Jehoiachin in 597 BCE. In reference to Ezekiel being in his "thirtieth year... during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile",^{[Ezekiel 1:1, 2]} it could be determined that he was born c. 622 BCE.

Living in Babylon[link]

Ezekiel, at the age of 25, was amongst 3,000 upper class Jews who were exiled to Babylon. On the bank of the Chebar River, in Tel Abib^[3] (Mound of the Deluge), Ezekiel and his wife dwelled in their own home where exiled Judaic visitors came to seek his prophetic insights.^{[Ezekiel 1:1,3:15]} There is no mention of him having any offspring, only that his wife died rather young, in the ninth year of exile, when Ezekiel was 34 years of age.^{[Ezekiel 24:1, 18]}

Prophetic career[link]

In July 592 BCE, at the age of 30, Ezekiel describes his calling to be a prophet, by going into great detail about his encounter with God who rode upon a chariot of four wheels guided by Cherubs.^{[Ezekiel 1]} For the next five years he incessantly prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, which was met with some opposition and drama. However, Ezekiel and his contemporaries like Jeremiah, another prophet who was living in Jerusalem at that time, witnessed the fulfillment of their prophecies when Jerusalem was finally sacked by the Babylonians in 587 BCE, an event that is confirmed by most historians^[who?]. The date of the sacking did not coincide with Ezekiel's prophecy, however.^[4] Ezekiel was 50 years old when he began to have visions of a new Temple. He served as a prophet for at least 22 years until, according to scriptures, it is believed Ezekiel's last encounter with God occurred in April 570 BCE.^{[Ezekiel 29:17]} His time of death has not been recorded.

World views[link]

Jewish tradition[link]

Monument to Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The quote is Ezekiel 37:14.

Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is said by Talmud^[5] and Midrash ^[6] to have been a descendant of Joshua by his marriage with the proselyte Rahab. Some statements found in rabbinic literature^[who?] (Radak – R. David Kimkhi – in his commentary on Ezekiel 1:3, based on Targum Yerushalmi) posits that Ezekiel was 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.^[7]

Rava states in the Babylonian Talmud that although Ezekiel describes the appearance of the throne of God (Merkabah), this is not because 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.^[8] 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 ^[9]).

According to the midrash Canticles Rabbah, it was Ezekiel whom the three pious men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (also called Shadrach, Meshach, 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".^[10]

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 Israel, where they married and reared children.

As early as the 2nd 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.

Christianity[link]

Russian icon of the Prophet Ezekiel holding a scroll with his prophecy and pointing to the "closed gate" (18th century, Iconostasis of Kizhi monastery, Russia)

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.

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 (Ezekiel 1:26) as a prophecy of the Incarnation of the Logos from the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), who in many ancient church hymns is called the "living Throne of God".^{[citation needed]}

Ezekiel's statement about the "closed gate" (Ezekiel 44:2–3) is understood 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.^{[citation needed]} This imagery is also found in the traditional Catholic Christmas hymn "Gaudete."

Since 1830 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has identified the Book of Mormon as the "record of the stick of Ephraim" ^[11] (Ezekiel 37:16) while the stick of Judah is identified with the Bible. According to Matthew Henry a Bible commentator who flourished in the 17th century, Ezekiel is also believed to have been known as Nazaratus Assyrius, a teacher to Pythagorus. However, James Ussher, in his writings of the Ussher chronology, republished as "The Annals of the World" claims that this is a mistake, basing his opinion on the writings of Clemens Alexandrinus. However, Sir William Smith, in his "Bible Dictionary," points out that John Selden, among others, consider it a possibility. In the book "Pythagoras: Greek philosopher" it states; "Nazaratus, the Assyrian, one of Pythagoras' masters, was supposed to be the prophet Ezekiel, and Thomas Stanley's Life of Pythagoras says that Ezekiel and Pythagoras flourished together.

Islamic tradition[link]

Ezekiel is recognized as a prophet in Islamic tradition. Although not mentioned in the Qur'an, all Muslim scholars, both classical^[12] and modern ^[13] have included Ezekiel in the prophetic pantheon.

The Qur'an mentions a prophet called Zul-Kifl. This prophet is sometimes identified with Ezekiel although Zul-Kifl's identity is disputed. Carsten Niebuhr, in his Reisebeschreibung nach Arabian,^[14] says he visited Al Kifl in Iraq, midway between Najaf and Hilla and said Kifl was the Arabic form of Ezekiel. He further explained in his book that Ezekiel's Tomb was present in Al Kifl and that the Jews came to it on pilgrimage. The name Zul-Kifl would mean "One of double", as Kifl in Arabic means "double". Some Islamic scholars have likened Ezekiel's mission to the description of Dhul-Kifl. When the exile, monarchy, and state were annihilated, a political and national life was no longer possible. In the absence of a worldly foundation it became necessary to build a spiritual one and Ezekiel performed this mission by observing the signs of the time and deducing his doctrines from them. In conformity with the two parts of his book, his personality and his preaching are alike twofold, and the title Zul-Kifl means "the one of double" Aside from the possible identification of Zul-Kifl with Ezekiel, Muslims have viewed Ezekiel as a prophet, regardless of his identification with Zul-Kifl. Therefore, two main views on Ezekiel are popular in Muslim theology:

• One views Ezekiel and Zul-Kifl as two different prophets.
• One views Ezekiel and Zul-Kifl as the same prophet.

Ezekiel appears in all Muslim collections of Stories of the Prophets.^[15] Muslim exegesis further lists Ezekiel's father as Buzi (Budhi) and Ezekiel is given the title ibn al-adjus, denoting "son of the old", as his parents are supposed to have been very old when he was born. A tradition, which resembles that of Hannah and Samuel in the Hebrew Bible, states that Ezekiel's mother prayed to God in old age for the birth of an offspring and was given Ezekiel as a gift from God.^[16]

Bibliography[link]

• Ibn Kutayba, K. al-Ma'arif ed. S. Ukasha, 51
  

  

  One traditional depiction of the cherubim and chariot vision, based on the description by Ezekiel.
• Tabari, History of the Prophets and Kings, 2, 53–54
• Tabari, Tafsir, V, 266 (old ed. ii, 365)
• Masudi, Murudj, i, 103ff.
• K. al-Badwa l-tarikh, iii, 4/5 and 98/100, Ezechiel
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Holy Qur'an: Translation and Commentary, Note. 2473 (cf. index: Ezekiel)

Secular views[link]

Possible epilepsy[link]

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.^[17] These symptoms include hypergraphia, hyperreligiosity, fainting spells, and mutism and often are collectively ascribed to a condition known as Geschwind syndrome.

Supposed indication of spacecraft[link]

Erich von Däniken and others who believe the Earth has been visited by natives of unknown places out in universe have been excited, to a considerable degree, by Ezekiel's vision.^[18] That Ezekiel endeavors, differently than others of the Bible's authors who describe mystic visions, to report about as many details of the design of what he has perceived as possible nourishes doubts that his account can usefully be interpreted merely on a mystical basis and strengthens tendencies to explain certain passages of the book as descriptions of sightings of a spacecraft.^[19] The Austro-American NASA engineer Josef F. Blumrich tried to reconstruct a spaceship that Ezekiel may have flown in.^[20]

Tomb of Ezekiel[link]

The tomb of Ezekiel is a structure located in modern day south Iraq near Kefil, believed to be the final resting place of Ezekiel.^[21] 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.^[22]

See also[link]

• Al Kifl
• Apocryphon of Ezekiel
• Babylonian captivity
• Book of Ezekiel
• Dhul-Kifl, an Islamic prophet likened to Ezekiel.
• List of names referring to El
• Taw

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Broome, Edwin C., Jr. (September 1946). "Ezekiel's Abnormal Personality". Journal of Biblical Literature 65: 277–292. 
• Eissfeldt, Otto (1965). The Old Testament: An Introduction. Peter Ackroyd, trans. Oxford: Blackwell. 
• Gottwald, Norman K. (1985). The Hebrew Bible : a socio-literary introduction. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-0853-4. 
• Greenberg, Moshe (1983). Ezekiel 1–20 : a new translation with introduction and commentary. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-00954-2. 
• Greenberg, Moshe (1997). Ezekiel 21–37 : a new translation with introdution and commentary. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-18200-7. 
• Klein, Ralph W. (1988). Ezekiel : the prophet and his message. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-553-1. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ezekiel

• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Prophet Ezekiel Orthodox icon and synaxarion
• Ezek.org: The Seraphic Order Auxiliary