2018, July 8 ~ Ezekiel 2:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Ezekiel 2:1-5
Ezekiel is one of the three “Major” Prophets – so called because of the length of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a Zadokite priest (descended from the High Priest Zadok in the time of David and Solomon) and was among the first group of persons deported by the Babylonians to Babylon when they captured Jerusalem in 597 BCE. His name means “God strengthens.”
The Book of Ezekiel is in three parts: (1) Chapters 1 to 24 are prophesies of doom against Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE; (2) Chapters 25 to 32 are prophesies against foreign nations; and (3) Chapters 33 to 48 are prophesies of hope for the Judeans written during the Babylonian Exile (586-539 BCE).
Similar to other prophets, Ezekiel “prophesies” by speaking for God. Prophesy in the Hebrew Scriptures is not about telling the future. A prophet is one who speaks for YHWH.
Today’s reading is part of the “Call of Ezekiel” and follows the nearly psychedelic visions of God described in Chapter 1.
In verse 1, Ezekiel says that God addressed him as “O mortal” – the translation used 93 times in the Book of Ezekiel for the Hebrew words “ben adam.” “Ben adam” literally means “son of the earthling/human.” “Adam” was the “name” of the person who was fashioned from fertile earth (in Hebrew, “adamah”) by YHWH in Genesis.
“Ben adam” is elsewhere translated in Scripture as “Son of Man” or “human being” in Daniel 7:13, and Son of Man is a frequent title given to Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels.
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic. Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.
Based on internal references in the two remaining letters to the Corinthians, scholars agree that Paul likely wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians. The so-called Second Letter to the Corinthians is composed of fragments of these letters.
In today’s reading, Paul describes his own mystical experience of God as validation of his own spiritual authority. His experience is an ecstatic one (“whether in the body or out of the body I do not know”). In verse 7, Paul then spoke of a “thorn” with which he was afflicted, the nature of which is not known. Rather than asserting the Hellenistic ideal of sufficiency to overcome hardships, Paul accepted hardships as coming from God who will also give grace that is sufficient (v.9).