Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Daniel A. Keating on the Prince of Tyre of Ezekiel 29 not Being Satan

  

On Ezek 28:1-2:

 

The opening words are aimed directly at the prince of Tyre. The Lord accuses him of overweening pride: your heart is proud (literally, “lifted up” or “exalted”). This ruler has claimed divine status for himself, saying, I am a god, / I sit in the seat o the gods, / in the hearts of the seas. (Daniel A. Keating, Ezekiel [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2024], 200)

 

On Ezek 28:11-19:

 

The qualities that Ezekiel assigns to the king of Tyre are stunning. He is the signet of perfection, / full of wisdom / and perfect in beauty. This is high praise indeed! A “signet” is a seal, often fixed to a ring made from a fine jewel. Here the “signet” or “seal” is a sign revealing the identity and character of the Tyrian king. The description of the king of Tyre as “the signet of perfection” is probably intended as an echo of Adam and Eve being in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27).

 

Furthermore, this king dwelt in Eden, the garden of God, where he had access to precious gems. The king, who dwelt on the holy mountain of God, was given an anointed guardian cherub to guard him. Additionally, the king—like Adam—was blameless in all his ways until the day when unrighteousness was found in him. Because of this, God cast him away from the mountain of God. All this took place because his heart was proud and his wisdom became corrupted. This glorious figure, who began with such promise, is cast to the ground, exposed before all the nations, and destroyed by fire. It is the story of the rise and fall of Tyre’s king, figuratively portrayed against the backdrop of the creation and fall of Adam.

 

The scene of Adam in the garden provides the imaginative backdrop for the magnificent endowments and the tragic fall of he king of Tyre, and the parallels between the Tyrian king and Adam in the garden of Eden are striking and unmistakable. Like Adam, the king of Tyre dwelt in Eden, the garden of God. All this was prepared for him on the day of his creation. A guardian cherub was there in the garden with him, and the king walked in righteousness right up until the day when pride claimed his heart. Because of his pride, like Adam he was cast out of the garden and brought to ruin. All this recalls the figure of Adam in the garden.

 

While the parallels are many, there are also contrasts. The precious gems fixed on the Tyrian king’s clothing are in sharp contrast to the naked state of Adam (and Eve) in the garden. Notably, the list of gems generally matches the precious stones sewn into the high priests’ garments (see Exod 28:17-20; 39:10-13), and so links the figure of the prince of Tyre and the high priest is unclear, but is striking that the high priest bore on his garments the “signets” of the twelve tribes of Israel (Exod 39:6, 14), and  that the high priest’s crown bore an inscription “like the engravings of a signet, ‘Holy to the Lord’” (Exod 39:30). This link between the king of Tyre and the high priest may also be based on Ezekiel’s belief that Adam himself originally possessed a high priestly role in creation.

 

Two details in Ezekiel’s story find no parallel in Genesis: the garden of Eden is situated on the mountain of God, and the king of Tyre walks in the midst of the stones of fire. Ezekiel freely adapts the details of the Genesis story to show how great were the endowments of the king of Tyre and how devastating his subsequent fall through pride. (Ibid., 202-4)

 

 

. . . Ezekiel probably understood himself to be prophesying about the king of Tyre . . . (Ibid., 204)

 



 

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