Book Description

The Book of Ezekiel is certainly one of the strangest books to survive from antiquity and has been the source of much speculation throughout centuries, by Jews, Christians, and atheists alike. Ezekiel's opening vision, of the flying machine, was the source of an entire branch of Jewish literature, Merkabah mysticism. Merkabah, which translates as 'chariot,' developed during the Second Temple era, and had a major impact on early Christian literature, although was ultimately abandoned by both Jews and Christians. The Christians abandoned the 'cloud literature' during the creation of orthodoxy, and the Talmud includes many interdictions concerning Merkabah speculation. Merkabah, and the Heikhalot literature that developed from it, ultimately fell out of favor in the 11th century AD. The Book of Ezekiel recounts a series of visions that Ezekiel had over the course of his life, in the late-600s and early-500s BC. Most of Ezekiel's prophecies were set during the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and his view of who the Israelites were, is fundamentally different than the view generally expressed. According to Ezekiel, the Israelites were Canaanites, the descendants of Amorites and Minoans (or Hittites in an alternate interpretation). This is clearly not the view that was popular in Judah, either when it was independent, or later under Babylonian or Persian rule. Several contradictions exist between the writings of Ezekiel and the Torah, which suggests that the Torah was not fully composed at the time, or if it was composed, not in circulation where Ezekiel lived. It is also a fact that Ezekiel did not mention Moses or Aaron, yet did refer to the Israelites leaving Egypt, which Moses and Aaron were central to. He mentioned Job and Noah, as well as the ancient Canaanite hero Danel, and Abraham, but under his older name Abram, suggesting that he had not read Genesis, in which Abram's name was changed to Abraham. The description of Ezekiel's thunder god, or his flying chariot, or his flying wheels, depending on the interpreter, is by far the strangest part of the book. It contains many references to electricity, which were generally omitted from early translations due to the belief that electricity was magical nonsense. The rediscovery of electricity in the early-modern era was largely based on the Classical Greek records of their experiments with amber, which is where William Gilbert derived the English term electricity from, êlectrou, meaning amber. The earliest surviving record of experimentation with electrostatic fields was by Thales of Miletus, who lived between approximately 624 and 548 BC, which is the same time as the life of Ezekiel, circa 630 to 545 BC. Ezekiel mentions the Greek city of Miletus in his books but does not mention visiting the place, nevertheless, there is no reason to assume Thales's experiments into static charges were the first, or unique at the time.