The Bible - The Book of Ezekiel

Keywords: Bible, Prophecy, Ezekiel, Biblical Prophecy, Ancient History, Jesus, Judaism, Christianity, Protestantism, Catholicism, Middle East, End Times, Scriptures, Old Testament, New Testament, Religion

The Book of Ezekiel

According to the Bible, a prophet is a person to whom God gives a special message to be passed on to others. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Jesus, Saul / Paul and many others in the Bible prophesied in addition to other significant actions. One special group of twelve Minor Prophets and four Old Testament Major Prophets (long books), including Ezekiel, basically only prophesied.

Ezekiel was taken to Babylon (modern-day Iraq) as part of the Babylonian Captivity and wrote while under Babylonian rule. In addition to foretelling events that are still unfolding (such as the "resurrection" of the nation of Israel in 1948, which he saw in the famous vision referred to as "the valley of the dry bones"), he also urged the nation of Israel to turn to God. A major difference between Ezekiel and all previous prophets was personal accountability, i.e., a person is personally responsible to God for the person's sins.

Sixteen times Ezekiel says he saw "living creatures". Ezekiel even says at Ezekiel 10:20, "I knew they were cherubim", a type of angel. He would have been familiar with the appearance of cherubim because the Temple of Solomon had numerous statues of cherubim. (1 Kings 6:23-35)

Ezekiel says repeatedly that he saw visions. Other Bible authors who say they saw visions are Daniel 7:13-14 who saw Jesus (described as the Son of Man) being given "all power" and John (Revelation/Apocalypse) who wrote about the end times including Armageddon, the resurrection and judgment of the dead of all ages and God's final victory over sin and evil.

About sixty times Ezekiel says, "The word of Jehovah came to me . . ." (for historical tradition reasons, God's Hebrew name is usually replaced with "the LORD" in English translations) and then he is told to prophesy doom and destruction for some nation. Those nations, e.g., Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre . . . aren't around anymore!

Ezekiel's book raises some very important questions:

• Who was Ezekiel actually seeing in his visions, the one whom Blumrich describes as the "commander"?
   
• Was it Jehovah, the God of the Bible, as Ezekiel says? Was it a humanoid "space alien"? Was it just a hallucination?
   
• If it was God, why would God look human?
   
• If it was a humanoid "space alien", why does Ezekiel keep saying, "the word of Jehovah came to me"?
   
• If it was a "space alien" or a hallucination, how could Ezekiel accurately foretell the future?
   
• If it was God looking like a human, are there any other instances of that in the Old Testament?

Blumrich's theory that Ezekiel was talking to humanoid "space aliens" cannot explain how Ezekiel could foretell the future.
 

 
Was the Commander Jesus?

Yes, that does sound like a ridiculous question . . . maybe from some whacko "pop theology" religious nut. What could Jesus possibly have to do with any of this? Ezekiel is in the Old Testament and lived 500 years before Jesus!

But, as discussed below, in fact that interpretation fits with Christian theology. In fact, the full image of Blumrich's "traditional picture" expressly makes that claim.

Conceptions of the biblical God

A lot of people visualize the "God" of the Old Testament as a bright light or shimmering air or just a disembodied invisible voice from the sky, maybe sometimes accompanied by thunder and lightning. When the Bible talks about God's "hands" or "finger" or "wings" they think it is all just symbolic. In some cases, e.g., "wings", the language is just symbolic.

The Angel of the LORD

But in the Old Testament there is a being referred to as "the Angel of the LORD" that looked like a human male, with a physical body and met with a number of people such as Abraham and Sarah, Jacob/Israel (Genesis 32:24-30), Moses, and the parents of Sampson. (Judges 13) This being ate lunch with Abraham and Sarah. (Genesis 18) People such as Abraham sometimes refer to this "Angel" by God's name, Jehovah.  (Actually, Yahweh, often translated "LORD" in English translations.)
  

Jesus claimed to be the God of the Bible.

Jesus claimed that he is the God of the Bible, and that he was the one who met with Abraham and with Moses. His contemporaries clearly understood his claim: John 10:33 ". . .  you, a mere man, claim to be God."

According to Christian theology, "the Angel of the LORD" in the Old Testament was Jesus.

Both the Hebrew word מַלְאַךְ  (ma-lach) and the Greek word άγγελος (ággelos) can be translated either "angel", i.e., "a supernatural created spirit-being" or "messenger". So, malach-Yahweh can be translated either "Angel (created being) of the LORD" or "Messenger of Jehovah". The beginning of the Gospel of John calls Jesus the Word of God. So, saying that the "Messenger of Jehovah" is the same person as the "Word of God" is no great leap.

So, according to Christian interpretations, in prophetic visions Ezekiel saw Jesus. The "Commander" who Ezekiel saw was God—and whenever God appeared in human form in the Bible, it was in the form of Jesus.

"Preincarnate theophany"—Jesus/God manifesting in visible form before Jesus took on a permanent physical body.

The theological terminology is a "preincarnate theophany".

• Incarnation: Literally "into flesh", the process of a spirit-being taking on a (new) physical human body. (Incarnation is not the same as spiritual possession, where a demonic spirit enters a body that is already occupied.)
    
• The Incarnation: The event about 2,000 years ago when Jesus took on a human body.
    
• Preincarnate: "Before The Incarnation" (of Jesus)
    
• Theophany: "God manifesting in visible form."

According to Christian theology, humans are spirits who live in physical bodies while on this planet. God is also a spirit. So God could go into a physical body and look like a human. That is called an incarnation, literally meaning "into flesh". A preincarnate theophany means a manifestation of God in visible form before Jesus took on a permanent physical body.

Blumrich says that only once do his verses equate the Commander with God. Therefore, he considers it an error. However, in the many verses Blumrich didn't use Ezekiel repeatedly says that the Commander is God.
  

The Traditional Picture and Interpretation

Well, after searching more than 6 years and 13 thousand images I finally found the original of Blumrich's "traditional picture"!

Blumrich's example of the traditional version

And, in fact, it helps demonstrate that the claim "Ezekiel saw Jesus" is a long-standing view among well-regarded theologians, not some 21st-century whack-job's "pop theology" interpretation.

According to www.Biblical-Art.com, the image is from a woodcut in one of the Luther translations Blumrich used. The artist is unknown. In Spaceships the publisher flipped the negative over, putting the chariot on the right and Ezekiel on the left. In the woodcut the text is in old-style German font called Fraktur that was standard before World War II.  The letters that look like lower-case f are actually an s, like the hand-written originals of the United States Constitution, where "solemnly" looks like "folemnly" and "in General Congress, Assembled" looks like it says, "in General Congrefs, Afsembled".

The text is a poem in German and states the theological interpretation that Ezekiel saw Jesus.

Der Mensch, den im Gesicht Hesekiel erlesen,*
Auf dem Saphirnen Stul, ist Gottes Sohn gewesen.
Daß dort mein Jesus thront, macht mir sein Wort bekannt:
Er, mein Herr, sitzet ja dem HERRN zur rechten Hand.
 

The man, whom Ezekiel beheld in the vision,*
On the sapphire chair, was the Son of God.
That there my Jesus sits enthroned, his word announces to me:
He, My Lord, now sits at the right hand of the LORD.
 

The word Stul in German can sound "loftier" than the English word "chair" but technically should not be translated "throne".

* The word erlesen can also mean "exquisite" or "wonderful". So this may also be a play on words. Erlesen rhymes with gewesen, and it can mean beheld, but it is also talking about the One whose name is Wonderful—the Son of God.

Isaiah 9:6 -- The prophesy of Jesus' birth written in 700 B.C.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the ruling authority will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Judges 13:16-22

16  And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the LORD.)

17  Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?"

18  And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?"

19  So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on ---20 it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar --- the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD.

22  And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!"