Spirit and Reason: The Embodied Character of Ezekiel's Symbolic Thinking

1: The Right Ordering of Perception through the Interplay of Spirit and Reason

43 CHAPTER ONE The Right Ordering of Perception through the Interplay of Spirit and Reason New ways of knowing and acting that emerge after a traumatic experience can begin the process of reconstructing the self-understanding of the individual and the community. For the prophet Ezekiel, Yhwh intervened in Judah in the sixth century B.C.E. to bring about both the destruction of an old world and the reconstruction of a new one. Although Nebuchadrezzar and his army were the historical agents that devastated Judah and Jerusalem, the true executive force of this event, according to Ezekiel, was Yhwh. That Yhwh was bringing devastation to Judah and Jerusalem triggered a crisis of symbols for the populace : a crisis not only of faith but also of epistemology. Both the Jerusalemites and the exiles had to use their heart (i.e., reason) and spirit to try to make sense out of this traumatic experience. They needed to find a new vision of life that would help them adapt to a world without a temple and a king. Ezekiel became a model among the exiles for the reshaping of the symbolic world of the house of Israel. This chapter examines how Ezekiel comes to a new way of knowing Yhwh through his inaugural vision and prophetic call (1:1–3:15) and how this way of knowing ultimate reality compares with analogous efforts in Mesopotamia and Greece. To understand how this vision and call was a force integrating mind and heart in Ezekiel, the distinctiveness of Ezekiel’s use of the terms “spirit” (rûah\) and “reason” (lēb) within the wider context of parallel Akkadian and Greek terms will be identified. The spirit and the heart are capacities that must be properly employed if one is to perceive the truth in the human, natural, and 44 SPIrIT AND rEASON divine dimensions of the reality encompassing one. Next, the chapter examines how Ezekiel’s perception was reoriented by his inaugural vision such that his point of reference became a transcendent Deity that exceeded his capacity to comprehend but yet was a Reality beyond appearances from which he had to get his bearings. An examination follows of how Marduk was conceived as a sovereign deity according to an anthropomorphic model both iconographically and narratologically. From the Presocratic Greek materials, the viewpoints of Anaximander and Heraclitus are drawn upon to illustrate the emerging Ionian rationalistic spirit at that time that sought an explanation of the ruling forces of the cosmos in depersonalized terms. A key concern will be the extent to which their thoughts testify to a drive to look beyond appearances and to criticize the use of images analogous to that found in Ezekiel. Finally, the chapter examines the other part of Ezekiel’s call to prophesy, which describes the impact of the inaugural vision and the advent of the divine Spirit on his person and his capacity to perceive. To highlight the distinctiveness of Ezekiel’s visionary experience, Mesopotamian and Greek texts are employed to illustrate how the inspiration of prophets and poets was understood within their traditions. Spirit and Heart: The Convergence of Thinking and Sensing The term rûah\, “wind, breath, spirit,” occurs fifty-two times in the book of Ezekiel, which leads Block to characterize Ezekiel as “the prophet of the spirit.”1 The term refers primarily to meteorological, physiological, and spiritual realities . Clusters of the term rûah\ occur at strategic points in the final form of the book of Ezekiel: chapters 1–3, 8–11, and 36–37. In these sections, the divine Spirit animated and directed the throne-chariot (1:20; 10:17), the prophet (2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 8:3;11:1, 5), and the exilic community (11:19; 36:26; 37:5-10). The Spirit’s control of the fundamental forces of nature and history is revealed through the way the Spirit entered into the person of Ezekiel (2:2; 3:24) and operated in his visions (1:20; 3:12; 11:5; 37:5-10). The dramatic ways in which the spirit of Ezekiel was altered by the presence of the divine Spirit are evident not only in Ezekiel’s call but also in his visions of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the reconstitution of the Israelite community from the exiles. The Spirit acted upon the thoughts (3:14; 11:5; 20:32) and feelings (3:14; cf. 21:12) of Ezekiel. The point of these visions is that Ezekiel...