Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: Ezekiel’s temple, John 19-21, and lots of numbers (153 included).

SPOILER: Not for the faint-hearted. Over 100 posts to come.

WHY? A general lack of material on two-cubit-jambs, five-cubit-vestibules, and their relevance to Peter’s haul of fish.

#JambsMatter

In what follows, I will seek to outline:

a] some of the more distinctive features and numerical harmonies of Ezek. 40-48;

b] how the apostle John patterns his gospel--and in particular its passion and resurrection narratives--on Ezekiel’s vision.

Briefly, Ezek. 40-48 depicts a new temple and a new temple order--an Edenic hub where the righteousness of the law is fulfilled and flows forth to water/restore all Creation, and where YHWH is permanently present.

These themes are brought out by our text in a number of ways.

The first is by means of various Jubilee-esque undertones in Ezekiel’s text.

The Israelites of Moses’s day were instructed to divide up the years of their existence into ‘weeks’.

Every 7th year was to be observed as a Sabbatical year,

and every 7th Sabbatical year was to be observed as a Jubilee year (cp. Lev. 25).

Consequently, a Jubilee year can be seen either as a 49th year (insofar as it represents the 7th year of the 7th week)

or as a 50th year (insofar as it marks the climax of a full Jubilee cycle,

...which begins an ends in a Sabbatical year).

In much the same way, the day of Pentecost--i.e., a 50th day--marks the climax of seven weeks, i.e., of the period from ‘the day after the Sabbath of Passover week to the day after the Sabbath seven weeks later’ (Lev. 23.8, 15-16).

Ezekiel’s vision is replete with Jubilee-esque numbers, viz. 25 (a half-Jubilee), 49, 50.

It narrates an ascent of 25 steps: 7 to enter the outer court, 8 to ascend into the inner court, and 10 to climb the altar (40.22, 40.31, 40.49).

It mentions 25 tables (40.39-41, 41.22).

It contains 25 references to the number 25 (one to the 25th year, one to 25 shekels, seven to 25 cubits, fourteen to 25,000, and two to a square of 500 cubits x 500 cubits = 25,000 cubits).

And it contains 10 references to ‘50 cubits’.

These structural/numerical harmonies are not contrived;

that is to say, the text of Ezekiel does not read repetitively, nor is it composed entirely of measurements divisible by, say, 5 or 10.

Yet, when considered as a whole, it reveals a deep coherence and literary beauty.

Ezekiel’s description of the Temple’s east outer gate (40.6-16) is a particularly neat example.

The gate is divided up into sections of 2 cubits, 5 cubits, 6 cubits, and 8 cubits.

And yet, considered as a whole, it describes a construction 25 cubits in width and 50 in depth,

as shown below:

A similar harmony underlies Ezekiel’s description of the Temple’s wider environs, as the diagram below shows (taken from Block’s commentary):

The time-stamp of Ezekiel’s vision is equally noteworthy.

Ezek. 40 opens with a date formula--viz. ‘in the 10th of the month’ of ‘the 25th year of the exile = the 14th year of Jerusalem’s fall’ (40.1)--,

whose numbers sum to 49 (cp. 10 + 25 + 14 = 49),

as do those of ch. 1’s time-stamp (30 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 5).

As such, Ezekiel’s vision is clearly associated with a Jubilee.

Especially noteworthy to my mind is the way in which these sums depend on oddities of the text.

Why does the text of 1.2 repeat the day statement (viz. ‘the 5th day of the month’) of 1.1? Why not simply say ‘In the 30th year, which was the 5th of the exile’?

And why does 45.12 break its sum of 60 shekels down into ‘20 shekels plus 25 shekels plus 15 shekels’?

Without these oddities, the numerical harmonies outlined above would be ruined.

But Ezekiel’s visions are not merely underlain with Jubilee-esque *imagery/allusions*;

they actually coincide with the inauguration of a Jubilee year.

Consider 40.1’s time-stamp more carefully.

Why does Ezekiel refer to the 10th day as ראש השנה = Rosh Ha-Shanah = ‘the head of the year’?

Or, to put the question another way, What kind of year begins on the 10th of a month?

The answer is simple: a Jubilee year.

In Mosaic law, the 1st day of the Jubilee is specified as the day of Atonement (Lev. 25.9);

in other words, Rosh Ha-Shanah moves from its normal place of 1st Tishri to 10th Tishri.

Rabbinic literature arrives at the same conclusion (cp. b. Arak. 12a, R. Ha-Shanah 8a).

And, as Rodger Young has brilliantly demonstrated, the year of Ezekiel’s vision was indeed a Jubilee year.

With these things in mind, it may be helpful for us to consider a further aspect of 1.1’s time-stamp, viz., ‘In the 30th year, in the 4th month...’.

What exactly does Ezekiel mean when he refers simply to ‘the 30th year’?

The 30th year of what?

The most likely answer, I submit, is ‘a Jubilee cycle’.

Suppose ‘exile years’ run from Tishri to Tishri, as the years of Jewish eras invariably do (to the best of my knowledge).

The distance between the 5th month of the 5th exile year (cf. 1.1-2) and the 1st of the 25th exile year (cf. 40.1) then amounts to c. 19 years 2 months,

which, if subtracted from the 1st month of the 50th year of a Jubilee cycle, takes us to the 5th month of the 30th year

...of the cycle (per 1.1-2).

As such, Ezekiel’s final vision can be seen as the culmination of a Jubilee cycle first hinted at in Ezekiel’s very first verse,

which is apt, since the content of Ezekiel’s vision is highly Jubilee-esque.

Chs. 38-39 describe Israel’s liberation/release from her enemies;

chs. 40-48 describe a new temple (work on the Temple frequently coincides with the peak of Jubilee cycles);

ch. 48 describes the redistribution of the land between the 12 tribes; and

46.16-18 describes the operation of Jubilee regulations in the land allocated to ‘the Prince’.

But of course Ezekiel’s vision does not describe a normal Jubilee; it describes a fundamentally *new* kind of Jubilee.

Even if the Israelites had faithfully observed Jubilee years,

...their effects would have been far from ideal,

since Israel never took full possession of the territories allotted to them (e.g., Judg. 1),

and the land often became unproductive (due to Israel’s disobedience, per Deut. 28’s promise).

*Ezekiel’s* Jubilee, however, is predicated on a full defeat of Israel’s enemies and an equitable distribution of land,

which is continually watered by streams of fresh water.

(Are we to see the promise לא יבול = ‘(Its leaf) will not wither’ as an anagram of יובל אל = ‘the Jubilee of God’?)

Israel’s land and seas are characterised by an abundance of fruit and fish.

And, most importantly of all, YHWH himself is present in the midst of Israel.

As mentioned above, John’s gospel is patterned on a number of Ezekielic themes, of which the Jubilee is a good example.

John introduces us to Jesus against the backdrop of a temple which has been under construction for 46 years.

And then, three Passovers later--

i.e., in the 49th year of the Temple’s construction--, we find Jesus hung on a tree.

Jesus’ body--the body he explicitly referred to as a Temple (John 2.19-21)--is pierced with a spear, and water flows forth from his side,

just as water is said to flow forth

from the side of Ezekiel’s temple (מִתַּחַת מִכֶּתֶף הַבַּיִת = ‘from beneath the shoulder of the house’: 47.1).

Thereafter, a Sabbatical period dawns as the final week of Jesus’ ministry draws to a close.

And, on the 1st day of a new week, we find Jesus risen from the dead:

Jesus’ temple has been rebuilt;

Jesus is present among his people in a new way, who must themselves function as people from whom streams of water flow forth (John 7.38);

Jesus is ‘mistaken’ for a gardener (of a renewed creation!); and

Jesus’ disciples are surrounded by a large number of fish.

That Jesus’ ministry converges towards and ushers in a Jubilee is also hinted at in the Jews’ rather unusual statement to Jesus, viz., ‘You are not yet 50 years old’.

We will expand on these notions later (and outline some numerical connections between the final scenes of Ezekiel’s vision and of John’s gospel: cf. Ezek. 47-48, John 21),

but, for now, we will continue with our enumeration of Ezekiel’s distinctives and their parallels in John.

A second distinctive feature of Ezekiel’s vision is its depiction of Ezekiel as a new Moses.

Ezekiel’s vision contains the only legal corpus found in the entire Hebrew Bible outside of the Mosiac Torah,

& its content & wider context set it in unmistakably Exodus-like environs.

In the events of both Ezekiel and Exodus, YHWH’s enemies are dramatically defeated (chs. 38-39 cp. Exod. 14-15),

YHWH leads a prophet (Moses/Ezekiel) up to a mountaintop (40.1-4 cp. Exod. 19) at the end of a seven week period

(as long as ביום הזה in Exod. 19.1 can refer to the 1st day of the relevant ‘moon’, per Rabbinic tradition, which has Moses receive the Torah on the day of Pentecost),

YHWH dictates the measurements of the house in which he will now dwell (cp. Exod. 25-40),

and, finally, YHWH fills the relevant house with his presence/glory (chs. 43-44 cp. Exod. 40).

Ezekiel, then, is a new Moses, who introduces a new Torah in Israel.

Many of these themes are taken up by John’s gospel, which mentions Moses more than any other book in the NT.

John introduces Jesus with the words, ‘The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’.

As he begins his ministry, Jesus is seen as the Moses-like prophet due to be raised up (John 1.21, 45, 4.19 cp. Deut. 18.15).

Afterwards, Jesus feeds thousands of Israelites with miraculously-provided bread at the time of the Passover (John 6).

And Jesus then introduces the most distinctly Johannine section of his doctrine with the words, ‘A new commandment I give to you’.

A third distinctive feature of Ezekiel’s temple is its remoteness.

Solomon’s temple was situated in the heart of Jerusalem.

In many ways, it was the hub of the city, which was why it became so corrupt (43.8ff.).

By contrast, Ezekiel’s temple is remote and otherworldly.

It feels as if it is located in a different dimension of reality.

It is situated on a high mountain (40.1).

It is likened to ‘a city’--that is to say, it is self-contained--, though it has a slightly mystic nature since it is only said to be *like* a city (40.2).

(As such, it resonates with Ezekiel’s description of YHWH’s throne, which is *like* a throne, and has an appearance *like* sapphire, etc.)

It is described to Ezekiel by an angelic guide (40.3).

While its surface area is only 500 x 500 cubits,

it is set in the midst of an enormous plot of land--25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide--, the entirety of which is designated as holy to YHWH (45.1-3).

Its measurements are regular and sacral, as if they do not need to accommodate the messiness of geography and politics.

It priests are not permitted to sweat--a fact which disassociates it from Adam’s curse (44.18 cf. Gen. 3.19).

It does not need a water-basin, as if its priests do not accrue the same kind of uncleanness as the Aaronic priests did (cp. Exod. 30.17-21).

And its activities are not carried out in response to specific sins--that is to say, the priests are not called into action as and when certain sins are committed (e.g., Lev. 4ff.)--, but operates on their own fixed schedule.

Ezekiel’s temple is also highly restricted.

Its altar is only to be approached by Zadokites (40.46).

Its priests must minister in linen, and must leave their garments behind them in their chambers when they go to communicate with the common people (44.17-19).

And it contains a gate which is to be kept shut

...for all but the prince (נשיא) to enter (ch. 46).

The above observations are highly significant.

Ezekiel’s temple depicts a cleanness and righteousness which is far beyond what man can accomplish.

It operates outside of the normal earthly dimensions,

and is not subject to their curse,

yet Israel nevertheless benefit from its operation.

The Israelites are cleansed and purified by what goes on in Ezekiel’s temple, and they dwell in plots of (fruitful) land on its borders (and beyond).

Hence, while the location and nature of the Temple is distinctly otherworldly, its effects are decidedly earthly (cf. ch. 47).

Many of these notions are taken up in John’s gospel.

John particularly (though not exclusively) portrays Jesus as one who comes from another realm,

who goes away to prepare ‘many rooms’ for his people in another realm (cf. the many chambers in Ezekiel’s temple),

whose kingdom is not ‘of the present world’, and

whose people are not to be ‘of the world’ (John 15.19).

John also tells us how Jesus leaves his linen ‘clothes’ behind when he goes forth from the tomb in order to meet with his people (John 20.4-7), just as Ezekiel’s priests do,

and how Jesus mysteriously appears in an upper room

...which no one else is able to access because its door is locked shut.

For John, then, Jesus is a distinctly Ezekielic high priest who overcomes the world, is lifted up from its surface in death, and intercedes for his people thereafter in an otherworldly realm.

He has an exclusive road to tread (‘Where I go, you cannot yet follow me’),

and he calls Israel to be ‘born again’--‘from above’--, and offers them a permanent solution to their uncleanness.

Hence, just as no water-basin is necessary in Ezekiel’s temple,

so those who Jesus has cleansed ‘do not need to wash,...but are completely clean’ because of Jesus’ word (13.10 cp. 15.3).

Some of these connections--particularly those concerned with the Temple’s righteousness--are underscored by the structure and arrangement of Ezekiel’s text.

Chs. 40-48 consists of three distinct sections, which Block summarises as follows:

a] chs. 40-43 = ‘YHWH’s establishment of his residence in the Temple’,

b] chs. 44-46 = ‘Israel’s response to YHWH’s presence in her midst’, and

c] chs. 47-48 = ‘the apportionment of the newly-healed land among the twelve tribes’.

The arrangement of these three sections is significant.

The middle section (chs. 44-46) consists of 80 verses,

the middle word of which (אדני = ‘Lord’)

...is contained within the section’s middle two verses (i.e., verses 40-41 = 45.9-10), which state:

‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness! You are to have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath!’.

These verses are distinctive: they contain the only plural imperatives found in Ezek. 40-48;

and a sixth of their (twenty-four) words are conjugations of the word ‘righteous’ (צדק/צדקה)--a word not found anywhere else in chs. 40-48.

But, while the *word* ‘righteous’ is not spelt out explicitly elsewhere in Ezekiel, it is hinted at.

Chs. 40-48 consists of eighteen distinct scenes, each of which is defined by a change of location,

and signalled by the phrase ‘and he brought me...’

(normally וַיְבִיאֵנִי, but sometimes וַיָּבֵא אֹתִי or וַיּוֹלִכֵנִי or וַיּוֹצִאֵנִי);

and many of these eighteen scenes exhibit significant numerical features.

Consider, for instance, the first scene, which runs from 40.1 to 40.16.

The ordinal numbers employed in Ezekiel’s first scene sum to a total of 49 (as we noted above in our discussion of Jubilees).

And its measurements of cubits sum to a total to 194 (if we exclude vs. 5’s measurement of ‘the reed’ itself) or 200 (if we include it).

Both numbers are significant.

194 is the gematrial value of צדק = ‘righteousness’ (cf. above).

And 200 is the value of צדוק = ‘Zadok’, i.e., the man whose priesthood has been given charge over Ezekiel’s temple.

Note: When I refer to ‘measurements of cubits’, I simply mean every mention of a number which is related to a cubit in the MT.

For instance, 44.12b states הַתָּא שֵׁשׁ־אַמּוֹת מִפוֹ וְשֵׁשׁ אַמּוֹת מִפּוֹ = ‘The room (was) six cubits on one side and six on the other’,

which (by my count) makes a total of 12 cubits.

The only exception to the above rule concerns the text of 44.6b (וַיָּמָד אֶת־סַף הַשַּׁעַר קָנֶה אֶחָד רֹחַב וְאֵת סַף אֶחָד קָנֶה אֶחָד רֹחַב), the first clause of which clearly refers to ‘one cubit’, but the second of which

...is awkward and is generally left untranslated, so I have excluded it from my count.

Also relevant are the seventh and eighth scenes of Ezekiel’s vision (40.48-41.26).

In the first part of these scenes (40.48-41.4), Ezekiel is brought to the Temple (הֵיכָל),

whose measurements amount to a total of 194 cubits,

i.e., 5 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 20 + 11 + 6 + 6 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 40 + 20 + 2 + 6 + 7 + 20 + 20 = 194.

Afterwards, attention is turned to the Temple’s environment, whose measurements amount to 616 cubits.

Both of these totals are significant, especially in light of what we have outlined above.

As before, 194 is the value of צדק = ‘righteousness’,

and 616 is the value of התורה = ‘the law’.

The Temple is hence depicted as a reflection of ‘the law’s righteousness’ (צדק התורה).

It is a monument to YHWH’s perfect requirements and provisions.

Note: As before, our measurements are dependent on the MT rather than Greek translations, which are significantly different at times (e.g., 42.4).

A fourth distinctive feature of Ezekiel’s vision is its depiction of man as weak and fallen, and its depiction of sin as a permanent stain.

In Scripture, different prophets portray Israel’s return from exile in different ways.

For Jeremiah, the return from exile occurs at a time when Israel seek their God with a pure heart (Jer. 29.11-14),

and Israel’s restoration marks a return to ‘the devotion of her youth’ (2.2),

while, for Isaiah,

the return from exile marks the moment when Israel’s time of punishment has lasted long enough and restoration is overdue (Isa. 40.1-2).

For Ezekiel, however, Israel’s restoration is a very different affair.

As far as Ezekiel is concerned, Israel has been stained by sin

...from the very outset of her existence.

She has an Amorite father and a Hittite mother (16.3), and has been plagued by sin from her youth upwards.

She surrounded herself with idols in Egypt, and emerged laden down with them (ch. 20, 23.1-4).

And, when she returns from the nations, it will not be because she calls on the name of YHWH, nor will she will return to a cleansed land.

Rather, YHWH will intervene on Israel’s behalf in order to preserve and glorify his name (36.20-23),

and he will bring Israel back

...in an unclean state (36.25) to an unclean land (36.34-35), stained with the memory of recent bloodshed (39.12).

Israel’s return, then, will be entirely of YHWH’s initiative.

Even the righteousness of men like Noah, Daniel, and Job would have been unable to save her (14.14).

YHWH *himself* will therefore change Israel’s heart, since Israel will be unable to do so herself (11.19, 36.26).

YHWH himself will cleanse Israel with clean water, since, in the absence of a temple, she is unable to cleanse herself (36.25).

YHWH himself will *build* Israel’s temple (chs. 40ff.), hence, while Ezekiel’s vision contains commands for the Temple’s priests to obey, it never once commands anyone to *build* the Temple (cp. Zech. 6.12).

And, rather than command Israel to rejuvenate her land on her return,

...YHWH will command the land itself to bring forth fruit (36.1-11), and will water it from his holy temple (ch. 47).

In other words, YHWH will restore his people by means of a unilateral decision and unilateral action.

Israel’s problem is not simply a lack of zeal

...which needs to be revived, or a moral deficiency which needs to be improved on; rather, Israel is dead.

She is a valley full of dry bones, and will remain so until YHWH breathes new life into her (ch. 37).

John’s gospel in particular takes up many of these themes.

John emphasises how men must be born again ‘not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’,

how man is unable to come to God unless he is first chosen out and drawn (6.39-45, 15.16),

how God acts in order to glorify his holy name (12.27-28), and

how Jesus is the one who breathes new life into his people’s weary bones (20.21-23).

John also omits Simon the Cyrene’s role in the passion narrative. For John, Jesus bears his own cross (19.17), since he must enter God’s sanctuary and ‘tread the winepress’ alone (18.12, etc.

...cf. Lev. 16.17).

A fifth and final distinctive feature of Ezekiel’s vision is its amalgamation of the Passover and Yom Kippur sacrifices.

Ezekiel’s ‘prince’ (נשיא) bears a civic title, yet performs a cultic function.

As such, he is able to merge Israel’s civic and cultic years together and, by extension, to amalgamate the feasts of the 1st and 7th months,

which is reflected in his activities.

On the 1st day of the cultic year, the prince takes a young bull (per the Yom Kippur rite),

applies its blood to ‘the doorposts of the house’ (a distinctly Passover-esque notion),

and hence cleanses Ezekiel’s Temple (the purpose of the Yom Kippur rite: Lev. 16.32-34),

which he presumably does only once (as an inauguratory act: cf. Exod. 40).

Then, on the 14th day of each 1st month (the Passover), the prince brings a bull to the Temple (per the Yom Kippur rite),

which is said to function as a sacrifice ‘for himself and for the people’ (a distinctly Yom Kippur-esque notion: 16.3, 6, 11, 15).

John’s gospel portrays Jesus’ sacrifice as a similar amalgamation of the Passover and Yom Kippur.

For John, Jesus is both a priest (cp. Jesus’ high priestly prayer) and a king (cp. the title on Jesus’ cross).

Moreover, he is both the lamb of God (a Passover-esque sacrifice),

and the one who ‘bears away’ (a Yom Kippur-esque notion) the sins of the world,

and his sacrifice need only be performed once (hence Jesus’ cry, ‘It is finished!’).

As such, John portrays Jesus in light of Ezekiel’s temple.

Jesus’ sacrifice is not the continuation of a previous Mosaic system, but its climax/culmination, and is at the same time the inauguration of an entirely new order.

In sum, then, John portrays Jesus as the one who will establish a perfect and eschatological temple order--

...the one who will finally undo sin’s awful curse and procure for his people a righteousness they could never otherwise attain.

But the resonance between John’s passion narrative and Ezekiel’s vision actually run far deeper than we have suggested so far.

Ezekiel’s vision is a not a static experience.

Ezekiel is led on a tour around his eschatological temple, which follows a specific course.

First Ezekiel is led into the ante-chamber of the east gate (40.1ff.),

then through the gate into the outer court (40.17ff.),

then through the inner south gate into the inner court (40.28ff.), on to the temple (40.48ff.), back into the outer court (42.9ff.), and back out through the east gate (43.1ff.),

at which point Ezekiel comes face to face with the glory of the God of Israel, as is shown in Block’s diagram below. (The numbers represent successive stages in Ezekiel’s journey.)

As such, Ezekiel’s movements describe a journey into the presence and throne-room of God,

though it is a slightly paradoxical one, since Ezekiel does not initially encounter YHWH’s glory in his temple, but beyond the complex’s outer walls.

John’s passion narrative describes a remarkable similar experience, in which Ezekiel’s altar is replaced by Calvary’s cross.

Like Ezekiel, Jesus is led from court to court--i.e., from one earthly representative of YHWH’s justice to another--

...as the hour of his encounter with YHWH slowly draws nearer,

until, outside Jerusalem’s city wall, Jesus finally comes face to face with divine justice itself.

And, in Jesus’ case, the paradox of his encounter with YHWH is even greater than in Ezekiel’s,

for, when Jesus encounters YHWH’s glory, he does not experience its radiance, but its hostility towards sin.

As Ezekiel experiences YHWH’s glory, which lights up the earth with its brightness (43.2), Jesus experiences the weight of YHWH’s wrath,

which engulfs the earth in darkness.

Some of the more specific parallels and contrasts between Ezekiel’s and Jesus’ journeys are set out below,

which are apparent from the very outset of Ezekiel’s vision.

In the visions of God, Ezekiel is taken to a mountain outside Jerusalem (40.1), while, on the night of his arrest, Jesus is taken *from* a mountain outside of Jerusalem (18.1).

Ezekiel is then led through the east gate of his temple into the outer court, where he is informed of various measurements (40.1+), while Jesus is led through the east gate of the city into the court of the high priest, where he is informed of various charges against him (18.1+).

Ezekiel is next led from the outer court into the *inner* court (40.28ff.), while Jesus is led from the court of the high priest to ‘the pavement’ outside the Praetorium (18.28ff. w. 19.13), where Pilate comes forth to meet him,

at which point the spectre of death rears its head in both men’s journeys.

As Ezekiel stands in the inner court, he sees various tables on which animals are slaughtered, while, outside the Praetorium, the Jews utter the ominous words, ‘We cannot judge Jesus ourselves,

...since we are not permitted to put anyone to death’ (18.31).

At the same time, the altar is briefly mentioned in Ezekiel’s vision (40.47), though is not expanded on.

As our texts continue to unfold, they continue to parallel one another.

Just as Ezekiel is led into the Temple at the centre of the complex (40.48ff.), so Jesus is summoned to enter the Praetorium (18.33ff.), the heart of Rome’s authority in Judah, where he is interrogated by Pilate.

And, just as Ezekiel sees ‘something like a wooden altar’ before him, so the cross looms large in John’s passion narrative. (John specifically refers to ‘what kind of death Jesus is about to die’, namely death by crucifixion.)

Afterwards, Ezekiel is led back out into the outer court (42.1ff.), just as Jesus is led out from the Praetorium to face the Jews again (19.4ff.),

at which point our narratives start to dovetail more intricately.

Ezekiel is led back to the east gate (or perhaps outside it: 43.1), which *seems* as if it will be a difficult event for John’s narrative to parallel, since Jesus has already been led outside the Praetorium.

But, although we have not been told about it, Jesus has evidently been led back into the Praetorium (19.9). As a result, he is able to be ‘led out’ a second time in John’s passion narrative (19.13a) and hence to continue to echo Ezekiel’s movements.

Note: That the experiences of Ezekiel foreshadow those of Jesus should not surprise us. Ezekiel is one of only two individuals who are specifically referred to by the title ‘son of man’ in the OT (the other is Daniel), which happens some 70 times in Ezekiel’s case.

The next scene of Ezekiel’s vision opens with Ezekiel stood at the Temple’s outer gate, where he witnesses a simply majestic sight--viz. God’s arrival in a cloud of glory (43.2ff.)--, which finds a remarkable parallel in John.

Just as God takes his seat in his temple,

so Pilate takes his seat on his judgment throne as he prepares to pronounce judgment on the Son of God.

Of course, Pilate is no theophany (or anything like one), but he is a representative of what lies at the end of Jesus’ journey--namely YHWH’s divine justice--,

and he occupies a hugely significant position, both politically and prophetically:

Pilate is God’s instrument of justice in Judah (Rom. 13.1)--a horn/expression-of-power of Daniel’s hideous fourth beast,

and a man who (in Jesus’ own words) has ‘authority’ over the Son of God, which has been assigned to him ‘from above’ (19.11).

Moreover, Pilate’s declaration of Jesus as innocent and treatment of Jesus as guilty is a powerful foreshadow of how YHWH himself will deal with Jesus.

What follows in Ezekiel and John continues the story.

Ezekiel is ‘lifted up’ and borne into God’s presence (43.5ff.), at which point he is told to proclaim what he has seen to his people and hence to make them ashamed of the thought of what could have been theirs.

Meanwhile, Jesus is lifted up on Calvary’s cross, John’s record of which is written in such a way as to bring shame on those involved:

Pilate brings the Jews’ Messiah out to them and presents him as ‘their king’ (19.14ff.), yet, in response, they utter the shameful words,

‘We have no king but Caesar!’.

In the next scene of Ezekiel’s vision, Ezekiel resumes his description of the wooden altar at the centre of the Temple complex, God’s absence from which is conspicuous.

As Block notes, ‘There is no hint of any awareness of the return of הכבוד (God’s glory) so graphically described in the (previous scene)’.

John’s counterpart to Ezek’s temple altar is, of course, the cross, the notion of which echoes the paradox inherent in Ezek’s vision.

Calvary’s cross stands at the very centre of God’s plans and represents the place where Jesus will encounter God’s justice,

yet God’s presence is oddly absent from what takes place at Calvary, as is reflected in Jesus’ cry of abandonment.

It is a place of glory and yet of shame--of reconciliation and yet of separation.

Further parallels can be drawn between Ezekiel’s temple altar and Calvary’s cross.

First, Ezekiel’s temple altar is the only structure in the Temple complex whose *height* is explicitly recorded

(oddly, its height is said to exceed its length and width: 41.22), which makes it faintly reminiscent of the cross insofar as the cross, like Ezekiel’s altar, is a wooden structure on which a sacrifice will be ‘lifted up’ towards the heavens (3.14, 8.28, etc.).

Also notable is how Ezekiel’s altar has been compared to a ziggurat (in large part because of the vocabulary associated with it),

since, at the outset of John’s gospel, Jesus foresees a time when he will become a Jacob’s-ladder-like link between heaven and earth,

on which angels will ascend and descend (1.50).

Second, Ezekiel’s altar is first mentioned in the context of three important measurements (cf. the eighth scene of Ezekiel’s vision: 41.1-26):

the area of the Temple’s main chamber (40 x 20 = 800 cubits),

the area of the Holy of Holies (20 x 20 = 400 cubits),

and the perimeter of the Temple enclosure (100 + 100 + 100 + 100 = 400 cubits: 41.13-15).

These measurements associate Ezekiel’s altar with the number 400, which is significant,

since 400 is the gematrial value of the letter tav (written in Paleo-Hebrew as either ‘X’ or ‘+’), which is the ‘mark’ employed in one of Ezekiel’s earlier visions to distinguish God’s people from his enemies, and is hence a guarantee of their safety (9.4-6).

As such, Ezekiel’s vision portrays its altar as a source of refuge from YHWH’s judgment, and at the same time provides a visual representation of the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion (i.e., the sign ‘+’).

In sum, then, John’s passion narrative has been beautifully superimposed on a vision which perfectly sums up its import, namely Ezekiel’s climactic vision of an eschatological temple.

As Ezekiel approaches the altar, Jesus approaches the cross;

and, as Ezekiel experiences YHWH’s glory, which lights up the earth with its brightness (43.2), Jesus experiences the weight of YHWH’s wrath, which temporarily engulfs the earth in darkness, but ultimately inaugurates a new and better order.

Finally, then, let us conclude our thoughts on Ezekiel’s vision with a brief discussion of its finale.

As many commentators have noted, the finale of Ezekiel’s vision has a number of contact-points with the finale of John’s gospel.

Ezekiel’s vision ends with an Edenic image of a temple from which a river flows forth and brings life to a scarred and scorched earth (cf. chs. 39, 47-48).

An angelic guide takes Ezekiel to the river and measures its depth at regular intervals.

1,000 cubits from its source, the river is ankle-deep; a further 1,000 cubits out, it is knee-deep; 1,000 more and it is waist-deep; and finally, after a further 1,000 cubits, the river becomes ‘deep enough to swim in’,

at which point Ezekiel notices vast shoals of fish in the river’s waters.

The river is a hive of life and activity. Fishermen are able to cast their nets in it ‘from En-Gedi as far as En-Eglaim’.

What was previously salted up and characterised by deadness

...is now characterised by life and vitality, as Ezekiel’s river flows forth, ultimately to revitalise the whole earth (per Rev. 22).

Like the final chapter of Revelation, the final chapter of John’s gospel picks up on many of these themes.

At the start of the chapter, Peter goes fishing in Lake Galilee. The future seems largely hopeless.

And yet, with the appearance of Jesus, everything changes.

Just as the waters which flow forth from the right side of Ezekiel’s temple (מִכֶּתֶף הַבַּיִת הַיְמָנִית) are rich with fish, so those on the right side of Peter’s boat are now rich with fish (21.6).

Peter finds himself in waters ‘deep enough to swim in’ (and does in fact swim in them).

Jesus blesses Peter with a miraculous haul, which reminds him of his initial call to be a ‘fisher of men’ (Matt. 4 cp. Luke 5).

And, afterwards, Jesus speaks words of restoration to Peter.

The refreshment of the Gospel can now flow forth to a fallen world.

As such, John’s narrative has many resonances with Ezekiel’s vision.

But these resonances become more significant when we consider them in light of a swathe of numerical connections between Ezek. 47 and John 21

(as well as what follows John 21 in the early chapters of Acts).

When Jesus appears in John 21, the boat is said to be 200 cubits away from the shore (21.8), which resonates with the many 100-cubit measurements of Ezekiel’s temple (e.g., 40.47).

Peter catches exactly 153 fish, which, like all of the large numbers mentioned in the NT, is a triangular number--specifically, the 17th triangular number.

John’s narrative is hence set against the backdrop of the numbers 17 and 153, both of which are significant.

Ezekiel’s final vision begins with Israel’s 17th Jubilee (so b. Arak. 12b).

It contains 17 mentions of the words מים = ‘water’ and אדני יהוה = ‘LORD God’.

And it lists 17 geographical names in its description of its river’s onward course

(from ‘the Great Sea’ in 47.15 down to ‘Egypt’ in 47.19, at which point the circle is completed with a second mention of ‘the Great Sea’).

For Ezekiel, then, the number 17 is connected with the outflow of water from the Temple and the restoration of the nations,

which is brought out in the text of Acts.

The events of Acts 2 take place at the end of a Jubilee-esque period (i.e., a seven-week interval between the feasts of Firstfruits and Pentecost)

...and describes the restorative work of God as the Holy Spirit flows forth

...and the Gospel is proclaimed to men from all over the world,

who are described by a list of 17 geographical/Gentilic names (Acts 2.9-11).

Gematrial connections further the picture.

The word הדגה = ‘a shoal of fish’ (employed in Ezek. 47.9) has a gematrial value of 17.

The phrase מי הים הגדול = ‘the waters of the Great Sea’ (not employed in full in Ezek. 47, but implied) has a value of 153.

And the geographical names Gedi (גדי) and Eglaim (עגלים) have values of 17 and 153 respectively.

John’s mention of 153 fish therefore has deep-seated contact-points with the whole of Ezek. 47, and hence brings with it the notion of restoration.

Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is the connection between 17 and 153 and the foundation/time of John 21’s events,

since the phrase זבח הפסח = ‘the sacrifice of the Passover’ (short for זבח חג הפסח in Exod. 34.25) has a gematrial value of 170, where זבח is 17 and הפסח is 153.

As such, the flow of events in Ezek. 45-48 mirrors the flow of events in John 21 onwards:

we move from the Passover sacrifice to the outflow of water to the nations and a vast haul of fish,

and all of these notions are connected by close textual and numerical correspondences.

Final thoughts.

The points brought out above hopefully speak for themselves: Ezekiel’s vision is a text of great beauty, coherence, and importance, and it richly repays a careful study of its structural and numerical harmonies.

A few corollaries, however, may bear mention.

First, the logic of the book of Hebrews is not a NT innovation. Within the text of the OT itself (most notably in Ezekiel), we see the inadequacy of the sacrificial system and the need for a better untainted sacrifice.

Second, the Mosaic law was never intended to define a permanent institution. At many points, Ezekiel’s Torah flatly contradicts Mosaic law--a fact which greatly troubled many Rabbis--, and yet here it is in our Bibles.

As such, the book of Ezekiel undercuts a large number of Jewish objections to Christianity.

Third, Bible translations should retain numbers in their texts. One should not have to read Hebrew or Greek to know how many cubits are mentioned in Ezek. 47 and/or John 21.

If conversions to modern units of measurement must be included, then why not footnote *them* rather than the numbers originally provided at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

The end.

Credits are due to @Psephizo for a great blog post on the 153 post and @msheiser for a great series on Ezekiel (though with the caveat these two people may want no association with the above).

Note: A few charitable souls have requested a version of these thoughts which isn’t spread over some 150 tweets, which can be found (or downloaded by members) in the link below: academia.edu/39098630/