Scholarly Reviews of Ezekiel

St. Oaf College Website, January 25, 2005

Associate Professor of Religion Margaret Odell has written Ezekiel, a new book published by Smyth & Helwys as part of the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series. Odell supplements her expertise on Ezekiel with an interest in how the Bible reflects a creative response to cultural and political crises in the ancient world. Additionally, the book includes a collection of images and poetry, textual "hyperlinks" and a CD-ROM with research tools -- all of which further enhance the themes of the book.

The book of Ezekiel, as described by Odell in her introduction, is organized around three visions and the story of God's attempt to claim the loyalty of the people of Israel. Ezekiel's writings also deal with the plight of Jerusalem caught amidst the conflicts ensuing from the decline of the Assyrian Empire and the attempts of Egypt and Babylon to exert control. Odell likens events in Ezekiel to the fall of the Soviet Union, when the void left by a defunct superpower resulted in political chaos and violence. The accompanying images and poems Odell includes in her book show how artists and writers have interpreted the vivid visions and tragedies in Ezekiel over the centuries.

Ezekiel

Odell notes that, through her research, she uncovered many works that are relatively obscure. "Many of the images are not widely discussed in art historical contexts in the United States," she says. "Most only appear in footnotes and one-word references." By making this material available, Odell hopes to "open new doors into the research of these images."

EZEKIEL THROUGH THE AGES

According to Odell, Ezekiel's multimedia format made her "stretch" as she supplemented her text with illustrations of Western art and poetry. As an Old Testament scholar, Odell admits that, initially, it was difficult getting into the visual aspect of the book. After studying images depicting scenes from Ezekiel, however, she soon discovered a resonance that complemented the textual scholarship with which she was familiar. She points to several moving images by William Blake (drawings used to illustrate Ezekiel 7, 24 and 47, for example) that convey a "contemporary emotional feeling" in their depiction of Biblical events.

Conveniently, many of the images Odell uses were no farther than a building or two away. "I discovered them just by browsing in Rolvaag Library," she explains, pointing to some of Blake's works and a stunning Chagall drawing introducing Ezekiel's call as examples of pieces she found at Rolvaag. "Working on the book at St. Olaf has a lot to do with the way it turned out," she says.

CONTEMPORARY LESSONS

In addition to the artwork, Ezekiel also includes selections of poetry that Odell feels provide a link between past and present. "With the poetry, I wanted to connect the crisis in Ezekiel with modern crises in Israel," she says. Among the poetry are several works by Yehuda Amichai, former Poet Laureate of Israel, who recounts the "great weariness" of the last 25 years of struggle, and a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet writing of "a present not embraced by the past" -- a need to start over. These selections are indicative of Odell's examination of the places and events in Ezekiel through both historical and contemporary eyes.

Odell, who worked on Ezekiel over several years, says the modern significance of her subject matter became all the more apparent after Sept. 11, 2001. "The book is written both before and after 9/11," Odell says, "and much of it revolves around the theme of building. Ezekiel concludes with the vision of a rebuilt city of God's design." That vision, Odell says, is the "radical challenge in the book."

By Tom Vogel

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From Concordia Journal, July 2007

In the book of Ezekiel we meet a priest, Ezekiel ben Buzi, one of the Judean exiles deported along with King Jehoiachin to Babylon in 597 B.C.  Five years into this exile, visions of God compelled him to relinquish his way of life as a prie3st and become a prophet to the exiles. As the book unfolds, the prophet sees visions, the people see the prophet, and both see Yahweh, the God of the universe. Through it all, Ezekiel not only struggles with the end of Judah (586 B.C.) but also the collapse of the larger ancient Near Eastern world made possible by Assyrian hegemony. Margaret Odell takes all of this and successfully weaves literary, historical, and theological reflections together in clear and insightful ways. Throughout her commentary Odell builds upon that past commentary work of Moshe Greenberg (Anchor Bible, 1983, 1997), Walther Zimmerli (Hermeneia, 1979, 1983), and Daniel block (NICOT, 1997, 1998).  Following the work of Thomas Renz (The Rhetorical Function of the Book of Ezekiel, Brill, 1999), Odell believes the book of Ezekiel was produced for the second generation of exiles.  And following the work of Ellen Davis (Swallowing the Scroll:  Textuality and the Dynamics of Discourse in Ezekiel’s Prophecy, The Almond Press, 1989), she argues that the coherence of the book was made possible only through the processes of writing.

Fundamental to Odell’s reading of Ezekiel is this statement: “It is no exaggeration to say that Ezekiel was schooled for empire:  he was immersed in two worlds, the larger cosmopolitan world of the now defunct Assyrian empire, and the more locally defined world of the house of Israel” (395).  Because of this, Odell believes “one likely source for the design of the book of Ezekiel may be found in the ancient Near Eastern literary tradition, primarily the building inscription: (4). Babylonian inscriptions (c. 680 B.C.). “Whereas Mesopotamian building inscriptions are primarily intended as political propaganda in praise of a human king, Ezekiel has appropriated the genre for theological purposes” (15). This claim is most clear in chapters 40-48, yet Odell argues that the entire book is structured around this genre of building inscriptions. Ezekiel’s adaptation of this neo-Assyrian genre means the prophet embraced Assyria’s pervasive cultural and political influence as is evident when one compares Isaiah’s scathing rebuke of Assyria in Isaiah 10:5-15, 36-37 with Ezekiel’s favorable evaluation in Ezekiel 31.

Odell breaks new ground in several interpretations. First, Ezekiel’s “visions of God” in chapter 1 only begin his initiation process. That is to say, Ezekiel is identified as a priest in 1:2, does not receive instructions to prophesy until chapter 6, and does not have an audience until 8:1. In the intervening chapter Ezekiel goes through a series of experiences that prepare him for his new calling. This means that the symbolic acts in chapter 4-7, according to Odell, should be interpreted as Ezekiel’s preparation to be a prophet and not as a record of his public ministry.  “Only after Ezekiel has suffered the decreed judgment will he be able to proclaim it” (53).

A second new interpretation put forth by Odell is her argument that “the image of jealousy” (e.g., Ezek. 8:3) is not a representation of Asherah or, for that matter, any other god, but rather the sacrifice of a child. She notes that Exodus 22:29-30 decrees every firstborn males, both animal and human, should be “given” to Yahweh in sacrifice. “Acting in the spirit but not the letter of the law, the Judean cult erected effigies of its offerings but held back from making the offerings themselves: (112). This means that here, as well as throughout chapter 8-11 Ezekiel describes unfaithful Yahwistic practices rather than the worship of alien gods. Those involved in the Jerusalem cult were making use of intermediaries (e.g., the gillûlîm [meaning, bluntly, “shitgods”]), and Ezekiel construes this as idolatry. So they wer4 failing to come directly into Yahweh’s presence. This is one reason why Yahweh rejects the intercession of even righteous people (cf. Ezek. 14:14). There is no room in the relationship for anyone other than Israel and her God. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. Odell explains, “It is not that we intend to create rivals to God’s affections; rather, as our means of seeking god become familiar to us, we end up holding on to them rather than venturing out into mystery” (170).

Also new is Odell’s interpretation of Ezekiel 24:15-27. Typically this text is understood that just as Yahweh commands Ezekiel not to mourn his wife’s death, Yahweh’s instructions to the prophet to put on sandals and a turban (Ezek. 24:17) come from rituals marking status transformation, not from acts of mourning. Priests and kings don turbans when they are installed in office, and marriage rituals may involve both sandals and turbans. This means that even in the midst of death (Ezek. 24:2), there is new life. The destruction of the old (chaps 1-24), makes way for the building of the new (chaps 33-48).

Odell offers an attractive explanation of Gog, the “mystery man” in chapters 38-39.  It is, in all likelihood, a cryptic allusion to Babylon. A comparable cryptogram appears in Jeremiah 25:26; 51:41, where Babylon is called Sheshack. The cryptogram employed in Jeremiah is an athbash, in which the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is replaced by the last, the second, by the next to the last, etc. (i.e., B-B0L = s-s-k). The code used in Ezekiel 38 involves a different system of substituting letters (i.e., B-B-L = G-G-M), which are then reversed (i.e., G-G-M = M-G-G, or Magog). Literarily and historically this makes sense when one understands that Ezekiel 39:21-29 applies the Gog/Magog oracles to the exiles present situation.

This commentary employs a wide array of art, photographs, maps and drawings. An accompanying CD-ROM reproduces the commentary text, the Sidebars (more involved discussion) and the visuals. This strength of Odell’s work is her emphasis on the influence Mesopotamian royal inscriptions had on the literary presentation of Ezekiel. This commentary also provides a vantage point from which to engage the problems of evil, imperial power, religious identity, and divine holiness in both the ancient and modern worlds. Yet missing from Odell’s commentary are Christological and New Testament connections in any sustained manner. For example, in Odell’s interpretation of “ship Tyre” in Ezekiel 27 she does not mention -- even once -- the numerous ways Revelation 18 draws from Ezekiel’s vision. Here I refer readers to Horace Hummel’s Concordia Commentary Series work on Ezekiel 1-20, even as we anticipate the publication of his commentary on Ezekiel 21-48. Odell’s commentary will function nicely alongside Hummel’s more Christ-centered approach.

Reed Lessing