Ezekiel's Oracles against the Nations in Light of a Royal Ideology of Warfare
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Over the last few decades a steady stream of scholarship has argued for a mythological background to the oracles against the nations (OANs) in the book of Ezekiel.1 Very few studies, however, have attempted to make overarching sense of Ezekiel’s use of mythological motifs, either in the oracles or as part of the theological and literary project of the book. This essay will argue that Ezekiel’s use of mythological motifs of a cosmological type, both in the cycle of OANs and as part of the book as a whole, is derived from the royal military ideology that was current in Jerusalem prior to the exile, and that the oracles constitute a direct attempt to incorporate the experience of exile into this ideology. Ultimately, however, Ezekiel’s initial efforts to this end were perceived to have failed, and alternative ideological explanations of warfare were introduced, either by Ezekiel himself or by an editor. I will conclude by addressing the accrual of this additional material.
Source: Journal of Biblical Literature
DOI: 10.2307/41304214
Author: CROUCH
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1552084367