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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Ezekiel and the New Temple Essay
Submitted to Dr. Joel Ajayi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course
OBST 520 ? D06
Old Testament Orientation II
by
Oliver M. Brown
April 10, 2016
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Introduction The prophecy of the Temple in Ezekiel 40-48 is said to be one of the most difficult portion of scripture. Many commentators have proposed varying views and approaches. It has even been reported that the Jews do not allow anyone to read it until they are 30 years of age.[footnoteRef:1]Despite this difficulty, it is a vital portion of scripture necessary to the understanding of the Messiah and the principle of salvation. Accordingly, this discussion will examine both the literal and figurative interpretations of this vision to show their strengths and weaknesses in light of the New Testament and the coming of Jesus Christ the messiah. [1: Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ezekiel 40, Accessed on April 8, 2016 www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/ezekiel/40.html]
Section 1: Ezekiel?s Temple: Literal or Figurative
In an attempt to understand this portion of scripture it is necessary to ask: to whom was this vision directed, during what period was this vision given, and for what purpose was the vision given in order for organization and context. In Ezekiel 40: 4, Ezekiel was instructed to ??declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.? As such, the
Ezekiel was a young priest when he was growing up, he was always around the temple in Jerusalem. The exiles in Babylon received hope from Ezekiel. Quickly after the first exiles arrived in Babylon, he began preaching. When Ezekiel received the messages from God, they mostly came from visions. Once he kept receiving these messages, he then realized that God would still take care of his people. The people of Babylon will receive a new life and return back home to their land from God’s spirit. God was with the people in Babylon the same amount of time he was in the Temple. In God’s exile, he would bring everyone closer to him. It was everybody’s responsibility to share group individuality.
The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze the preterist and futurist views of interpreting the Book of Revelation and determine which view provides the most accurate Biblical interpretation. As Richard L. Mayhue states, the "word 'preterist' comes from the Latin term praeteritus which basically means 'past' in regard to time." A preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation, therefore, asserts that incidents described therein have already come to pass. A futurist interpretation, on the other hand, suggests the opposite namely, that Revelation is a prophecy of things to come.
Although the exact age of the Jewish faith is debatable, one thing is certain, it is a faith with an extensive, and at times tumultuous, history. Throughout the history of Judaism, Jewish people have faced ongoing persecution and discrimination. Despite these conflicts, the faith is alive, strong, and growing. Like many religions faced with adversity, Judaism has had to accommodate the ever-changing world to maintain their faith. One significant moment of change, the falling of the Second Temple, had the opportunity to destroy Judaism for good, but the Jewish people came together and reformulated their religion in order to save their faith.
There was nothing to do. I saw her and that was that. I met her and then she was gone. She walked out of my life like a gust of wind that passes by, unnoticed. I loved her, at least I thought I loved her. I couldn’t stop thinking about her curly dark hair, the way she talked, and the way she moved when she walked swinging her arms so freely. Who will tell her how my heart feels? She told me things that I didn’t want to hear. She said that she didn’t belong to no one. A drug dealer had been her boyfriend since she was eighteen. He had given her everything, everything I couldn’t give her. “Then, he was shot, murdered, dead. The cons had taken over the plaza where he distributed drugs.” she said. “The remains of his body were found inside a black construction plastic-bag. When powerful drug cartels take over, everyone else dies. Not just a normal death, a cruel death. They make sure no one else dares to mess with their territory. That’s how it is. That’s fricking Mexico.” She blew a cloud of smoke and looked at me with those black-miserable eyes.
The Church interpretation of Ezekiel’s prophecy is quite simple. In Ezekiel 37:15-17 from the King James Bible, it reads:
The book of Ezekiel is based on the story of the priest, Ezekiel and his ministry to the Israelites in exile. Ezekiel preaches about God’s presence and how God is still involved while they are in exile. We hear about the restoration of Israel to a great nation and how the people will know that “I am the Lord”. Chapter 37 of Ezekiel is about a vision Ezekiel had. Ezekiel lands in the middle of a valley of dry bones.
From the debate over Eschatology Ladd then moves forward in the next few Chapters to the promises that God holds within his Kingdom. He achieves this by showing how Jesus proclaimed the coming Kingdom in the context of Old Testament prophecy. The concept of God’s Kingdom is already in place and is shown through Old Testament promise. In order to fully understand this Ladd analyses the apocalyptic writings and language through the lens of prophetic and apocalyptic hope in the coming Kingdom or Messiah.
Obvious seems the reason for pseudonymity in Second Temple Apocalypticism—but is it? Najman, writing on Mosaic Law in Second Temple literature, argues pseudepigraphy transfers authority from original texts to interpretive works, creating a process whereby “a ‘new’ law . . . is [instead] characterized as the Law of Moses”; but, is the same true for nonexpanded scripture? In the Letter of Aristeas, a pseudonymous author portrayed himself as Aristeas (Ps-Aristeas), a Ptolemy II court attendant. Wright argues the letter consists of “myth origins for the Septuagint.” Pseudonymity thus established the Septuagint as “an independent scriptural authority for Alexandrian Jews.” Consequently, by writing as a Ptolemaic court Gentile, the Jewish author
Within the Abrahamic religions eschatology brings forth much debate, this is to include Ezekiel’s chapter 38-39 in reference to Gog and Magog. The prophecies from Isaiah to Revelation are interwoven therefore making it important to identify, and understand the accomplices, interludes, geography, and various elucidations which assist in accurately analyzing and understanding this prophecy. It is important to acknowledge that “the major interpretive difficulties in these two chapters are the identity of characters and places, as well as the time when these events occur.” There are vast elucidations regarding the invasion of Gog and Magog, therefore, requiring a concentration on Dispensationalism and various scholars
going to Camp Jupiter to talk to the Romans about the Great Prophecy. While they are
This paper will address these biblical passages in Isaiah 52 and 53, which describes a “suffering servant” to the Lord God. There has been a debate as to whether these passages where describing the Messiah who would come to restore Israel as God’s chosen people or if the passage was describing the nation of Israel as the “suffering servant”. Christian scholars and clergy view these passages as describing Jesus who they affirm as the Messiah. The text is written in a poetic form and flows from one subject to another, however, many view these passages as being extremely detailed prophecy about the Messiah to come. I will point out key passages and explain how these passages provide clarity about whom the writer was speaking. This paper will point out why Jesus is the “suffering servant”, who is mentioned in Isaiah and explain why the “suffering servant” is not the nation of Israel as others propose.
God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet and as a "watchman" in Israel: "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites." The way I interpret this vision is that God has many ways of presenting himself to people. Most us want to see God as a kind and loving being but here he shows himself as
To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It
Zechariah, experience many visions as we read this great book it puts us in the mind set of an Revelation or Daniel. It’s hard not to get caught up in the apocalyptic style of writing. The writer sucks you in to this almost dream world before you have to pull back and reexamine were you were and the real message that he’s conveying. To keep it simple his message was about encouraging the people to finish what they had started. Rebuilding the temple, throwing in the golden nuggets about the Messiah would come.
Biblical Prophecies emerge from times of difficulty. During the 8th century, Israel- who had once saw a developing nation, now faced a declining economy. Wealth was focused on the elite class and the social gap was growing at an increasing rate (Miller & Hayes, 1986). The prophets speak of the people as being guilty of breaching a contract with god and the deteriorating economy was a punishment for this. The hope of forgiveness and