Ezekiel’s Temple in Babylonian Context1

Ganzel, Tova; Holtz, Shalom E.

doi:10.1163/15685330-12341148

Cited by 13 publications

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“…Intended allusions to Gilgameš Epic have been found especially in the oracles against Tyre, where the highly enigmatic expression tuppêkâ ûnĕqābêkâ (28:13) may reflect the initial words of Gilgameš as used in the designation of the tablet in colophons: ṭuppi {#} ša naqba īmuru "Tablet {#} of "The One Who Saw the Depths" (see Winitzer 2014: 199-205). The architecture of the temple of Jerusalem as described in the vision of chapters 40-48 has been found well comparable to the available evidence of Neo-Babylonian temples (Ganzel & Holtz 2014).…”

Section: The Book Of Ezekiel and The Judeans In Babyloniasupporting

confidence: 70%

Ezekiel, Ethnicity, and Identity

Nissinen¹

2023

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The written sources from the ancient Near East are for the most part authored from the perspective of the dominant group and yield a very limited view on people’s identities from an emic point of view that would correspond to their own self-identification. Self-defined minority groups in Mesopotamia have not left behind written evidence about themselves and their identity strategies. A notable exception to this rule is the book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. This book documents an intense and enduring attempt at reconstructing the identity of a dislocated group of people. The book of Ezekiel is produced by a group that constructed a diaspora identity from the early sixth century onwards, whether in Babylonia or in Jerusalem; in any case, it is written in an environment where the adaptation of a wide array of Mesopotamian linguistic, iconographic, literary, and theological motifs was possible. Wherever and whenever the book of Ezekiel was produced, it presents itself as a document of an explicit identity strategy of a minority group, unique among written sources from any part of Mesopotamia. It can be read as an example of the survival strategy of a group that distinguishes itself from others by way of self-reidentification. The book does not reflect a stable and universally shared identity of the Judeans. On the contrary, it creates and constructs an inner-Judean antagonism between Ezekiel’s in-group and the delegitimized out-group. The book of Ezekiel, therefore, does not convey much about the integration of the Judean minority into Babylonian society but all the more about conflicts among Judeans themselves.

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Section: The Book Of Ezekiel and The Judeans In Babyloniasupporting

confidence: 70%

Ezekiel, Ethnicity, and Identity

Nissinen¹

2023

StOrE

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Exile, Incorporated

Liebermann

2024

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The book of Ezekiel makes rhetorical use of the human body to construct an exile-centred Judean identity. This focus on the body is inextricable from Ezekiel’s setting in the sixth-century BCE Judean exile to Babylonia. In such a context of upheaval, all the displaced group reliably retains are their bodies. Even so, the material surroundings of those bodies change completely, calling previously accepted ways of being into question. The book of Ezekiel reveals acute awareness of this situation, evoking bodily practices and embodied experiences that serve to construct a Judean identity based on existence outside of the land of Judah. This identity excludes both non-Judeans and the Judeans who remained in Judah. The book of Ezekiel seeks to achieve this exclusion via descriptions of bodily practices—including circumcision, dress, and the observance of a cultic calendar—that distinguish its constructed in-group of exiled Judeans from outsiders. Ezekiel also evokes the embodied emotion of disgust regarding the bodies of those with “outsider” practices, which in turn encourages the practice of segregation and endogamy within the in-group. Focusing on the bodies in the book of Ezekiel also highlights how the text presents hierarchies within the exilic Judean group, which itself contains bodies differentiated by gender and priestly or nonpriestly descent. Reading the text in this way reveals how the book of Ezekiel constructs a model of a variegated community able to embody a Judean identity that not only survived but also was based on life outside of the land of Judah.

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Liebermann

2024

Exile, Incorporated

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Ezekiel’s Temple in Babylonian Context1

Abstract: Comparison between Ezekiel’s visionary temple and Neo-Babylonian temples shows similar organization of space and personnel. These formal similarities stem from a similar root purpose: maintaining strict standards of sanctity.

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Ezekiel, Ethnicity, and Identity

Ezekiel, Ethnicity, and Identity

Exile, Incorporated

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