Ezekiel and Israel’s Legal Traditions

Abstract

This chapter discusses the similarities and differences in form, content, and vocabulary between the book of Ezekiel and the commands, motivations, and sanctions in the Pentateuch. It considers how legal traditions in the broad sense—that is, not just “laws,” but also statements about obligation, benefits, and punishments—are used in the book of Ezekiel. The logic of the book is deeply indebted to priestly ideology and its notions of purity and holiness. This chapter also examines the possibility, nature, and direction of dependence, both conceptual and literary, between the book of Ezekiel and Israel’s legal traditions (Deuteronomic, Priestly, and Holiness) that were textualized and incorporated into what became the Pentateuch.