In Ezekiel 1, the prophet experiences an amazing theophany that has inspired and perplexed readers for centuries. Ezekiel was privileged to see the Merkabah, the flying chariot-throne of God, and “upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it” (Ezek 1:26).
In the account that we have of this vision, we read of a whirlwind, fire, living creatures, wheels, a firmament, and other complex images. Attempts to depict what Ezekiel was seeing have been varied and rather amusing. Early Jewish and Christian writers were enamored with Ezekiel’s vision, and much time and effort was dedicated to pondering its mysteries (as can be seen in the Ma’asei Merkavah and the Kabbalah, for example). Looking past the imagery, many scholars have recognized in Ezekiel’s Merkabah the essential elements of Solomon’s Temple, which had been destroyed. If we are to understand what Ezekiel was seeing, we must look to the Temple!
Hebrew University’s Rachel Elior analyzes the similarity between the Merkabah imagery and the Temple setting. The winged cherubim of the Holy of Holies (1 Kgs 6:23–29, 8:6-7; compare Ezek. 1:5–11), the stands in the Temple court with their copper wheels (I Kings 7:27–30, 33; compare 1:10, 13-16), the four threesomes of creatures facing all four points of the compass, the lions, oxen, cherubim, and ofanim (wheels)-all made of burnished bronze –
-became four sacred winged creatures, sparkling with that same bronze luster, with the faces of lions, oxen, eagles, and human beings. They stood on four wheels (Heb. ofanim) which had the appearance of “two wheels cutting through each other” and faced all four points of the compass (Ezek 1:4–11, 16–21), like their counterparts in the Temple. The gold-plated winged cherubim in the sanctuary, whose wings were extended and “touched each other”, and which stood on their feet, were transformed in Ezekiel’s vision into sacred, sparkling, winged creatures, “each of whose wings touched those of the other” (Ezek 1:9) and whose legs “were fused into a single rigid leg” (Ezek 1:7); their appearance was “like burning coals of fire…” (Ezek 1:13). There is thus a whole system of correlations between the ideal picture of the destroyed earthly Temple and the visionary Temple revealed in heaven (Rachel Elior, The Three Temples, trans. David Louvish; Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004).
Ezekiel saw the principal elements of the First Temple form a mobile unit which was not fixed in an earthly Temple but was a heavenly reality that could travel wherever God pleased. In essence, however, this is the vision of Isaiah (Isa 6)–Yahweh seated upon the cherub-throne in the Holy of Holies. Ezekiel was visited by this chariot-throne while in exile in Babylon, and then saw it return to the Temple in Jerusalem. In a time when the people had lost their city and their Temple but hoped to return and rebuild it again, Ezekiel’s visions gave them the assurance that God could and would be with them at all times and in all places.
3 Comments
Ezekiel 1:26 is one of the great linking scriptures revealing the nature of God. “The appearance of the likeness of a man” is Ezekiel looking up at the nature of God and defining His nature with the same term used when God looked down and defined the nature of man (see Genesis 1:26). The plural term “us” in Genesis 1:26 is clarified in Moses 2:27. It was ” in the image of mine Only Begotten” that man was created. This is significant because in every recorded existence of Christ, pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal, He demonstrated that He was “the likeness of a man” (see Ether 3:15–16, John 14:9, Luke 24:39). A good summary of Christ’s role in showing the image of man to be the image of God is in Mosiah 7:27. The meaning of “Image” in these verses doesn’t project the image of an undefined shadow because “In the image of his own body, male and female, created he them” (Moses 6:9). The word “likeness” has a definite scriptural meaning because “seed in itself yieldeth its own likeness” (Abraham 4:11). Therefore we read and understand that “Adam . . . begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image” (Genesis 5:3). “And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was the son of God (Moses 6:22). These scriptural teachings give very precise meaning to Paul’s declaration on Mars Hill, “For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28). A powerful teaching in the scriptures and the temple is that the fulness of the image and likeness of God is male and female united as one.
Mark Greene
Thanks, Mark, for the insightful comment! The lessons we can learn from Ezekiel are many. It has been an incredibly influential book, shaping the thoughts of many religious authors and thinkers for centuries. Ezekiel’s visions were so sacred and deep that the Jews would not let some of them be read aloud in the synagogue and those of insufficient age were not permitted to discuss them.
David
Where do you get all the great illustrations that you insert in to your articles? You continually amaze me at the wealth and variety of drawings and paintings.
Thanks
Doug
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[...] links: Understanding Ezekiel’s Remarkable Merkabah Vision at a new blog run by an theology grad student. Benefits of LDS Blogging, revealing there are people [...]
[...] sees in vision corresponds to the contents of the temple (for more detail, see my post “Understanding Ezekiel’s Remarkable Merkabah Vision“). In addition, Ezekiel later identifies the “living creatures” of his first [...]
[...] There is an ancient idea of the sun as a god that rides through the heavens in a chariot of fire pulled by fiery horses (there are other variations). This theme was quite generally held throughout the ancient world. In some of the most ancient texts of the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh himself is depicted in similar terms as having a face that shines like the sun and riding through the heavens on a chariot/cloud/cherubim (see Pss. 67; 80; 18:10; etc.). We get this “chariot” imagery again in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 1, when Ezekiel sees the awesome throne of God as a fiery flying chariot (Hebrew=Merkabah) made up of “living creatures” (seraphim, cherubim, ophanim; see my post on this imagery here). [...]
[...] Due to my schedule for the past few weeks, I have been unable to continue my weekly posts on the Sunday School lessons from the Old Testament. As I was looking over the lesson to be studied this week, I was somewhat disappointed that it did not cover some of the early chapters of the book of Ezekiel. I understand that many of the early chapters repeat themes that we have covered in Jeremiah and many of the prophets already studied. Chapter one, however, is important in that it helps connect Ezekiel to the traditions of the Temple in Jerusalem and provides a vision of the heavenly throne-chariot that was highly influential to Jewish and Christian thought for many centuries afterwards. With that in mind, and in lieu of a post on the actual chapters of Ezekiel covered by the lesson (which I haven’t managed to produce), I wanted to repost one of the first posts I wrote for this blog, entitled “Understanding Ezekiel’s Remarkable Merkabah Vision.” [...]