Review in: The Journal of Religion
Gevonden op: http://www.academicroom.com/bookreview/ezekiel-21-37-new-translation-introduction-and-commentary
MOSHE GREENBERG, Ezekzel
21-37: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible, Vol.
22A. New York: Doubleday, 1997. 366 pp. $39.95 (cloth).
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With the publication
of volume 22A of the Anchor Bible, scholars now have a second installment (at
least) of Moshe Greenberg's highly valued interpretation of the 48-chapter Book
of Ezekiel. Greenberg's new volume picks up the text of the Ezekiel where the
first volume, published back in 1983, left off-toward the end of the book's
first major section, that is, with the doom prophecies. Readers should keep a
copy of that first Ezekiel volume handy, since Greenberg from time to time
refers to it for arguments and evidence about issues that reappear in this
volume.
Several prior
decisions about the task of biblical translation and commentary give
Greenberg's approach some very distinctive features. Foremost among these is
the commitment to treating Ezekiel's texts "holistically." Rather
than working with hypothetical, reconstructed units within Ezekiel, Greenberg
translates and interprets the received, Masoretic text of the book, revealing
it in its own integrity and structural design. Taking a sympathetic approach,
Greenberg, over the years, has developed a close familiarity with Ezekiel's
patterns of thought and presentation. This keen feeling for the stylistic
habits of Ezekiel's prophetic collection enables the commentator to demonstrate
how what may appear initially as disparate elements actually fit together as
integral parts of unified compositions.
Greenberg's approach
greatly illuminates these compositions, in their present form, and it brings
out much to appreciate in Ezekiel's art and creativity. Despite the gains of
the holistic approach, Greenberg realizes that it has its limits and does not
push it to unreasonable lengths. Ezek. 23:35, for example, is taken as
something of a footnote, rather than as an integral part of its context. Or
again, Greenberg recognizes that verses 30 and 31 of Ezekiel 34 are not both integral
to their context but seem to be alternative closures (doublets) at the end of
their oracle. Greenberg even finds some verses of Ezekiel (e.g., verses 15b and
18 [Masoretic text] of Ezekiel 21) to be "unintelligible lines," and
he leaves them out of account in his intermetation.
Greenberg's holistic
approach does not cause him to neglect text criticism. Major alternative readings
are given in footnotes to his translation and in his "Comment"
sections. Although his translation is always based on the Masoretic text, there
are significant places where Greenberg actually prefers a reading in one of the
versions, or even a conjectural emendation, over the translation that he himself
has provided (e.g., Ezek. 22:25, 25:8, 27:19, 35:14, 37:23).
Greenberg presents
his holistic approach as compatible with diachronic research into the formation
of Ezekiel's book. To be sure, he does adopt a "literaryhistorical version
of Occam's razor: not to multiply authorial or editorial hands unnecessarily"
(p. 599). Nevertheless, though uninterested in fragmenting Ezekiel into primary
and secondary elements, Greenberg is curious about the prophetic and
compositional processes behind the book. Thus, as he moves through the texts,
he takes note of passages that shed particular historical light on these processes.
One of his most interesting finds is that Ezek. 23:36-49 was preserved as
sacred but never underwent the process of editorializing that produced the bulk
of the book. As such, this text provides a "unique glimpse into the
earliest form of Ezekiel's oracles, before the process of polishing at the
hands of their editor (the prophet himself?) gave them their remarkable
uniformity" (p. 490).
Greenberg approaches
texts beginning with a form-critical demarcation of their structure; but his
method immediately places form criticism in service of a sophisticated literary
analysis since in Ezekiel he is dealing with complex written compositions
rather than with the oral units of speech typical of earlier Israelite prophecy.
A formula (such as the utterance formula) that old-line critics would definitively
take as marking an oracle's conclusion is typically interpreted by Greenberg as
performing a new literary function in Ezekiel, such as marking a transition in
theme (e.g., at Ezek. 34:15). Complicated changes in person or the double use
of recognition-formula closures (e.g., at Ezek. 28:20-26) are not attributed to
accretions or padding but are deemed allowable parts of Ezekelian style.
Greenberg often
elucidates the content and themes of Ezekiel’s prophecies through reference to
both biblical and extrabiblical sources and parallels. The way that he has tracked
down so many of these references attests to the full ripeness of his
commentary. The task was major since a hallmark of Ezekiel is his imaginative
and masterful use of traditions, myths, and Near Eastern cultural realia. And
as a Jerusalemite priest with "access (before his deportation) to the . .
. information stores of temple and palace" (p. 569), Ezekiel had the
background to present in his prophecies a range of references and allusions of
seemingly encyclopedic proportions.
Distinctive in
Greenberg's work is his sympathetic use of premodern Jewish commentary. Whereas
most modern critics use traditional interpretation as a foil, Greenberg finds
it often illuminating of the text's literary sense and structure or of its
intrabiblical resonances. To cite two examples, Joseph Kara's work (eleventh century)
is used to help unpack the image of God's reconstituting the dry bones at Ezek.
37:6. Kara is used again to show how the prophet has formulated Ezek. 21:6-12
specifically in terms of the Holiness Source of the Pentateuch.
Greenberg finds the
medieval Jewish commentators helpful even when their interpretations move
beyond the plain sense of Ezekiel. For example, it is fasciating how he uses
the traditional interpreters to help him assess the evidential value of the
Septuagint and other versions. In several cases (Ezek. 24:10, 30:9, 36:21,
37:17), the premodern commentators understand the Masoretic text with which
they worked in ways very similar to the understandings displayed in the texts
of other versions, such as the Septuagint or the Peshitta. This suggests to Greenberg
that in these cases the versions probably do not witness to texts differing
fundamentally from the Masoretic one, but that their understandings evolved out
of the Masoretic text as it stands, just as the understandings of the premoderns
did.
The fruit of years
of study and reflection, Greenberg's work on Ezekiel is to be highly
recommended. His view of the book as the product of a single authorial mind
will not persuade all. I, for example, am convinced on sociological grounds that
both the prophet and the Book of Ezekiel find their place amidst an ongoing group
of traditionists. But this aside, Greenberg's unique elucidation of Ezekiel's synchronic
form and his positive, "post-critical" use of traditional Hebrew
interpretation (still largely inaccessible to many) are alone enough to commend
the volume.
STEPHEN L. COOK,
Virginia Theological Seminary.
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