The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

ADELA YARBRO COLLINS 233
against Tyre in Ezekiel imply a similarity between Zion as the garden of
God and the garden of Eden. 12 The Jebusites may already have believed
in the invincibility of their city (2 Sam 5:6). 13 In any case, this motif became
a central theme in the biblical traditions about Zion (2 Kgs 8:19; Ps
46:4–7; Isa 29:1–8). Jeremiah challenged the notion that Mount Zion was
invulnerable to any attack and asserted that the presence of God in Zion
was dependent upon the ethical behavior of the people (Jer 7:1–15; cf.
Psalms 15 and 24). 14 When the temple had been destroyed, the city was
still regarded as sacred, and the devout prayed facing Jerusalem in the hope
that their prayers would ascend from there into the heavenly court. 15
During the exile, the prophet Ezekiel envisioned a restoration in terms
of a new exodus (Ezek 20:33–38). After the new deliverance of the people,
the Lord would bring them into the land of Israel and accept their
offerings “on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel” (Ezek
20:40). This saying describes the temple mount in terms of the mythical
mountain of God, the cosmic mountain. 16 A related oracle proclaims that
the Lord would establish a new, everlasting sanctuary in the midst of the
people (Ezek 37:26–28). This hope for the restoration of the temple took
concrete form in the vision of Ezekiel 40–48. The core of this vision is
the narrative that describes how an angel led the prophet through the
new sanctuary, a tour that reaches its goal in the holy of holies. This core
likely goes back to Ezekiel himself (Ezek 40:1–37, 47–49; 41:1–4). 17 The
vision as a whole was expanded and updated, first by Ezekiel himself and
later by those who preserved his oracles and visions. 18 The core vision
may be dated to 573 B.C.E. 19
We may define the core vision as eschatological, and not only ideal or
utopian, because it was associated by the prophet with a time in which
God would give the house of Israel a new heart and a new spirit and
would remove their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh. Further,
God would put the divine spirit in them and make the land and the trees
12. Levenson, ibid., 128–31.
13. For discussion, see ibid., 93–94.
14. For discussion, see ibid., 165–76.
15. Such ideas are reflected in Dan 6:10–11; for further discussion, see ibid., 125.
16. Cf. Ezek 40:2; for discussion, see Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel I: A Commentary on
the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapters 1–24 (ed. F. M. Cross, K. Baltzer, and L. J.
Greenspoon; trans. R. E. Clements; Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 417.
17. For discussion, see Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel II: A Commentary on the Book of the
Prophet Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48 (ed. L. J. Greenspoon and P. D. Hanson; trans. J. D.
Martin; Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 547–53.
18. Ezek 41:5–15a and 42:15–20 are secondary, but probably belong to an expansion
made by Ezekiel himself. See ibid., 547–548.
19. See Zimmerli, Ezekiel I, 10–11.