Click here (blogspot) for several artistic representations of the prophet's supernatural commissioning... Any favorites? Is it worthwhile to attempt to capture Ezekiel's language visually? Why/why not?
This...has to do with the prompt somewhat. I was wondering why Ezekiel's book is written in first person. The other prophets seem to be mostly written by followers, scribes, or just people who saw and heard what happened. Did Ezekie have to write his own book because no one would follow him? Was he just so high all the time that no one took his prophasies seriously? Or did he not have followers because it would make the Babilonians suspicious?
Ezekiel's vision is just a complete and total trip. Honestly between this vision and the suggested reading in Ezekiel 37:1-14, I'm just baffled. When I first read Ezekiel 1:4-28, I thought these creatures had faces with a quarter of human, lion, eagle, and oxen. These illustrations seem to show more that maybe it was one creature with either a human, lion, eagle, or oxen face, not a mix of everything.
When I was reading chapter 37:1-14, I kind of wonder of maybe this is just an over exaggerated metaphor. That bones are really just the downtrodden people of Israel who need the breath or spirit of Yahweh brought back into them to lift them up from a state that may seem like they are dead on the inside but not physically dead.
Ezekiel's language is definitely an interesting thing to try and capture in art, and can be worthwhile. But I think that people shouldn't try to attempt showing exactly what he meant because I don't think that anyone really can.
All of these illustrations definitely capture the wild trip Ezekiel had. My favorite is the space ship one because its pretty out there but not an unreasonable interpretation. I enjoyed the more classical interpretations rather than the modern ones. The more modern renditions loose the classical effect of his vision in my opinion.
Nice comments, folks. I feel like Ezekiel's literary imagery largely defies literal visualization. Even the most ardent and detailed attempts seem to dampen the raw mystical, transcendent power of his words.
5 comments:
This...has to do with the prompt somewhat. I was wondering why Ezekiel's book is written in first person. The other prophets seem to be mostly written by followers, scribes, or just people who saw and heard what happened. Did Ezekie have to write his own book because no one would follow him? Was he just so high all the time that no one took his prophasies seriously? Or did he not have followers because it would make the Babilonians suspicious?
Ezekiel's vision is just a complete and total trip. Honestly between this vision and the suggested reading in Ezekiel 37:1-14, I'm just baffled. When I first read Ezekiel 1:4-28, I thought these creatures had faces with a quarter of human, lion, eagle, and oxen. These illustrations seem to show more that maybe it was one creature with either a human, lion, eagle, or oxen face, not a mix of everything.
When I was reading chapter 37:1-14, I kind of wonder of maybe this is just an over exaggerated metaphor. That bones are really just the downtrodden people of Israel who need the breath or spirit of Yahweh brought back into them to lift them up from a state that may seem like they are dead on the inside but not physically dead.
Ezekiel's language is definitely an interesting thing to try and capture in art, and can be worthwhile. But I think that people shouldn't try to attempt showing exactly what he meant because I don't think that anyone really can.
All of these illustrations definitely capture the wild trip Ezekiel had. My favorite is the space ship one because its pretty out there but not an unreasonable interpretation. I enjoyed the more classical interpretations rather than the modern ones. The more modern renditions loose the classical effect of his vision in my opinion.
-Taylor E.
Nice comments, folks. I feel like Ezekiel's literary imagery largely defies literal visualization. Even the most ardent and detailed attempts seem to dampen the raw mystical, transcendent power of his words.
pdk
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