Мысль главы

Representing something whole and complete, the first chapter of the prophet Ezekiel should have one thought (idea). To make the explanation of the chapter easier, you need to start it by opening and establishing this idea. Although the thought or idea of ​​the first chapter of St. Ezekiel, as noted, cannot be formulated, what can be said about the thought of this chapter must be said before a detailed analysis of the text. The text of the chapter is not conveyed so differently by ancient biblical manuscripts and translations that different reviews would change the idea of ​​the chapter. About thought 1 chapter. Ezekiel, of course, we must first question the existing exegesis and, if its answer does not completely satisfy us, look for it ourselves. All proposed explanations of the chapter from this side of it, from the side of its idea, fall into several groups, each of which contains several homogeneous, with small differences from each other, or rather complementary explanations. As it has been said, patristic literature, although it does not pass by in complete silence the mysterious vision of the 1st chapter. Ezekiel, but gives very little to explain it, dwelling more on individual dark words and expressions of the prophet than on revealing the thoughts of the entire vision. Nevertheless, in this literature we find an attempt, however hesitant, to indicate the idea of ​​the whole vision. In the 4 mysterious animals, some ancient Christian interpreters saw the image of the four evangelists, and considered the whole phenomenon a foretelling of the widespread spread of the kingdom of Christ across the earth. The reasons for this understanding were the following: there are four evangelists, as well as animals; they have the same number of faces, since each is destined to go into the whole world; they look at each other, since each agrees with the others: they have 4 wings, since they disperse to different countries and at the same speed as if they were flying; in the sound of the wings (v. 24) they saw the gospel that went out into the whole earth; in the 4 faces of the animals they saw an indication of the character and content of each of the gospels. Except for the bl. Jerome (who accepts this explanation of Chapter 1 of Ezekiel in the preface to the interpretation of Matthew, and in the interpretation of Ezekiel is afraid to follow it entirely) and Gregory Dvoeslov, in whom we find a detailed development of this explanation; it was already known to St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Prot. heresy 3, 11, 8). From the second it became quite widespread in the Western Church, where it was dominant during the Middle Ages. As for the Eastern Church, its fathers, who were engaged in explaining Chapter 1. Ezekiel (St. Ephraim the Syrian and Macarius, Blessed Theodoret), we do not find any indication of this explanation 2 . The fact that it was not unknown in the Eastern Church can serve as some evidence, except for St. Irenaeus, iconographic monuments, sometimes depicting the evangelists in the form of the four “animals” of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. Our church charter, assigning proverbs from Ezekiel 1–2 chapters during Holy Week during the hours of Holy Week, when the Four Gospels are read, also has in mind this explanation of chapter 1. Ezekiel. This explanation deserves attention due to its antiquity. Although the objection may be raised against it that it is accompanied by the danger of reducing the cherubim, who appeared to the prophet under the guise of mysterious animals, to the level of simple symbols (this explanation was expressed at a time when cherubim were not considered by all church writers to be real beings), but at its basis lies the true idea that the vision of the prophet Ezekiel could not help but point, at least in part, to Christian times, from which it was separated only by a few for centuries. God, who lived among the Jewish people in the church on the cherubim, from now on seemed to change his location on earth, not wanting to limit it to one people and one country. He had to reveal himself to the pagans, which happened through the preaching of the Gospel. All this could be expressed by the removal of the glory of God on the cherubim from the Jerusalem temple, described in chapter 10 in 11. Ezek., to what description ch. 1. serves as a preparation. With some of its features, especially the four-faced animals and the presence of the number 4 (this number of the four-pointed world) everywhere, the vision of Chapter 1. Ezekiel could indicate the soon to come catholicity of the kingdom of God, in contrast to its hitherto limited (particularity) to one people. The beginnings of this catholicity were already given by the captivity of Babylon, thanks to which Israel became a light for the pagans, and to the captivity of Babylon the vision of the 1st chapter. Ezekiel had to relate. In view of all this, one cannot completely agree with the sharp refutation of the analyzed view of Ezekiel’s vision, which is given by many interpreters (“the prophet speaks of the future captivity of the Jews: why should he describe the evangelists?” Mald.). But on the other hand, in the form of mysterious animals, the prophet contemplated, as he himself says when repeating the vision (chap. 8–11), nothing more than cherubim. Church art had the right to choose these images to represent the evangelists, but this choice does not oblige us to follow such a distant allegorical explanation. Modern exegetical literature has developed its own specific view of the thought of the first chapter of Ezekiel, a view almost common to orthodox and exegetical literature, which among various interpreters suffers only slight modifications and only occasionally receives significant additions and new points of view. This view, which has become the property of textbooks, cannot but be absolutely wrong. At the same time, hardly anyone familiar with this view is so satisfied with it that they need to prove that it is not deep enough. The main drawback of this view is that it does not see this shortcoming of its own, which may be inevitable. Therefore, he can be accused, using the expression of St. Ezekiel, of sewing a convenient head (13:18) for the mind, offering it something instead of nothing. The mystery of prophetic vision seems to have been solved and, reduced to commonplaces and non-new thoughts, loses its immediate charm. The most complete and reasonable presentation of the generally accepted orthodox understanding of Ch. 1. Ezekiel is given from Western interpreters by Knabenbauer, from ours by Fr. Rozhdestvensky. Since the chapter describes a vision in which God appeared to the prophet, the purpose of this appearance of the Lord must first be determined. From this purpose the very image of the Epiphany must be explained. As can be seen from chapters 2 and 3, the immediate, immediate purpose of God’s appearance to Ezekiel on Chebar was to call him to prophetic service. But this does not exhaust the purpose of the present appearance of God and does not explain its form, those images in which God deigned to appear to the prophet. Since the phenomenon was for Ezekiel a calling to prophetic preaching, the general content of this sermon also determined the form of the phenomenon. Ezekiel's sermon revolved around two main subjects: the destruction of the old church (chap. 8–11) and the creation of a new one in a renewed Jerusalem. (10–18 chapters). From here God appears to Ezekiel in a church-like setting - on cherubim. But since God has to carry out judgment on His people, the consequence of which will be the destruction of the church and captivity, He appears at the same time as a formidable Judge. Since this judgment will not end in the complete destruction of the chosen people, but in its restoration, God, in his appearance, surrounds himself with symbols of mercy and benevolence. From these three principles all the details of Ezekiel's vision are explained. It opened with signs of a formidable, destructive nature - a stormy wind, a large cloud (cloud), fire; The prophet noticed all these formidable phenomena in the north, from where Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea and from where in general the Jews were accustomed to expect all sorts of disasters (Jer. 1:14). With all these features, the vision of the prophet Ezekiel pointed to the impending invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans. In the formidable phenomena of the vision, the prophet noticed the meek and pleasant shine of the ilectra, with which God himself shone as he walked to the prophet. This radiance could serve as a symbol of God’s propitiation, the cessation of anger. This was also indicated by the rainbow that crowned the whole vision (v. 28). Appearing as a formidable but merciful Judge, God appears to the prophet at the same time as the God of the Covenant, although avenging the violation of this covenant, but having no time to restore it. For this purpose, God appears seated on the cherubim, between which He had His sojourn in the church above the Ark of the Covenant. Between the cherubim there were burning coals, which suggest an altar underneath, just as the altar was mentioned in the vision of Isaiah. Even such a minor item as the laver has not been forgotten from the church furnishings: in the Temple of Solomon it was movable, equipped with wheels; therefore, those wheels that were in Ezekiel’s vision near the cherubim 3 roll onto it (Ros. Bert.) Thus, God appears to Ezekiel, like Isaiah, in the church, but this church is made movable as a sign that Jehovah has to temporarily withdraw from the Jerusalem temple. Such significance is usually attached to the main components of Ezekiel's vision. But besides these main parts, there are also several important features in the vision, for the explanation of which the above general considerations about the purpose and meaning of the vision are not enough. This feature is Ch. O. the appearance that the cherubs have here. They appear to the prophet in the form of animals with 4 faces - human, lion, ox and eagle. “This strange appearance of the cherubs expresses the symbolic superiority of this highest angelic order over man and the fullness of life of the cherubs. In front, the cherubs have a human face to express the intelligent force of which man serves as a representative. The lion and the ox serve as representatives of bodily strength, and the lion is the personification of courage and royal greatness, and the ox is tirelessness and endurance. The eagle serves as an expression of speed of flight and visual acuity. Thus, cherubim, as the highest of all creatures created by God, representatives of the highest fullness of life, concentrate in themselves to the highest degree all the spiritual and physical powers and abilities inherent in creatures.” (Fr. Birth. 253). “Since it is in the face, as a focal point, that the spiritual nature of man is expressed, as well as in higher animals the face is an indicator of internal vitality, then 4 faces represent the combination in the cherubs of all the highest abilities, and the very joining to the basic human image of animals, precisely as types of the highest forces of life, shows that cherubs occupy a significantly higher position on the ladder of living beings than man, since the idea of ​​the latter is not enough to express the idea of ​​each of the cherubs.” (O. Ch. 463). 4 All provisions established by this explanation of Chapter 1. Ezekiel, are true. Undoubtedly, God appeared at Chebar to St. Ezekiel, which shows the very time of this appearance, the time close to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, as a judge of his people, as an avenger for the violation of the covenant. On the other hand, the hope for the future restoration of this covenant could not but be expressed in the vision, which is evident from the fact that the Glory of the Lord enters the new church (40–48 chapters) exactly in the form in which it appeared at Chebar (43:2). But this thought does not explain all the details of the epiphany. The numerous images that fill the vision do not follow from it with logical necessity. The Khobar theophany to Ezekiel differs in many ways from previous and subsequent theophany, and we expect an explanation of these differences from its interpreter. The main feature of this epiphany is the presence of cherubs. It's not explained. It cannot really be considered an explanation that the cherubim were supposed to direct the prophet’s thought to the church. Rather, there were cherubim in the church because God sometimes appeared on them, rather than God appearing on them because they were in the church. If the cherubim have only the purpose of directing the prophet’s thought to the church, then they should have had the appearance of church cherubim, and not such that the prophet did not know for a long time whether they were cherubim (10:20). The explanation for the strange appearance of cherubs is also superficial. To express the idea of ​​strength, endurance and speed by giving animal faces to the highest celestial beings means to achieve little by very large and dangerous means. All this could be expressed in the appearance of cherubs, more simply and gracefully. An animal cannot serve as a type of the higher forces of life, and the addition of its powers and abilities to human ones can not increase these latter, but rather humiliate them. Everything that an animal has, a person also has, and in addition, he has many other things. A man with animal body parts would represent not the exaltation of human life, but its fall, ugliness. Moreover, the explanation presented does not come from any one principle, but different parts of the vision are explained from completely different principles. The complex vision of St. Ezekiel is divided in this explanation into several parts, each of which speaks of another. Thus, the chapter indicates not one thought, but several. Some proponents of this explanation, e.g. The Qliphoth even give a numerical list of the thoughts contained in the first chapter. Ezekiel. Others, although they do not go as far as this, it is easy to extract such a list from their presentation of the meaning of this chapter, since the numerical headings of the Qliphoth are separately designated by adverbs: then, further, finally. It is in vision that, according to the stated understanding, such thoughts are given. 1) The vision pointed to the coming punishment of God through Nebuchadnezzar to Judea; from this beginning the formidable phenomena that revealed the vision are explained: stormy wind, cloud, fire, lightning (v. 13) and the fact that the vision came from the north. 2) The vision spoke of the fact that the Lord did not abandon his people and was with them in captivity in a foreign land, just as he was at home in his church; hence it is explained that God appeared in an environment reminiscent of a church, i.e. on cherubim, with fire and coals, i.e. altar, etc. 3) God appears as the God of glory, in all his greatness (why?); hence the magnificent firmament, the throne, the light with which He shines. 4) Finally, God appears fully armed with His mercy and love; this was indicated by the gentle radiance of the ilectra and the rainbow. All these thoughts, even if they are given by a vision, are not the thoughts of the whole vision, but of its individual parts, and must be united in some higher, fundamental thought. Moreover, although these thoughts are lofty and important, they are not new in prophetic literature. Meanwhile, the Khobar vision in the book of Ezekiel gives the impression that it wants to say something new, to give a new revelation. It is the central vision in the book and activity of Ezekiel, and it can be said without exaggeration that if this vision did not contain any new thought, then Ezekiel could hardly be recognized not only as a great man, but also as a prophet. The lack of unity in the generally accepted explanation of the 1st chapter of Ezekiel could not but pass unnoticed in the science of interpretation. There were attempts to find a common principle to explain all parts of the vision. To find such a beginning, some have followed a more correct path than the explanation presented. They rightly reasoned that such a principle can be deduced not from what the present vision has in common with other visions and Epiphanies, but from the fact that it has something special, different from other visions. Therefore, they sought the key to understanding the vision in the correct understanding of those strange images of animals, which constitute such an essential distinctive feature of this vision that on this basis it was called “vision of animals.” We can point out three noteworthy attempts to find a common principle to explain the present vision, based on its characteristics (animal images). Kimhi also suggested that the four animals in Ezekiel, like in Daniel, denote 4 kingdoms that successively followed each other: Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman. This explanation was developed by Maldonat. In accordance with the main subject of the book of Ezekiel - the proclamation of the Babylonian captivity - Ezekiel's vision should have it - this plan - as its theme. It is clear from everything that the prophet in chapter 1. wants to describe some great storm and upheaval of things (v. 4). The identity of the vision of Chapter 1 also convinces us of this. with the vision of chapter 10, an identity that the prophet emphasizes more than once (10, 15, 20). “From one place in Ezekiel one can plausibly conclude that his cherubim meant some kind of kings: in 28:14 Ezekiel calls the king of Tire a cherub. And then we see that Ezekiel talks about the change of 4 kingdoms - Chaldean, Assyrian, Egyptian and Tyrian. From this we conclude that as one cherub, i.e. one animal meant the king of Tyre, so the three other animals of the 1st chapter meant three other kings. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar is sometimes compared to an eagle: Jer. 48:40; 49:22; Ezek. 17:31; Wed Avv. 1:8, 9; Dan. 7. All four kingdoms are under the throne of God, ruled by it and moving where the Spirit of God wants (v. 12). The wheels signify the kingdoms themselves, like the animals of kings. For kings drag their kingdoms with them either to salvation or to destruction, like animals drag a chariot.” The explanation of Kimhi and Maldonatus cannot be accepted simply because it sees the cherubim as mere symbols. – In Ezekiel, all the animals are exactly the same (all animals are endowed with the same faces), and not different, as in Daniel and as would be required for such a meaning. – In chapter 28 Ezekiel calls the king of Tire a cherub for the special advantages of his external position, and this name bears a clear stamp of comparison, not identification. – The animals of Ezekiel’s vision meant, according to the interpretation of the prophet himself, nothing more than cherubim, the highest servants of God. (Mald.). But this explanation still contains one correct idea. The manifestation of God, which Ezekiel beheld with his spiritual eye in a whirlwind, a cloud and on cherubim, for the natural eye occurred, of course, in one or another earthly phenomenon, among which not the least place was occupied by the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar and to which the change of great monarchies could also belong. Schroeder dwells on the name חיות, under which the mysterious bearers of the glory of God appear in Ezekiel’s vision. Like all interpreters, Schroeder assumes in this word not its more common and, as we will see, natural meaning here of “animal,” but its rare meaning of “living being.” Attaching particular significance to the fact that the prophet in the first chapter calls the creatures he saw living beings, chajoth, and not cherubs (the reason for which, as already noted, is very simple: the prophet did not yet know that they were cherubs), Schroeder wants to build an explanation of the entire vision on this name. He agrees with other interpreters that the general meaning of Ezekiel’s vision is the revelation of the Glory of God, as it manifested itself then in the judgment of Jerusalem, and had to manifest itself in the subsequent pardon of him. The first is symbolized especially by fiery brilliance, as in general by the fiery color in which the whole is represented (see special article 13, which Schroeder reads, of course, according to the Masork.) The second is indicated by the rainbow, which ends and, as it were, crowns the entire vision. The animals in Ezekiel’s vision do not represent any higher creatures (cherubim) on which God descends to earth, but the life of the world in all the integrity of its powers, which God breathed into it, in which God therefore appears and is revealed, and which serves as a reflection of His glory. God appears in the present vision as the living God in His glory, which is the life of the world. The only question is why Ezekiel and his time needed such a manifestation of God, His appearance as “living.” So He had to appear, Schroeder answers this question, for the judgment of Jerusalem, where He was humiliated to the level of a lifeless, powerless and, therefore, no longer recognized idol next to other deities. As if alive, He had to reveal himself to the pagan world, whose power He had already betrayed and would completely betray his people. The living God and, as such, the God of glory, He does not desire the death of the perishing sinner, as Ezekiel more than once exposes to the captives, but, on the contrary, the revival of Israel (chap. 37); river of life (chapter 47) His rich promise. The concept of life runs throughout the book in Ezekiel: 18:23; 33:11; all 37 chapters; 18:9, 13, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28, 32; 33:12, 13, 15, 16; 3:18, 21; 16:6; 20:11, 13, 21, 25; 47:9: ch. 13:7, 13:5, 11; Ch. 14; 17; 18:3; 20, 33; 34:8; 35:11; 26:20; 32:23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32). “As I live, why should you die, O house of Israel?” in this position one can express the essence of the prophetic speeches of Ezekiel in captivity. In comparison with the generally accepted way of explaining the Ezekiel vision, which suffers from a lack of unity in the explanation of various parts of the vision, Schroeder’s view is pleasantly striking in its complete consistency with the once accepted principle for explanation and the consistent implementation of this principle not only through the entire vision, but also through the entire book of the prophet. The vision of Ezekiel in Schroeder's explanation is imbued with one thought, the same thought with which the entire book is permeated. The thought that Schroeder wants to see in the vision of Ezekiel and in his book is, however, a lofty thought and worthy of the entire book of Ezekiel being devoted to its disclosure and development. But the Old Testament book could not be imbued with such a thought, and the Old Testament Jewish writer could not reveal such a thought. Such philosophical concepts about life were alien to the ancient Jew. 5 If he spoke about “life” in general, in the general sense of the word, then by this concept he meant the totality of all the benefits of earthly existence, the sum of a person’s happiness on earth. Even about the afterlife he had very vague ideas. He could not talk about life in essence, about “the life of the world,” “the vital forces of the world.” The high concept of life that we have now became possible only when “life appeared” (1 John 1:2). As for the many places from the book of Ezekiel that talk about life, if you take any word that is also used in speech, like “life,” then you can find no less examples of its use in the book of Ezekiel or in another. Moreover, in Schroeder's understanding, cherubs are reduced to the level of simple symbols. Schroeder's explanation, however, illuminates the vision in one important way. Schroeder rightly sees, as we will see later, in the animals of Ezekiel’s vision the expression primarily of the idea of ​​life. But they are personal carriers of this higher life, and not symbols of it. One cannot but agree with Shr. and in the fact that the moment when the vision took place was truly the most opportune time for the revelation of God as the living and life-giving God (Ezek. 37). Original explanation of the vision, chapter 1. Ezekiel is given by the Jesuit Hebrans (OS). His explanation can be called astronomical (Fr. Rozhd.). The main components of Ezekiel’s vision, according to Hebrans, symbolize the movement of the firmament and various phenomena on it. The firmament itself is represented in the vision by the image of a huge wheel, "galgal" (10:13), which, as Hebrans proves from a comparison of the places where this word (galgal) is used, is not a wheel in the usual sense of the word, but means something having a spherical shape, the shape of a globe. (Hebrans, on the basis of 1:15, concludes that in the vision there was only one wheel) The vault of heaven is strewn with stars at night; These stars in the vision of the prophet are represented by living eyes, with which the tall and terrible rims of the wheels (according to Hebrans of one wheel) looked at the prophet. In accordance with the Chaldean belief that the sky is filled with spirits that control the movement of the heavenly bodies and influence the fate of the world and the lives of people, the wheel, personifying the firmament, is represented in Ezekiel as alive (“the spirit of life in the wheels”) consciously moving. It is not difficult now to guess what the animals of Ezekiel’s vision should be according to this explanation. These are simply the signs of the zodiac, invented, as you know, by the Chaldeans. To complete the analogy, the fire that walked between the animals corresponded to the sun and its apparent movement in the firmament according to the signs of the constellations. Such an explanation, says Hebrans, cannot demean the divine character of the vision. Only the meaning and purpose of the vision in such an explanation must be presented differently from the way they are usually understood. The purpose of Ezekiel's vision will then be to show Israel that its God is the true ruler of the sky, stars and luminaries that the Chaldeans idolized (God in the vision sits above the firmament and above the animals). One cannot help but admit that the present explanation immediately captivates the reader with its novelty and wit. It specifically draws attention to those features of vision that distinguish it from all other visions. But upon closer testing, the foundations of this explanation turn out to be unstable. The mere fact that the Chaldeans were engaged in astronomy and idolized the luminaries, of course, was not enough for the astronomical element to appear in Ezekiel’s vision. And the foundations that Hebrans finds in the text of the vision for his view of it are not extracted by him without great stretching. Not to mention the fact that the vision clearly indicates four wheels (v. 16, etc.), and not one - galgal, as is clear from the places Hebrans himself compared, means a kind of whirlwind (see explanation, v. 15), but not a ball at all. But the wheels could not personify the vault of heaven because the vault of heaven appears later in the vision as a special independent part of it (v. 22) and is clearly different from the wheels. It is also difficult to discern a correspondence between the eyes with which the wheel rims were dotted and the stars. Then: the signs of the zodiac with the animals of Ezekiel’s vision have only this in common, that both the first (not all, however) and the second are animals, animal figures. Zodiac signs carved on a 12th-century Babylonian tablet. BC, bear little resemblance to the animals of Ezekiel’s vision: so on this board there is one image of a two-headed animal - “and the animals of Ezekiel, says Hebrans, had 4 heads; another animal has outstretched legs - and the legs of the animals of vision are straight” (!). Finally, if the Babylonians idolized animals that represented the constellations (they even called them “lords of the gods”), then it turned out that the God of Israel surrounded himself in his present appearance with images of pagan gods. Is such a representation acceptable? But there may be some truth in this explanation. By the movement of the cherubim, which is described in such detail in the vision (vv. 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19–21, 24–25), one cannot help but understand some activity of these highest beings. This activity, by the very position of the cherubim at the throne of God, cannot but be world-wide (cosmic), cannot but affect the world at its very foundations, and influence the course of the entire life of the world. To be complete, it is necessary to mention the rationalistic explanations of Chapter 1. Ezekiel. In defining the meaning and purpose of the vision of this chapter. they agree with the generally accepted orthodox explanations and differ in their views on the nature of the vision and the objectivity of its content. “The basis of Ezekiel’s vision, says Hitzig, of course, was nothing real: not only the reality of the existence of cherubim and their wheels can rightfully be denied, but also the description, if it claims to be true, of the appearance of God 1:26, etc. That Ezekiel had ecstasy in this case could still be admitted. But if each ecstasy passes quickly, since the spirit cannot endure such tension for a long time, then the present phenomenon drags on too long: 3:12, 13. Further, Ezekiel’s account of what he saw and heard turns out to be so ordered in the smallest particulars that he would have assumed accurate vision during the ecstasy and a clear consciousness of it after, and both no imagination can imagine. Finally, similar sections of Is. 6 and Jer. 1, which are far from representing such a wealth of contemplations, do not give ecstatic contemplations at all (?). Likewise, the even less true section of the book of Ezekiel (1-2). On the contrary, the latter differs from those in that it is probably the earlier composed part of the book. Ezekiel directly wrote this prophecy without speaking it yet.” According to Smenda, on the contrary: “that the description of Ezekiel comes from a visionary experience and the vision is not just a literary form, as Hitzig thinks, cannot be disputed. Great similarity to Isa. 6 and Jer. 1 does not prove the opposite, since Ezekiel’s visionary experience itself could simply have been formed from those prototypes. On the contrary, the detailed depiction of what was seen belongs (in Ezekiel) to later reflection and literary processing. It is, of course, impossible to separate both visions and reflection in particular.” Bertholet also disputes Hitzig’s position that “we are dealing here only with a literary shell without the fact of an ecstatic state: if Ezekiel tells us that he saw the sky open, then why would we argue that it remained closed above him? Those who do not admit the possibility of visions in general may doubt the reality of this vision. There is nothing dubious in Ezekiel’s description for which the prophet could be reproached for untruth.” But Bertolet considers the description of the vision to be a free literary adaptation. Kretschmar goes even further in defending the reality of Ezekiel's vision. For him, not only does it seem impossible to deny the presence of ecstasy with Hitzig, since this is against the word of the prophet himself, whom we have absolutely no right to catch in a lie, but it “seems doubtful to him whether even a detailed depiction of the vision can be attributed to See and Bert. to later reflection." Then, it is clear that rationalistic exegesis (chapter 1 of Ezekiel) diverges from the orthodox one in its view of the cherubim. For her, “the symbolic nature of these creatures is beyond doubt, which is already proven by the complexity of their figure. They (cherubs) aim to express some idea. Namely, their undeniably close relationship to the idea of ​​God; they are described in such a way that they can be applied without hesitation to the attributes of God” (Gietz.). In the cherubim, the expression of the properties of God Himself is given (See): the omniscience and omnipresence of God is expressed by the four faces of the cherubim, the royal sovereignty of God is expressed by the face of a lion on the cherub, eternity is expressed by the eagle, the destructive power of God is expressed by the face of an ox. (==Moloch Gitz.); all this driven by the mind is the face of a person (See). “The main idea of ​​the whole vision is that God is omnipotent, and 4 persons serve to specialize this power of His” (Bert.). – The immediate meaning of the appearance of cherubs here is this. Jehovah withdrew from Jerusalem to His place in the north of Art. 4 – Wed. Os. 5:15, from where He will eventually return to Jerusalem (43:2) To visualize this, the ancient concept of the cherub is taken - cf. Ps. 17:11. Cherubim are the personification of a thundercloud. Ezek. 1:4, carried by a whirlwind, 10:13, on which Jehovah rides, Ps. 103:3 (See) Isa. 19:1 (Bert.), “like seraphim (saraph, to burn, - “snakes” Num. 21:16; Deut. 8, 11, 13) personification of serpentine lightning” (Del. 151). “And it is remarkable how closely Ezekiel places the cherubim in relation to the cloud: the sound of their wings produces thunder - 1:21; 10:5, and between them there are lightning bolts - 1:13; Wed another cloud 10:3 etc.” (Cm). “But to symbolize a thunderstorm, the ancient simple image of the wonderful bird vulture (γρύψ–kerub. Ev.) is not enough for Ezekiel, and he combines it with other elements (See), borrowing them, “for example. may be from Arab mythology, which represented its deities under the guise of a man, a woman, a lion, a horse (“instead of the horse, which is significant for an Arab, the Jewish farmer chose a bull”) and an eagle” (Gitz.), or from Assyrian-Babylonian ornamentation (colossi of winged lions and bulls. Kr.). Against these rationalistic theories, it must be said: 1) the closeness of the cherubim to the idea of God and the mythological parallels to the cherubim allow, as we will see, another explanation and 2) whether the vision was created by the imagination of the prophet or whether it is based on natural (and not supernatural, inspired) ecstasy, its strange content, and for the so-called “eastern” fantasy, equally remains incomprehensible: for any imagination acting according to natural laws, the fact that describes the prophet - it could only be violence, and if for us it is “wisdom,” it is because “man is wiser than God.” The following little can be said with certainty about the thought of Ezekiel's vision. God appeared to the prophet Ezekiel in a vision on Chebar. Why was a new theophany needed, this generally infrequent method of revelation of God that seemed to become less and less common over the centuries? If we recall all the cases in the life of the Jewish people when God resorted to this method of revealing Himself, then we will notice one common feature in all these phenomena: they were closely related to the covenant that God concluded with the Jewish people in the person of its ancestor Abraham and renewed at Sinai. The Appearances of God mark all the most important moments in the history of this covenant: they marked its beginning, conclusion and, in general, the first time of its history (theophany Abraham, especially Gen. 15, Jacob's vision of the ladder); then the epiphanies are repeated at the renewal of God’s covenant with the people of Abraham, when the small family of this patriarch, several centuries after his death, became a large people (appearances in the bush, Sinai). And then, whenever the covenant concluded with the Jewish people is in serious danger, God appears in one way or another to the chosen ones from the people and through them prevents the threatening danger. Moreover, it is remarkable that the magnitude of the danger and, in general, the importance of this or that moment in the history of the covenant determines the greater or lesser majesty of the theophany. Thus, one of the most majestic epiphanies after Sinai took place under the prophet Elijah - this prophet. And this was a time when one might think that only one person remained faithful to the covenant with God in all of Israel. The appearance of God to Ezekiel on Chebar stood out among all theophany in its majesty. In this respect, only the Sinai Epiphany could compare with it, unless it surpassed the latter in grandeur. In any case, of the epiphanies, the Khobar vision of Ezekiel most closely resembles the Sinai epiphany. If so, then the time of this theophany - the era of Ezekiel - was a particularly important moment in the history of the covenant concluded between God and Israel, a moment perhaps no less important than the era of Moses. Something extremely important and significant must have happened to the covenant made at Sinai during the time of Ezekiel if God again appeared as (no less, if not more) majestic as he appeared to make the covenant. If we delve into the circumstances of that time, we will be convinced that an important change was indeed taking place in the destinies of the covenant concluded by God with the Jewish people. The essence of what God promised to do to Israel at Sinai for the obedient fulfillment of His will was to grant the Jews such a country from all over the earth, which in truth could be called a second paradise. For fulfilling His commandments, God promised to give part of humanity what He once deprived humanity of for violating His commandments. That the gift of the promised land to the Jews had such a deep meaning is easy to see if we compare everything that was connected with such a gift: not only was Palestine by nature boiling with honey and milk, God promised to influence its abundance and fertility before the Sabbath year, etc., with special actions of His providence. In a word, a new paradise was planted for man, although no longer in Eden: see Lev. 26:4 etc. Gen. 13:10 ; Os. 2:18 et al. Ezek. 36:35 ; Is. 51:3, Joel 2:3. But man again violated God’s commandment and a second expulsion from the paradise of sweetness followed. God wanted to return to Israel almost everything that he had taken from Adam. I wanted to be in constant, blessed proximity to him; He wanted to appear to him as he appeared to Adam, to reveal His will directly as it could only be revealed to a person who had not sinned. In a word, God wanted to make a change in the very conditions of human life created by sin, in all these conditions, even in purely natural ones. Centuries of experience have shown that Israel, like Adam, cannot fulfill its obligations under the covenant with God. The time has come for God, if not to cancel, then at least to limit his great promises to his people. During the time of Ezekiel, this revolution was taking place: God was taking away the Promised Land from His former people. She was about to be turned into the wilderness by the invasion of the Chaldeans (Ezek. 6). And she was never able to fully recover from this invasion; at least, after captivity, she does not surprise everyone, as before, with her fertility and abundance. Moreover, Israel never again owned it all and did not live on it entirely. Ezekiel mourned the end of the “land of Israel” (chapter 7). God deprived his former people of his immediate proximity: since the time of captivity, Israel has had few prophets. It also does not have the former church with the Ark of the Covenant and the Glory of the Lord above it. Such an important change took place during Ezekiel's time with the Sinai covenant. It is clear why God appears now as He appeared at Sinai. He appears to a man who, by nature, was more capable than anyone else of understanding everything that happened then between God and Israel. In Ezekiel the spirit did not overwhelm the body. In God's covenant with Israel, he saw more than one spiritual side, on which other prophets, in particular Jeremiah, usually focused their attention. For Ezekiel, the name of the covenant was associated with the thought of the promised land with its wonderful fertility (see Chapter 47), about the magnificent church - this visible sign of the presence of God among his people. In the unfortunate circumstances of that time, which only suppressed other Jews with their severity, the spiritual eye of Ezekiel saw all their deep and terrible meaning. He understood that all this was nothing more or less than God limiting the great promises of the Sinai Covenant after the people had previously violated the obligations they had assumed at the conclusion of the covenant - that this was the beginning of the end for the Sinai Covenant. Khovarskoe stands out from a number of other epiphanies by one more feature - the presence of cherubs in it. In the present epiphany, the cherubim occupy a very prominent place - they are the main figures of the entire phenomenon. However, both in the series of epiphanies and in general in the economy of human salvation, cherubim appear here not for the first time and not the only time. Nevertheless, their appearance in the entire history of this house-building was extremely rare. It is not difficult to list all the known cases of this appearance known from the Bible. The first took place at the sad moment of the fall of mankind, when the cherubim (Gen. 3:24: כרובים) were entrusted with the protection of paradise taken from people. Then, after the conclusion of the Sinai Covenant 6, the cherubim overshadow the ark of this covenant and are present in the tabernacle, which should be concluded on the basis of their images above both. Finally, after appearing in the visions of St. Ezekiel, they appear again only in the visions of John the Theologian, which, as is known, had as their subject the last struggle of the Church with the forces of the world and its final victory, i.e. end of time. It is not difficult to see what all these cases, so to speak, of the intervention of cherubs in earthly affairs and their contact with our world have in common. All these cases take place at especially important moments of God’s providential influence on the earth, at moments of such or similar importance as the end of the world or the profound upheaval that humanity was about to experience during the Fall. All this, while confirming once again the extraordinary importance and mystery of the Khovar Epiphany, at the same time testifies to how difficult it is to reveal its secret. Its mystery is truly apocalyptic, undoubtedly related to eschatological mysteries that must remain unresolved until the end of the world. What Ezekiel beheld on Chebar stood in some relation to the beginning of the history of fallen humanity and to the end of this history and our world. This is proven not only by the participation of the cherubim in what the prophet contemplated, but also by the super-connection of this vision of his with his last vision, the vision of the new temple and Jerusalem, in ch. 40–48. This last vision refers to the time when Israel, restored to their former rights as their chosen people, completely renewed and holy, will live in a promised land, completely different from the old land, with a new church. Since the salvation of Israel will take place at the end of times, when “the fulfillment of tongues shall come,” then in the last chapters of his book the prophet Ezekiel obviously describes that new earth and that new Jerusalem, which the Apocalypse speaks of. And now the Glory of God enters the new church that this land will have in the same form in which it appeared on Chebar and in which it came out of the old church destroyed by the Chaldeans. In his visions, the prophet Ezekiel deals with these two, so separated in time, but obviously close in essence, moments in the history of Israel: the era of the Babylonian captivity and the era of the final restoration of Israel at the end of time. The long intermediate period, the period when Israel was deprived of the Glory of God, which rested in the church on the cherubim, and thanks to this was relegated to the level of an ordinary people, as if it did not exist for the eyes of this great Jew, although during this period such an important event for all mankind took place as the appearance of the Messiah. The prophet Ezekiel says little about the time of the first coming of the Messiah, which became the joy of tongues rather than of Israel, which rejected Him. His thought is more directed towards the time close to the second coming, when Israel will all be saved. What did such different and distant periods of world history have in common? According to Ezekiel, the appearance of God on cherubim, “who in the first period came out of the old church, and in the second will enter some new church as he came out, in the same form. Thus, the appearance of God, described in chapter 1 of the book of Ezekiel, is so exceptional that it will have an analogy only in that mysterious time when “there will be no time” (Apoc. 10:6). St. Ezekiel more closely defines the nature of these two theophany by the fact that cherubim take part in both. When the psalmist speaks or prays about especially great and amazing manifestations of God, he also adds cherubim to them (Ps. 17:11; 79:2). As can be seen, what gives those two revelations of the power and glory of God, which Ezekiel speaks of in his book (in chapter 1 and chapters 40-48), their special, exceptional character, which makes them especially important among other revelations and connects with them a number of outstanding consequences for Israel and for the world, is the mediation of the cherubim. It is not surprising if Ezekiel devotes so much space to cherubim in the description of his vision. By this he clearly says that the key to understanding theophany must be sought in the understanding of these great figures of it. The prophet, for his part, gives what he can to clarify this inexplicable subject, and the interpreter of the first chapter will then do everything possible on his part to explain it, if he first does everything possible to form a correct idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe cherubim. Therefore, this ancient explanation cannot lay claim to the high title of paternalism: its supporters are all the so-called “church writers,” and not the fathers. Or: “the image of the wheels is explained by the fact that the cherubim were supposed to represent the likeness of the chariot of God (cf. 1 Sam. 28:18; Sir. 49:10). By the likeness of a chariot, moving quickly and unhindered in all directions (cherubim and wheels can go in any direction without turning around), the Lord depicts His omnipresence” (Fr. Rozhd. 265). Kurtz (Herzog Realeucyklop. 2. “cher”) sees in the cherubs a symbolic image of created perfection, which, before the Fall and its consequences, was represented in the first man. Before the Fall, man, created in the image of God, was certainly the sum, the focal point of created perfection on earth, the ruler and king over the entire animal world; Now the animal world, at least in part, has become free from his domination, and in order to humble man, it is shown that the animal world even controls powers that do not belong to man in such completeness and perfection. Here is a detailed disclosure of the idea of ​​Ezekiel's vision from Schroeder "The glory of God is the initial goal (Zweek) of the creation of heaven and earth, as well as the final goal (Ziel) of world history. Just as the glory of God has its own side for God, on which it is the self-position of His life in His greatness invisible (inaccessible) to man, so on the other hand, heaven and earth, the world of creatures, in that through it reaches discovery (comes into manifestation) the nature and power of God himself in one diversity and completeness, reflects the divine life in the visible glory of God. It is His glory, His honor, which are visible from His creation... And all the threads of life that the divine “truth” of revelation (fidelity to revelation) from the very beginning preserves in sinful man, and in one part strengthens and forms him more and more, ultimately converge in the central manifestation of life, “the life is revealed” (1 John 1:2). The actual revelation of “life” destroys the deadly power of sin (2 Tim. 1:10). Life is the content of salvation, and this vital revelation of salvation also acts strengthening, renewing and replenishing on the remaining vital force of the world, as it weakens, corrects and destroys the deadly power of sin, acts so constructively and creatively that man and the earthly system (Erdsystem) emerge as a new creation for eternal life from the catastrophe of struggle and judgment.” A tirade worthy of Hegel. M.b. they were those Angels who, according to Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2 mediated the conclusion of the Sinai Covenant. If the tabernacle was a symbol of the mountain of legislation (A. A. Olesnitsky, Old Testament Church), then it is clear why it was all filled with cherubim on the supports and veil) You might be interested in: