I will risk interpreting Ezekiel’s vision in Eze 1:4-28 and Eze 10:1-22. It is a bit difficult, but not one of the hardest ones by no means.
As the starting point I take an observation that is not mine, but which I find very plausible, especially considering that the vision of a dragon and a woman in the Revelation described the Northern night sky. I cannot remember where I read the astrological interpretation of the four faces from, but I readily give all credit to the inventor if the name only comes to my mind. In Eze 1:10 and Eze 10:14 there are the four faces of each of the four cherubim. In 1:10 the faces include a bull, a lion and a human. That matches with Taurus, Leo and Aquarius. They are three of the four principal zodiac signs corresponding to West, North and South. In Eze 10:14 the bull face is given as the cherub face, thus a cherub appeared as a bull in the Age of Taurus when this prophecy are presumably written. (Notice here that with only four constellations, the Age of Arias is a part of the Age of Taurus.)
The missing principal direction is East. In our zodiac this principal sign is Scorpion but in 1:10 it is given as an eagle. Zodiac signs were not quite stabilized yet (e.g. Egyptians used quite different signs) and the scorpion may well have looked like an eagle to the Jews. Thus, the vision is of the night sky. Hezekiel is looking towards the North, as is many times mentioned, and God should reside in the celestial North Pole, which at that time was close to Kochab in Ursa Minoris. Kochab means a star, kokhav in Hebrew.
The large cloud in Eze 1:4 can only be the Milky Way, as there is no other cloud in the night sky. In this cloud Ezekiel sees four cherubim. I assume these cherubim are the principal constellations of Taurus, Lion, Scorpion and Aquarius.
Under each cherubim was a wheel and these wheels were inside each other. I suggest these wheels describe the orbits of the four planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The spirit of the cherubim was in these wheels, which I understand that the spirit is the planet. The cherubim are not moving objects as they are the four constellations in the four principal directions, but the spirit of a cherub is moving and the planet shows which face the cherub shows. In this way two cherubim can have the same face turned forward if their respective planets are in the same constellation, so cherubs are live creatures.
One may object to this interpretation by noticing that the ancients knew five planets, not four: Mercury is missing. This objection is easily avoided: there are five cherub-like celestial beings in the vision. There are the four cherubim but additionally in 9:2 there is a man clothed in linen clothes. His task is to mark those that will be saved when the four cherubim kill everybody else. Greeks knew Mercury as the messenger from gods. Jews called Mercury with the name kokhav, star. It is the same name as for Kochab, the star of God, so we may assume that Mercury is a messenger from God also in the Jewish interpretation. More that that: it is the star of the Messiah: the star (kokhav) will rise from Jacob… In the Day of the Lord the Messiah calls those who will be saved and then comes the destruction.
I can add an argument that the wheels are indeed the orbits of the four planets. When the cherubim rise, the wheels also rise. The constellations do indeed rise and lower in the night sky and the orbits, being always in the Milky Way, do rise and lower together with the constellations.
Planets move in the ecliptic, which crosses the Milky Way. The burning fire or coals between the cherubim in Eze 10:7 can be parts of the Milky Way between Taurus and Gemini.
The interpretation of the wings is more difficult. Each cherub has two pairs of wings. One pair is higher and covers the faces of the cherubim, the other pair of wings covers the bodies of the cherubim and the wings of this lower pair touch each other. This is explained in Eze 1:6-9 and Eze 10:21, but the intended meaning is obscure. It is naturally possible to select stars in order to make such wings to these constellations, but as there are the bull (Taurus) and the lion (Leo), the constellations should be much as we know them and there are no natural wings. I suggest that these wings are a part of the Milky Way close to Sagittarius. At Cygnus constellation the Milky Way splits to two branches, which can give the two pairs of wings. The principal constellations (Taurus, Leo, Scorpion, Aquarius) are close to the ecliptic plane and they do not move with respect to the Milky Way but the planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) move in the ecliptic and cross the Milky Way twice. If the crossing between Gemini and Taurus is the fire between the cherubim, then the other crossing may indicate a time when the cherub has wings visible. I admit this explanation may feel a bit ad-hoc.
Assuming that the interpretation of Ezekiel’s vision is in the large correct; that it is a vision of the Northern night sky, then the main observation is that in Ezekiel’s time nothing happened in the night sky. Ezekiel mentions the vision as a confirmation that his message is from God, but he could not have seen the destruction of Israel and Judea in the night sky. This is unlike in the Revelation: in the time of John of Pathmos the Pole Star had moved away from Kochab and was on its way to Polaris. John could very well predict that in a thousand years the Pole Star will be Polaris and the Era of the Messiah would start. Ezekiel could not see any such important change in the night sky.
I suggest Ezekiel simply cheated: he wanted to add a confirmation to his prophecy, but as there was no, he told of an obscure vision. Ezekiel did freely modify YHWH’s commands: in Eze 20:25-26 YHWH says: “So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; I defiled them through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel admits that YHWH had ordered the killing of the firstborn son, but as this was too barbarian for Ezekiel, he had to explain it away. But the fact remains, the religion was barbarian and Ezekiel was just a crooked astrolog.
Why would I call Ezekiel crooked? Because the goal of astrology, one form of prophecy, is to predict the future, but from the night sky at Ezekiel’s time it was not possible to predict the destruction of Israel and Judea. There are some other times when the sky confirms that it is the end of times, like an end of an astrological era. But this was not the case. There is also no mention of a comet, supernova or such omens. That is why I conclude that the book was written afterwards. Clearly, Ezekiel is in Babylon with the Jews who were taken there. The important issue in this prophecy is not that the destruction was to come. It had come already. The important thing was the prediction of 390+40 years to the restoration. Those years take us to the Hasmonean era. That implies that the book was edited in Hasmonean times. Yet another afterwards written prophecy.
Ezekiel’s book contains many parts. The earliest is most probably from Ezekiel. It makes an incorrect prophecy that neo-Babylon will defeat Egypt. That did not happen, but a bit later Persia did conquer Egypt. There is a detailed plan of the new temple and the city and a detailed description of bloody animal sacrifices in the new temple. This part is most probably from priests and has been added to the book at the time Persia allowed the temple to be rebuilt. There is a vision of the war of Gog and Magog and how it ends to the victory of Israel. It most probably describes Alexander the Great and his generals and how Maccabees fought against Antiochuses of the Seleucid Empire. Therefore, this part has been added to the book in Hasmonean times, as is shown by the time specification 390 years plus 40 years. Jews edited holy books for almost the time of Jesus. This is why Jesus fulfills the prophecies: those prophecies originally meant something else that already had passed, but they were edited to predict the near future in Hasmonean times. Noticed that in Ezekiel’s prophecy the king dynasty in a time that is the Hasmonean time is called Davidic. Hasmoneans were considered as Davidic by some part of the society, though Pharisees did not accept it.
6 Comments
Interesting article.
I wonder what you mean by : ‘Notice here that with only four constellations, the Age of Arias is a part of the Age of Taurus.’
I’d assume astrological age differs for each sign of the Zodiac and that they don’t overlap each other. Did Moses, wandering through the desert with his people, not order the bull-worshippers to be killed because the age of Aries was to start?
There can be 12 signs, but Ezekiel’s vision fits to the four signs model: there are only the four main signs: Leo, Scorpion (eagle), Aquarius and Taurus. These are the major signs in astrology, the intermediate signs, like Arias, are rising and falling signs. Thus, Taurus includes three signs, rising, main and falling. There are different astrological systems. Today astrological ages are of different length determined by the visual length of the constellation, yet one should not assume this is so in Ezekiel. In general, Israelites preferred natural numbers and divided them in parts. Thus, the prophetic year was 360 days divided into 12 30 day months. The actual calendar they used had 365 days and was not the prophetic calendar, but if you consider 3 and half year in Daniel is 1260 days, then you see that in the prophetic calendar time, i.e., a year, was 360 days. The books of Moses reflect Judaism around 700-500 BC, so they should reflect the reforms made to mandate one form of Yahweh worship. Your suggestion that the calf could have been bull worship is possible. The calf was apparently worshipped in Northern Israel. As for astrological ages, I mention that Jesus is associated with a fish and the age of Pisces was to start. I guess you know the esoteric Christianity idea that the man carrying water mentioned in gospels (that the disciples were to follow in Easter) may be identified with Aquarius, i.e., at the start of the age of Aquarius something should happen. But this idea is not very clear in gospels, the association of Christianity with a fish is. As is also the vision of John in the Revelation. It is of Polaris. There is an old picture of Yahweh from Israel. In it Yahweh is two men with clear hanging genitals and a woman. This picture reflects the original religion. It was something very different from Judaism of the second temple. Yahweh and Asherah were worshipped on high places. There was a stone put standing for Yahweh (like Jacob set a stone as an altar) and there were trees, asorah trees. The rites were sacrifice of the firstborn including humans and animals and a sex rite. I am sure there was an astrological aspect in this because Joseph saw the dream with 12 around him and so on. It is difficult to reconstruct this old religion, but there are traces of it in the Bible.
Thanks a lot for your extensive reply. I always learn new things with your articles as well as your replies.
Thanks for your kind words.
perhaps he was in vision mode and these things came together like he was a trippin. in movies, cartoons mostly, like the lion king, the images start moving into the next scene. maybe those planets and constellations served as like anchors if you were painting or drawing what you saw in the sky.
Perhaps, but that is unlikely. According to this book Ezekiel was called to be prophet on the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiaichahin, that is 597-5=592 BC. He did not see the vision or prophetize before that time. Thus, in Ez. 4 there is siege of Jerusalem, which already happened in 597 BC but shown as if it happened after Ezekiel’s prophecy. In Ez. 7 there is destruction of Israel (the Northern kingdon), it happened 721 BC, long before Ezekiel. The first temple was destroyed in 586 BC, that is 8 years after Ezekiel was called to be prophet. That could be a prophecy most likely is not, as Ez. 4:6 knows that the Babylonian captivity will last 40 years. This book was not written by Ezekiel. It was written by an Assembly (as Jewish tradition tells) that collected prophesies of Ezekiel (and rewrote them to their own agenda). Therefore also the visions do have an interpretation. They were not visions seen by Ezekiel and not written down by him and in some way survived. They are parts written by the Assembly that in some sense resemble what Ezekiel (a real person) had spoken, but since these parts had to be composed by the Assembly, they are not nonsense. There is an explanation to them, only it is hidden. A hidden explanation means there is a Messianic calculation that is not meant for everybody to understand. A messianic calculation is of times and times were obtained from stars. Therefore I suspect that one should read the vision as a description of the night sky. But of course you may think that Ezekiel was tripping and wrote his narcotic experiences on papyrus and this paper in some way survived and the Assembly included it in the Book of Ezekiel. But I find it highly unlikely considering how other biblical prophecies are composed. They are written for the people for giving them hope of a new king new kingdom, and priests had to assure people that God of Israel will save them, as priests were priests of this God and they depended on the people worshiping their God and obeying priests of that God. Be sure, there is nothing in these prophesies that is not intentionally written and does not have an explanation even though it is difficult to find this explanation in another place and another time.