Ezekiel 1–24: Introduction and Commentary
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Explore the historical and theological significance of the book of Ezekiel.
Authored by Dale F. Launderville, an expert in Semitics and the Hebrew Bible, this cutting-edge commentary provides scholars, teachers, and preachers with essential resources for understanding Ezekiel 1–24. In addition to discussing key issues of language, methodology, structure, and theology, Launderville explores the book’s history of reception. Throughout, he weaves together scholarly and pastoral concerns. The volume is part of the Eerdmans Illuminations series, in which authors employ the full range of biblical scholarship to illumine the text from a wide variety of perspectives, including the engagement and impact of the text through the centuries.
For each chapter of Ezekiel 1–24, Launderville offers translation, interpretation, and commentary. Close reading of the Hebrew text is complemented by observations from the Old Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, and Latin versions. Within the interpretive section that follows, Launderville includes a subsection entitled “history of consequences,” which aims to give an account of how the text of Ezekiel has sparked the imagination of subsequent thinkers, writers, and artists. Each chapter concludes with a section of commentary dedicated to a historical-critical examination of the canonical text. This section is attentive to the history of composition of the Ezekiel text from the sixth to the first century BCE. Cross-cultural influences of the ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean environments are explored in this section as well.
By studying this remarkable volume, readers will become better equipped to make informed contributions to discussions of the book of Ezekiel. They will also become more confident in their understanding of Old Testament prophecy and its relevance to contemporary issues in church and society. This is a vital reference book for ministers, seminary students, and teachers of biblical studies courses.
- Provides essential resources for understanding Ezekiel 1-24 by an expert in Semitics and the Hebrew Bible
- Weaves together scholarly and pastoral concerns to explore the book’s history of reception
- Explores the cross-cultural influences of the ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean environments
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
To the Reader
List of Abbreviations and Sigla
Introduction
1. Texts and Versions
2. Language
3. Methodology
4. Structure
5. Theology and the Book of Ezekiel
6. History of Consequences
Commentary
General Bibliography
Subject Index
Author Index
Scripture Index
Ancient Sources Index
Dale Launderville’s Ezekiel 1–24 is a learned and luminous guide that invites readers not only to hear Ezekiel’s voice but to follow the long conversation it has sparked across centuries. Readers will easily see what the text has come to mean in communities, liturgies, and culture at large. Launderville regularly pauses to show how Ezekiel has been reimagined in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim settings and in the arts, architecture, theater, and music. The result is a commentary that connects close reading to living reception—for example, unpacking a puzzling ritual gesture by tracing its use and understanding across time—so that even opaque passages open onto contemporary insight. This is reception history at its best: generous in scope, judicious in detail, and deeply readable for scholars, students, and all thoughtful readers.
——Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary