Temple and Contemplation brings together for the first ... - ImagoMundi

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
4. The New Temple. Let us repeat that the delineation of the Temple found
in Ezekiel furnishes us with the image not of a historical Temple, but of
the Temple as it will be at the time of the final restoration, envisaged as a
cosmic restoration. 55 The vision which inaugurates the book situates us on
the level of visionary perception: ". . . as I was among the captives by the
river of Chebar . . . the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God"
(Ezck. 1:1). The opening of the heavens is what we encountered previously,
expressed in the phrase "the opening of the Malakut", and it can only occur
at "the meeting-place of the two seas" (cf. above, sections I and II).
Similarly, chapters 40—48, which describe the vision of the new Temple
"in the land of Israel . . . upon a very high mountain" (Ezek. 40:1) make
no mention of Zion or of any tradition of Zion, nor do they refer to the
ancient Temple or the ancient city: the perspective is an entirely new one.
The stream of water which, as we saw, flows from beneath the threshold of
the Temple, on the Eastern side, brings about the cosmic restoration, the
return to Paradise. Paradise is thus connected with the high mountain,
which is henceforth situated in the Garden of Eden. 56 This vision locating
the final Temple on the high mountain of Paradise is peculiar to Ezekiel,
for the Book of Genesis (2—3) contains no reference to a mountain in the
Garden of Eden.
Upon this high mountain will be planted the "tender branch" that
typifies the messianic prince and, with him, the future messianic nation,
which will grow to the height of a noble cedar (Ezck. 17:22—23): "And the
desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that
passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like
the garden of Eden" (Ezek. 36:34-35). Here, then, the Imago Templi
55 Cf. Th. A. Busink, Der Tempel von Jerusalem, von Salomon bis Herodes . . . , vol. 1, Der
Tempel Salomos (Leiden, Brill, 1970), p. 42, note 156. Here the author, after referring
to the treatise Middoth (On the measurements of the Temple), which belongs to the
second-century Mishnah, suggests that the delineation of the Temple in Ezekiel
should be interpreted in the same sense. This sense should also be given to the
description of the measurements of the new Temple in the Qumran texts. It was
necessary to provide for the replacement of the old Temple because of its defilements,
but this replacement is merely temporary, provisional upon the restoration of the
new Temple. Cf. below, note 122. In his great work, Th. A. Busink provides
diagrams reconstructing the first and second Temples, as well as a sketch of
Ezekiel's ideal eschatological Temple.
56 Shozo Fujita, Temple Theology, pp. 70-71. Cf Ezek. 28:13/14: "Thou hast been in
Eden the garden of God . . . Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have
set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God".
THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
proclaims the new Temple as the basis and the starting-point of the
transfiguration of the land, because the temple is here, as in Babylonian
religion, the "navel of the world". As the centre of the universe, too, it is
situated "on a high mountain" because it is the link between Heaven, Earth
and the sub-terrestrial world (the living Water welling up from below the
threshold). This is an essential function, one which can also be interpreted
in the sense we assigned above (in section II) to the destruction and
restoration of the Temple. Already the cosmic symbolism can be detected
equally in the form of the altar described by Ezekiel.
In short, Ezekiel's vision of the new Temple sets before us the Temple's
celestial archetype, or, in other words, the celestial Temple as the archetype—a
concept which reappears frequently in later apocalyptic literature.
In its nature the new Temple—the city-temple—is supra-terrestrial, and
it is envisioned "as the frame of a city" (Ezek. 40:2). The mode of
visionary perception of the new Temple corresponds to the mode of the
initial vision (that of the divine chariot or Merkabah): "And above . . . was
the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon
the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man
above upon it" (Ezek. 1:26). This vision is one which par excellence pertains
to the mediatory imaginal: it is a vision not of a terrestrial Temple, nor of
an earthly Jerusalem, but of a city-temple whose origin is celestial: "The
new Temple is described as pre-existing in the supra-terrestrial world." 58
The city-temple—Paradise regained, the link between heaven, earth
and the sub-terrestrial world—is characterized exclusively by the sovereignty
of Yahveh, for it is through love of his Name that Yahveh restores
the Temple. Ezekiel's message of the new Temple concerns Yahveh's
continuing Presence in the midst of his people. He is the centre, and this is
expressed symbolically by the central position of the final Temple in the
universe. Ezekiel's concern is not to glorify the brilliance of its external
appearance, but to herald the establishment of divine sovereignty in the
universe, at its ultimate zenith. The temple is eschatological, essentially
57 Ibid., pp. 76 ff. Shozo Fujita suggests a comparison between this and the description
of the Temple on the scroll of Gudea, even though the text of this scroll was
composed long before Ezekiel. The temple is in honour of the god Ningirsu. In a
dream Gudea receives the plan of the temple inscribed on a "tablet of lapis lazuli".
The comparison of these details with those of Ezekiel's vision is extremely interesting
in relation to the ideology of the Temple.
58 Ibid., p. 79.
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