{"id":73029,"date":"2020-04-07T01:16:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T22:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=73029"},"modified":"2020-04-07T01:16:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T22:16:15","slug":"an-introduction-to-the-prophet-ezekiel-and-eliezer-of-beaugency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-introduction-to-the-prophet-ezekiel-and-eliezer-of-beaugency\/","title":{"rendered":"An Introduction to the Prophet Ezekiel and Eliezer of Beaugency"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"73029","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"453","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Like his teacher - a master of contextual exegesis\r\n\r\n","content":"

In our introduction to Jeremiah, we cited the opinion of the Sages (Baba Batra 14b) to the effect that the Book of Ezekiel is \u201chalf doom and half consolation.\u201d Indeed, chapters 1-24 are mostly prophecies of doom while 25-48 are largely consolation.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have previously made the acquaintance of several northern French exegetes of the 11-12<\/span>th<\/span> centuries, specifically, Rashi, and his grandson Rashbam. We now have an opportunity to meet yet another: Eliezer of Beaugency, a student of Rashbam. Like his teacher, he was a forceful advocate of <\/span>peshat<\/span><\/i> and, as we shall see, just as capable of arriving at unorthodox conclusions. Since we have no commentary of Rashbam to the Prophets, we shall look to Eliezer, wherever possible, to chart the progress of <\/span>peshat<\/span><\/i>, the contextual meaning of Scripture, in the generation after Rashi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moshe Greenberg (1928-2010), who taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, composed a commentary on Ezekiel 1-37 on behalf of the Anchor Bible. I had the rare opportunity to watch him work on this commentary as part of a small group of students to whom he assigned various sources he was utilizing. One of the sources he assigned me was the commentary of Eliezer of Beaugency. He excelled in bringing a wide range of perspectives to bear on the text, particularly those of rabbinic exegesis and modern historical philology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Identification of the Prophet:<\/span><\/p>\n

Note that v.1 and everything from v. 4 onwards is written in the first-person singular, while vs. 2-3 speak about Ezekiel in the third person and also supply his identity and chronological time frame. Rashi attributed the interrupting verses to \u201cthe sacred spirit\u201d; Radak considered this established biblical style and cited several such examples, implying, like Rashi, that the author himself, employing <\/span>ru\u2019ach hakodesh<\/span><\/i>, was responsible for the change. Eliezer of Beaugency, in contrast, made an unusual remark: \u201cIn these two verses, the scribe (<\/span>sofer<\/span><\/i>) who transcribed all his words added an explanation of what he had sealed and abbreviated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As regards Ezekiel\u2019s chronology, the opening words of the book date his opening prophecy to \u201cthe thirtieth year,\u201d but fail to situate that within a recognizable time frame, as opposed to Isaiah or Jeremiah whose prophecies were dated to the reigns of specific kings. Radak first cited his father, Yosef, who linked it to the Jubilee year, which Radak himself rejected in favor of the Aramaic Targum, which dated the thirty years to King Josiah when the Scroll of the Law was discovered during the renovation of the Temple. Since that occurred in 622, it would place Ezekiel in Babylon in 592, several years before the Destruction of the Temple, living among the Judeans who had been exiled there in 597.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eliezer of Beaugency, in his introduction to the book, concurred and advanced an explanation why Ezekiel would have chosen to date himself by that discovery: \u201cBecause there is no prophet who chastised his generation regarding Torah and mitzvot more than he did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"An Introduction to the Prophet Ezekiel and Eliezer of Beaugency","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Like his teacher - a master of contextual exegesis","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73030,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73029\/revisions\/73030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}