The focus in this episode is Ezek 28:1-19. As readers of my book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible know, this is a controversial passage.All scholars agree that this is an oracle and lament against a human prince of Tyre. The disagreement stems from vv. 11-19, but 1-19 is peripherally affected. The debate is over just who the prince of Tyre in vv. 11-19 is being compared to — i.e., what is the point of analogy? Many say that the prince of Tyre is being compared to Adam in Eden. This would mean that it is Adam who is being referred to as a “guardian cherub” (v. 14) who walked in the midst of the stone of fire (a reference to either divine council members or the divine council locale). Dr. Heiser shares the view of other scholars who say that the prince of Tyre is being compared to a divine rebel — and that this passage is related to another one (Isaiah 14) that compares a human ruler (king of Babylon) to a divine rebel. Further, he argues that these two passages are related to Genesis 3, the OT’s own story of a primeval divine rebellion. This means that the anointed cherub is a divine being, a rebellious member of the divine council (stones of fire) – not Adam. This episode explores why the debate exists and adds some details in defense of Dr. Heiser’s position.
Naked Bible 342: Ezekiel’s Dry Bones and the Gospel of John
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In our last episode we saw how the Gospel of John repurposed parts of Ezekiel (chs. 34, 37:15-28) to describe Jesus as the Good Shepherd who would fulfill the role of God and King David as the rightful shepherd(s) of Israel. As we’ll see in this episode, John uses Ezekiel elsewhere, specifically the prophecy of the dry bones being restored to life (Ezek 37:1-4). While we think of this passage as speaking of the future resurrection of the dead, John thinks more broadly about how Jesus connects to the passage.
This episode continues our discussion of Ezekiel’s temple vision. Whereas Part 1 noted the problems a literalistic approach produces for both coherent interpretation and consistency in biblical theology, this episode looks at positive indications in the text that compel us to read the temple vision in a way that transcends literalism. Doing so observes the way Ezekiel re-purposes cosmic mountain imagery and Leviticus 25 in these chapters and produces fascinating conceptual and theological connections between the temple vision and Jesus, his atonement, and believers as members of his body.
Sources
Jon D. Levenson, “The Temple and the World,” The Journal of Religion 64, no. 3 (Jul., 1984): 275-298 (esp. pp. 283-289)
John S. Bergsma, “Restored Temple as ‘Built Jubilee’ in Ezek 40-48,” Proceedings of the Eastern Great Lakes and Midwest Biblical Societies 24 (2004): 75-85
As was the case with Ezekiel 37, these chapters are among the most familiar in the entire book of Ezekiel. This first of two episodes on these chapters focuses on the terminology: Gog, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Togarmah. It also addresses the fallacies of translating Hebrew nesiʾ roʾsh as “prince of Rosh” and interpreting the phrase as modern-day Russia, and the difficulties ancient translators had with the term. An alternative understanding of Gog is offered, one that is consistent with the supernaturalistic worldview of the “foe from the north” motif in Old Testament thought.
Paul Tanner, “Daniel’s ‘King of the North’: Do We Owe Russia an Apology?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 35:3 [Sept 1992]: 315-328 (see esp. 322-326 for the evangelical dispensational predilection for an identification with Russia). Tanner’s article will also be some useful backgrounding for Part 2 of Ezekiel 38-39.
Ezekiel 32 is a lament for the empire of Egypt, whose hubris was compared to a rebellious divine council member in the previous chapter (one of the “trees” of God’s garden in Lebanon/Eden). This episode focuses on two items in the chapter. Early in the chapter, the prophet casts pharaoh as both a sea dragon and a lion, two seemingly incompatible metaphors. Is this a mistake or is it meaningful? This episode also discusses whether Ezekiel 32:21-28 has anything to do with the origin of demons as the disembodied spirits of the giants.
Resources:
Theodore Lewis, “CT 13.33-34 and Ezekiel 32: Lion-Dragon Myths,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 116:1 (1996):28-47
