Description
Highlighting the transformation of earlier texts, traditions and theology, these ten essays explore the diverse ways in which the Book of Ezekiel reshapes Israel’s legal traditions, rituals, oracles against foreign nations, royal ideology, conception of the individual, remembrance of the past, and hope for the future. The subsequent transformation of Ezekiel itself in scribal transmission and in the New Testament is also explored in the concluding contributions.
Through this approach, Transforming Visions open the doors to a wide-ranging discussion of the Book of Ezekiel in all its aspects. This multi-faceted work of scholarship is an important contribution to Ezekiel studies, and will be of great interest to all students and scholars of the Old Testament.
The present volume, edited by two rising Ezekiel scholars, Michael A. Lyons and William A. Tooman, makes a substantive contribution to the burgeoning discussion of the Book of Ezekiel by emphasizing the theme of transformation, understood in relation to the text of Ezekiel, the traditions on which it draws and by which it developed, and its theological perspectives. Each essay engages a different aspect of the study of the book, and thereby opens and advances scholarly dialog in its own right.
From the Foreword by Marvin A. Sweeney
About the Author
William A. Tooman is Lecturer in Old Testament at University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Michael A. Lyons is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Simpson University. He is the author of From Law to Prophecy: Ezekiel’s Use of the Holiness Code.
Other Contributors
Daniel I. Block, Wheaton College Graduate School
Tova Ganzel, Bar-Ilan University
Paul M. Joyce, St. Peter’s College, Oxford University
Beate Kowalski, Institut für Katholische Theologie, Technische Universität Dortmund
Thomas Krüger, University of Zurich
Timothy Mackie, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jill Middlemas, Århus University
Paul R. Raabe, Concordia Seminary
Contents
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Foreword by Marvin A. Sweeney
Part One: Transformation of Antecedent Texts in Ezekiel
1. Transformation of Law: Ezekiel’s Use of the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26)
Michael A. Lyons
2. Transformation of Pentateuchal Descriptions of Idolatry
Tova Ganzel
3. Transformation of Israel’s Hope: The Reuse of Scripture in the Gog Oracles
William A. Tooman
Part Two: Transformation of Tradition and Theology in Ezekiel
4. Transformation of the Image
Jill Middlemas
5. Ezekiel and Moral Transformation
Paul M. Joyce
6. Transformation of History in Ezekiel
Thomas Krüger
7. Transforming the International status quo: Ezekiel’s Oracles against the Nations
Paul R. Raabe
8. Transformation of Royal Ideology in Ezekiel
Daniel I. Block
Part Three: Transformation of Ezekiel in the Versions and New Testament
9. Transformation in Ezekiel’s Textual History: Ezekiel 7 in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint
Timothy Mackie
10. Transformation of Ezekiel in John’s Revelation
Beate Kowalski
Index of Scripture
Index of Authors
Endorsements and Reviews
Tooman and Lyons present a wide range of significant scholars who address the key issue in Exilic and especially Ezekiel studies today – why and how did an almost total transformation of Israel’s religion take place during the Exile. Before exile, it was centered on active royal, ritualistic, and oracular activity; after exile, it centered on priestly-legislated and tradition-centered guidance of practical observance. The authors offer important insights on the concepts of idolatry, divine and human kingship, individual versus corporate moral responsibility, the role of divine holiness, the Exodus tradition, the importance of priestly viewpoints, and the way the Book of Ezekiel was written and enlarged. This single volume brings together all major trends in Ezekiel studies today.
Lawrence Boadt, CSP, Professor Emeritus, Washington Theological Union
Transforming Visions is … a multi-faceted prophetic composition dated to the exilic period. These high quality essays, supplemented with two indexes of Scripture and authors, explore all sorts of hermeneutical questions … Part Three concludes with two fascinating articles on Ezekiel 7 in the Masoretic text … and the transformation of Ezekiel in John’s Revelation.
Igal German, in Theological Book Review, Vol 23, No 2
This volume’s riches deserve careful study, and will undoubtedly promote the already burgeoning scholarly dialogue about the history, text, and theology of Ezekiel, to which the useful bibliographies bear eloquent witness.
P.J.M. Southwell, in The Expository Times, Vol 124, No 8
A fantastic volume of work by so many engaging and knowledgeable scholars.
Lindsey Arielle Askin, in Reviews in Religion & Theology, Vol 21, Issue 3
