Vision of the prophet Ezekiel of the raising of Israel

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Leonhard Kern : The resurrection vision of the prophet Ezekiel , alabaster relief from an epitaph , around 1645
Martin Johann Schmidt : The resurrection vision of the prophet Ezekiel , ceiling fresco in the crypt of the Göttweig collegiate church , around 1770
Benno Elkan : The resurrection vision of the prophet Ezekiel , relief field on the Knesset menorah in Jerusalem, 1956
This sculpture placed in front of the Knesset symbolizes the prophecy from Ezekiel chapter 37, which says that the Lord will bring the dead bones of Israel back to life and bring them back to their land.

The vision of the prophet Ezekiel of the resurrection of Israel is described in the book of Ezekiel of the Tanach ( Ez 37: 1–14  EU ). Because of the concrete representation of the process and the required view of the Jewish and Christian resurrection hope , the text is a frequent pictorial theme in Christian art .

Historical background

In 597 BC The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II conquered the kingdom of Judah with its capital Jerusalem and had parts of the population deported to Mesopotamia ( Babylonian exile ). After the defection of the Jerusalem vassal king Zedekiah , the city and the temple were destroyed in 586.

Ezekiel was one of the deported Jews. From 593 he appeared as a prophet abroad in the name of the God of Israel . Typical of him is the visionary imagery of his speeches and the richness of detail in his descriptions (see Temple of Ezekiel ). Like the older prophets, Ezekiel interpreted Israel's catastrophe as a divine response to Israel's disobedience. In view of the calamity that had occurred, however, like Deutero-Isaiah , he announced the beginning of a new dispensation . An intensification of this announcement, beginning with chapter 36, was triggered by the destruction of Jerusalem in 586. Against this background, the resurrection vision is initially only a strong parable : it means the awakening of the people from the death of the loss of home and identity. However, the text was understood early on in the apocalyptic and transcendent sense.

The vision

Ezekiel 37: 1–14 describes, by dramatic means such as delay and intensification, the resuscitation of a large number of dried-up bones which are scattered unburied over a plain. Ezekiel sees himself transferred there in the spirit and is given the task of calling out the word of the Lord over the dead , which announces what then happens almost simultaneously: the bones move together and are covered with tendons, flesh and skin. In a second course, the prophet is told the word of the Lord to the spirit , who then comes from the four winds and breathes life into the slain. In the subsequent divine speech to Israel, the vision is interpreted on the people who are "dead" in their hopelessness.

Impact history

In Christian art, the scene was mainly depicted on epitaphs , in crypts and mausoleums , with a climax in the epoch of the Thirty Years War . In modern Judaism , the text got a new reference through the atrocities of the Shoah . In the HaTikwa , the national anthem of Israel, the Bible verse Ez 37.11  EU (“Our hope is lost”) is reinterpreted as “... our hope is not lost for as long”. To this day, visualizations of the text have been created using the technique of photo montage . A well-known gospel is about Ezekiel and the dry bones . Krzysztof Penderecki set the vision to music in his Seven Gates of Jerusalem (1996).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c bibelwissenschaft.de
  2. ↑ focusonjerusalem.com
  3. ↑ NTU Choir on YouTube ;
    Delta Rhythm Boys on YouTube

Web links

Commons : Vision of the prophet Ezekiel of the raising of Israel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files