Thursday, February 24, 2022

Dragoş Andrei Giulea: Ezekiel 28 is about (Pre-Lapsarian) Adam, not Satan

  

. . . Ezek 28:12-17, a text which alludes, by way of analogy and metaphor, to an Adam peculiarly portrayed along glorious lines. . . . Most likely, the text represents one of the most ancient sources—if not the most ancient one—for the tradition which exalts the prelapsarian Adam. In spite of the fact that the account starts with a description of the king of Tyre, the narrative structure changes to a context—namely, Paradise—in which it is almost impossible to place this royal character. Hence, it would be more logical here to associate the Garden of Eden with Adam. The result would be the first text portraying Adam as a highly exalted figure which God places on his holy mountain and arrays with beauty, splendor, and precious stones. (Dragoş Andrei Giulea, Pre-Nicene Christology in Paschal Contexts: The Case of the Divine Noetic Anthropos [Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language 123; Leiden: Brill, 2014], 51)