Review in: Interpretation
2007 61: 214
Review door: Katheryn
Pfisterer DarrGevonden op: http://int.sagepub.com/content/61/2/214.full.pdf+html
Ezekiel
by Margaret S. Odell Smyth & Helwys, Macon, 2005. 565 pp. $60.00. ISBN 1-57312-073-1.
MARGARET S. ODELL'S HiGHLY-anticipated Ezekiel commentary
joins a spate of recent studies on the prophetic corpus attributed to a Judean
priest compelled by God to function as prophet to his fellow exiles in
Babylonia. In lucid, often eloquent prose, Odell guides her readers through
Ezekiel's literary units in two sections: "Commentar/' and
"Connections." In the former, critical methodologies illumine a
text's linguistic, historical, literary, and theological dimensions. In the latter,
she probes its potential relevance for contemporary, Christian readers.
Sidebars set in smaller typeface and scattered throughout the book supply
additional insights gleaned from various fields (e.g., archaeology, sociology,
theology, politics, and church history), as well as technical information that
can be essential for weighing Odell's arguments and conclusions.
Chock-a-block with illustrations and photographs, this
handsome volume (reproduced on an accompanying CD-ROM) sets before its readers
a visual feast. True, one longs for the occasional color plate. But the sheer
quantity of stunning images and informative captions more than compensates for
the book's black-and-white format. As Ellen Davis observes, "[t]he
truly'illuminating' illustrations are a study in themselves" (p. x).
Moreover, Odell further enlivens the reading experience with a wealth of
(mostly) Ezekiel-inspired literary works, including poetry by George Herbert
and Yehuda Amichai, to name only two. Together, these resources not only enrich
our encounter with Ezekiel's text, but also teach us much about its
"multimedia" history of interpretation.
Odell describes Ezekiel's book as a "prophetic
diary" (p. 1) that possibly documents his words on specific occasions, but
functions in its final form as YHWH's appeal to the second generation of
exiles. This approach acknowledges the prophet's multiple audiences, including
fellow deportees who encounter his judgment oracles even as Judah's fate hangs
in the balance, and those who read his book on the other side of Jerusalem's
destruction with an eye to its relevance for their own uncertain future. But it
blunts the question of how Ezekiel's oracles might have impacted his pre-586
B.C.E. contemporaries.
In a brief
introduction, Odell sketches the collection's contents, touches upon its
literary structure, distinctive features, coherence, and genre (it bears striking similarities to Esarhaddon's Babylonian inscriptions), summarizes its
historical context, and identifies several of its overarching theological
themes. Radically theocentric, the book of Ezekiel constitutes a
"theological manifesto for exiles," provides a "foundation for
the reconciliation of a deeply fragmented Judean community," and
emphasizes YHWH's "faithfulness" to rebellious Israel (pp. 10-11).
Most scholars would agree that ancient Near Eastern (especially Assyrian)
ideology, iconography, traditions, and literary genres have influenced Ezekiel
and his scroll. But Odell's decision to devote over five pages of an eleven
page introduction to argue this point leaves little space for the full range of
critical issues that are best broached before readers launch into portions of
the Commentary proper. Many of these issues are treated in subsequent sections,
but there is no guarantee that Odell's readers (who, unlike reviewers, seldom
digest commentaries from beginning to end) will encounter all of them.
As one progresses through the
commentary, the length of Odell's analyses decreases. Her intense interest in
Ezek 1-24, where judgment oracles against Jerusalem/Judah abound, is evident:
each chapter merits an average of almost thirteen pages of commentary,
connections and sidebars. Chapters 25-39, containing Ezekiel's oracles against
foreign nations and rulers, as well as important restoration oracles addressed
to Israel, are treated in approximately ten pages each. The text of her
commentary on Ezek 37:1-4, a "report of a trance experience" (p. 453)
in which the prophet witnesses a valley filled with dry bones, fills fewer than
two pages. But chs. 40-48, Ezekiel's "Vision of the Dominion of
Yhwh," receive on average only six plus pages of commentary and
connections each, bucking recent trends to delve more deeply into the book's
climactic conclusion. Her treatment of the temple complex meticulously detailed
in those final chapters emphasizes its "openness": "Here the
exiles would encounter open doors and gates, open and everlasting access to the
sanctifying presence of God" (p. 531). But she downplays the text's
evident concern to keep the structure's most sacred precincts "off
limits" to all but the high priests.
Specialists will discern in Odell's commentary her
keen desire to examine Ezekiel's oracles afresh, to reject established
arguments, and to chart innovative avenues of interpretation. This approach
generates intriguing ideas for Ezekiel scholars, who are in a position to
locate and evaluate her arguments within the larger context of informed debate.
But readers for whom her work serves as an entrée to the field are left with
some highly idiosyncratic notions about this prophet's "brainy, enchanting
book" (p. xiii). (Ezekiel's book is certainly "brainy," but
"enchanting?") Note, for example, her interpretations of the
"sour grapes" proverb performed in ch. 18, and especially of the four
"abominations" Ezekiel witnesses after the "spirit"
transports him to Jerusalem's temple (Ezek 8). Commentators tend to interpret
these abominations as more-or-less discrete examples of idolatry, but Odell
views them as separate stages in a coherent, thoroughly Yahwistic complaint
ritual that fails to elicit God's return because the people rely on cult
monuments instead of offering the child sacrifices YHWH demands. Odell's
primary agenda is to advance her own interpretations, but an important task of
commentators writing for a broad readership is to situate their own scholarship
within the broader horizon of interpretive opinions.
A substantial
number of errors slipped through the copy editing process. (It would take a
better woman than me not to note that the general bibliography attributes my
own Ezekiel commentary in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Series to
Daniel I. Block.) Sidebars, in particular, suffer from errors: "Birth
Narratives and National Destinies," to cite a single example, ends
mid-sentence. Moreover, locating sidebars can prove irksome for readers. They
sometimes fall on or near the pages where bracketed references to them occur.
But frequently, one must "flip" to find them. For example, p. 30
refers readers to the "Many Waters" sidebar, which does not appear
until p. 240; p. 436 directs us to "Uses of the Word-Event Formula in
Ezekiel" sidebar, which appeared on p. 78. Under these circumstances,
one's only recourse is to flip forward to the "Index of Sidebars."
This problem could easily have been rectified by placing a page number after
the sidebar citation. One might assume that reading the commentary on CD-ROM
alleviates this problem. Perhaps it does, but this reviewer could not access
the sidebars without quite a lot of "clicking." Daunted, I set my
software-steeped research assistant to the task of demonstrating just how
simple the search process really was, but it confounded her as well.
Despite these limitations, Odell's commentary
contributes substantially to the ever-burgeoning field of Ezekiel studies. Few
scholars, I suspect, will reread Ezekiel's initial description of God's
enthroned Glory without recalling her detailed demonstration of how Assyrian
throne room iconography has left its mark upon his account. However, her
insistence that Ezekiel's vision is "static" does not accord with its
repeated emphasis on mobility, as well as its depiction of God's Glory speaking
to the awe struck prophet-in-the-making who witnesses it. Her commentary and
connections on Ezek 31:18 include superb statements about the impact of the
fall of Assyria, the great tree, on Ezekiel, his nation, and their world. Her
claim that the "shepherds of Israel" in 34:1-34 are foreign
overlords, not native Israelite leaders, commands immediate assent, with
important consequences for how we interpret the restoration oracles in chs.
34-48. And her sidebar on "Postcolonial Criticism" (p. 397) presents
as succinct a summary of that method as one could wish. In short, no one who
wishes to remain abreast of contemporary conversations in Ezekiel scholarship
should overlook Odell's thought-provoking, sometimes controversial,
contribution.
Katheryn
Pfisterer Darr
BOSTON UNIVERSITY BOSTON,
MASSACHUSSETS
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