( 4) A fourth distinguishing feature in Ezekiel's style is its well-marlcerl, originality. This is not to be regarded as in any measure compromised by wh!l.t has been advanced concerning the prophet's supposed dependence on the Pentateuch and the older prophets. "Whatever assistance he may have derived from these compositions, he is not for a moment to be represented as having ransacked them, after the fashion of a modern author, sifting the works of his predecessors for choice quotations wherewith to embellish his own pages, but to have freely reproduced their teachings with the stamp of his own individuality upon them, after having first taken up and absorbed them into his own personality. If his symbolism, as already indicated, was mainly derived from Old Testament ideas and conceptions, those ideas and conceptions were combined in 21. way which was peculiarly his own. To cite again the words of Cornill (' Der Prophet Ezechiel,' p. 30), "Whilst in the earlier prophets we find, as it were, only timid attempts, in the Book of Ezekiel there prevails a truly titanic phantasy, which in inexhaustible fulness always creates afresh the most profound symbols, usually bordering on the extremest limits of the conceivable." Nor is the prophet's originality restricted to unusual images and combinations of thought, but, as is more or less characteristic of all powerfully ener- getic and creative minds, it overflows in the coinage of new words as well as in the employment of phrases and expressions peculiar to itself. Examples of the latter are the designations, "son of man," used by Jehovah in addressing the prophet ( eh. ii. 1, 3, 6, 8; iii. 1, 3, 4, et passim), and "rebellious house" applied to Israel ( eh. ii. 5, 6, 7, 8; iii. 9, 26, 27; :xii. 2, 3, 9; xvii. 12; xxiv. 3; xliv. 6); the formulas, "The hand of Jehovah was upon me" ( eh. i. 3 ; iii. 22 ; viii. 1 ; xxxvii. 1 ; xl. 1), " The word of Jehovah came unto me" (eh~ iii, 16; vi. 1; vii. 1, etc.), "Set thy face against" ( eh. iv. 3, 7; vi. 2; xiii. 17; xx. 46; xxi. 2), "They shall know that I am Jehovah" (eh. v. 13; vi. 10, 14; vii. 27; xii. 15, etc.), "They shall know that a prophet bath been among them" ( eh. ii. 5; xxxiii. 33); and the clauses introducing Jehovah's utterances: "Thus saith Jehovah Elohim" (eh.ii. 4; iii. 11, 27; v. 5, 7, 8; vi. 3, 11; vii. 2. 5, etc.). Instances of the former are hardly less abundant. Keil (' Introduction to the Old Testament,' I., vol. i. 357, Engl. trans.) supplies a fut of words peculiar to Ezekiel, of which the appended are a sample: (1) Verbs: pi:9, "to thrust through" (eh. xvi. 40); n?'!T, "to trouble" (waters) (eh. xxxii. 2, 13); l"IV't, in hiph., "to lead astray" ( eh. xiii. 10); ';,i:9, "to paint" (the eyes) (eh. xxiii. 40); l'10Q, "to sweep away or scrape off" (ob. xxvi. 4); oo:,, "to sprinkle" ( eh. xlvi. 14). (2) Nouns: i'if•'•" flash of lightning" ( eh. i. 14); ,i:1, "lamentation" (eh. ii. 10); ';,t;,l?tT, "polished brass" ( eh. i. 4, 27; viii. 2); in, "sounding" ( eh. vii. 7); ttT, "the wall of a house" ( eh. xiii. 10) ; :Ii?.~, "a socket for setting a gem" ( eh. xxviii. 13). (5) A lasti peculiarity that may be claimed for Ezekiel is that of simpli- city. Illeek denies thifi, and speaks of his style as being "very diffuse and xxviii INTRODUCTION TO
redundant "-a complaint which Smend re-echoes, characterizing it, on account of the above-mentioned phrases and formulas, as" monotonous," aml even charging it with occasional "carelessness;" but the judgment of a writer in the 'Encyclopredia Britannica' ( art. "Ezekiel") will probably commend itself to impartial students as a nearer approximation to the truth, that "Ezekiel's prose is invariably simple and unaffected;" and that "if there be any obscurity at all, it is really caused by his exceeding desire to make it impossible for his readers to misunderstand him."
4. Principles of Interpretation. That the Book of Ezekiel must be interpreted exactly as other com• positions of a mixed prosaic and poetic, historical and prophetical, literal and symbolical, realistic and idealistic character-that is to say, that to each part must be applied its own criteria hermeneutica, its own rules of exegesis or laws of interpretation-is self-evident. And in deciphering those portions of this work which are of a narrative, historical, poetical, or allegorical description, there is ordinarily no difficulty felt. The qumstio vexata is how the "visions,'' "symbols," and " predictions" shall be under- stood. Tholuck (\Die Propheten und ihre Weissagungen,' pp. 151, aqq.) distinguishes four different modes of interpretation, which he names the historical, the allegorical, the symbolical, and the typical ; or, classing the last three together, the historical and the idealistic; and, so far as the Book of Ezekiel is concerned, the principal matters to be determined are whether its "visions" and "symbolic actions" were actual occurrences or merely transactions in the mind, and whether its predictions were purely "the product of reflective knowledge and thinking" or were traceable to a transcendental origin. The second of these questions, having already been alluded to, may be passed over, and a. few words devoted to the first. As regards the " visions," e.g. of the glory of Jehovah, of the temple at Jernsalem, and ot the temple and city of the later times, it can hardly be questioned that what the prophet writes concerning these was based upon actual scenic representations that were present to his mind's eye during the moments of ecstasy he experienced, and were not simply idealistic creations of his own fancy, or rhetorical embellishments employed to set forth his ideas. Whether in any case what he beheld had a materialistic liasis is not so easy to determine. Whether, for instance, he actually saw the glory of God or only a likeness of the same, and looked upon the veritable stone and lime building on Mount Moriah or merely an image of the same, seems outside the limits of exegesis to decide. Only the notion that " visions "were intended to "elucidate" the prophet's meaning shatters itself on the rock of their general obscurity. So opinion is not unanimous whether the symbolic actions reported to have been performed by the prophet-as, for instance, "lying four hundred and thirty days on his right side over against a painted tile," " baking and 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. xxix