An inner-biblical interpretation and intertextual reading of Ezekiel's recognition formulae with the book of Exodus

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:One of the most striking literary phenomena in the entire Old Testament, Ezekiel'srecognition formula is repeated over seventy times. According to S. R. Driver that refrain,You shall know that I am Yahweh, strikes the keynote of the prophecy. Though onemight expect to find many monographs and journal articles treating at length the formula'sliterary and theological function in Ezekiel, the only substantial work on the subject comesfrom Walther Zimmerli and is nearly fifty years old. More recent scholarly discussion hastended to be oblique, occasional, or subordinate to other interests.Brevard Childs has suggested that Ezekiel shows a preoccupation with Scripture.Applying this insight, the dissertation at hand argues the thesis that the seventy-oddrecognition formulae in Ezekiel mark a theological nexus and intertextual relationshipbetween the prophecy and the book of Exodus (in some recensional form), and that thoseformulae are best interpreted alongside the numerous recognition formulae in Exodus.Interpreted intertextually, Ezekiel's formula points readers of the oracles to know Yahweh asthe God of the Exodus, who still acts, in covenant, to judge and to deliver. Here the termintertextuality is used in a broader sense to include both a more diachronic intertextualityof production (Ellen van Wolde), in which a text can only be written in relationship toother texts, and a more synchronic intertextuality of reception, in which a text can be readonly in relationship to other texts. With regard to methodology, the approach of innerbiblicalinterpretation is employed to explore the text-production angle and the questionswhich emerge concerning the re-use and re-presentation of Scriptural traditions. Alsoappropriate is a synchronic intertextual approach which inquires how Exodus and Ezekieltexts-in particular the recognition formulae-may be read together from a text-receptionangle. Both approaches used together reveal a large number of parallels between Exodusand Ezekiel and indicate how well the recognition formulae may be read together.This study contributes to scholarship by offering an extensive review of past scholarshipon the formula; a fresh exegetical research of the formula's use in Ezekiel and in otherBible books, with comparisons drawn; a study of the socio-historical and religious contextaddressed by Ezekiel's oracles and the formula; and a theological interpretation of therecognition formulae in Ezekiel alongside those in Exodus. There are many strongconjunctions (or continuities) between the formulae in Ezekiel and Exodus: a covenantstress; no positive use of the formula when spoken to the nations; an unbreakable link toannouncements of Yahweh's mighty acts in history; etc. Yet there is also a jarringdisjunction (or discontinuity) between the formulae in Ezekiel and Exodus: the prophecyrepeatedly declares that Israel shall know that I am Yahweh in judgment. This is aradical inversion of its former usage (Carley); elsewhere in Scripture the formula alwayssounds a positive note when spoken to Israel.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University