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Activity 1|Activity 2|Activity 4|Activity 5
Process
Activity 3: Know Your
Prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures
Group 4: Your Prophets are Ezekiel, Zephaniah
Complete the tasks for Ezekiel and then Zephaniah.
1
Ezekiel
Use the following information and the
listed resources to complete your tasks.
Ezekiel
- His Profile
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| Images: |
His Name Means |
"the
strength of God" |
 |
Appears |
The
Book of Ezekiel |
 |
Home |
Although
some of the earlier chapters have a Jerusalem setting , the majority of scholars believe
that his work was wholly in Babylon. |
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Family |
Ezekiel
was the son of Buzi. The only reference to his family is that the death of his wife on the
eve of the fall of Jerusalem was for him a personal symbol of the national disaster. |
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Biographical
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The
Book of Ezekiel is almost devoid of biographical and personal details. It is known that he
had been a priest, was one of the first group of deportees to Babylonia, and lived there
in a refugee community at Tel-Abib on the river Chebar, a large irrigation canal leading
from the Euphrates north of the city of Babylon. What emerges from the Book is a versatile and
complex mind. One part of Ezekiel is the ordained priest, deferring to the formal
commandments of the Mosaic Code and absorbed by the details of the temple ritual and
architecture. The other Ezekiel is a mystic-prophet given to ecstatic visions and bizarre
symbols.
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Special
Interest |
He
communicated his message through the use of mime and drama as well as words. |
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Time |
Ezekiel
gives precise dates: he was taken from Judah to Babylon in the first deportation (597 BC),
and became a prophet a few years later in 593 BC. The record of Ezekiel's ministry covers
a span of 22 years. |
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Key
Themes/
Messages |
Yahweh
is Lord of all nations and events Yahweh is holy
Worship and moral holiness are very
important
Each generation is responsible for
its own acts (Ezekiel 18)
God intends to restore Israel out of
a totally free gift of grace |
 
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Key
Passages |
The
Book of Ezekiel opens with the vision in which he receives his call from God. He sees the
Lord in a kind of chariot that moves on four creatures, each having a human form, two
pairs of wings, a head with four faces - man, eagle, lion and ox - and the burnished hoofs
of a calf. God
as a shepherd of the people (Ezekiel 34:11-16)
God's gift of a new heart (Ezekiel
36:22-32)
Vision of the valley of dry bones
(Ezekiel 37)
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Sources:
Bower, J. 1998, The Complete Bible Handbook - An Illustrated Companion,Dorling
Kindersley, UK
Brown, R.E., Fitzmyer, J.A.,and Murphy, R.E., 1992. The New Jerome Bible
Handbook, Geoffrey Chapman, England
Comay, J., and, Browning, R., 1980. Who's Who in the Old Testament,
Bonanza Books, NY
Drane, J.(ed), 1998, The Lion Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Bible,
Lion Publishing, England
Motyer, S. 1998. Who's Who in the Bible - An Illustrated Guide,
Dorling Kindersley, UK
Resources
Catholic Encyclopedia - Ezekiel (difficult
reading)
Wikipedia
- Ezekiel
The Prophet Ezekiel - his significance to Judaism
The Jewish
Encyclopedia - Ezekiel
Mustard Seed.Net - Ezekiel
Bible Study - Ezekiel (extension reading - complex)
A Modern Painting of Ezekiel:
2
Go to Zephaniah and complete
this activity
Introduction|Task|Process|Resources|Evaluation|Conclusion|Teachers
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