Bibliographic information:
Warren, Nathanael J. “Tenure and Grant in Ezekiel’s Paradise (47:13-48:29).” Vetus Testamentum 63 no. 2 (2013): 323-334.
Description:
Description:
The temple building program described in Ezekiel chapters 40-48 culminates in a description of paradisiacal national borders and internal tribal allotments in 47:13-48:29. David H. Engelhard was the first to tentatively identify the form of this pericope to be Ezekiel’s prophetic adaptation of the classical ancient Near Eastern royal grant. While this identification is a step in the right direction, I argue that 47:13-48:29 more closely follows the form of grants concerned with the tenure of temple lands, offerings, and sinecures surrounding the establishment or reinstitution of a temple cult. Unlike the classical grants of land in which the focus was on the gift of land, in 47:13-48:29 the focus is on the proper tenure of the temple. Thus Ezekiel’s particular description of land in these chapters serves to establish in a concrete manner the interrelationship between people, priests, prince, land, and temple in paradise.
Publisher:
Vetus Testamentum (website: http://www.brill.com/vetus-testamentum)