1. Course description

A philological, literary, rhetorical and ideological study of selected passages from Ezekiel 25-48, using Zimmerli and Greenberg. The course will operate under the same goals and methods adumbrated for 641.

2. Requirements

a. During the first two class sessions each week we will study the Hebrew text, consulting the commentaries. Keep ten verses ahead and be prepared to discuss the salient issues for each day’s passage, using critically the two required commentaries and applying the appropriate methodologies. (Methodology will be similar to 641.)

b. In-class readings, as in 641. We will deal with the following selections:23:1-21, 36-49; 24; 28:1-19; 33; 34:1-16; 38; 39; 40:1-7; 43:1-12; 44:9-16.

c. Regardless of what we cover in class, be prepared to translate all of chapters 25-36 by the midterm, and chapters 37-48 for the final (514 students need prepare only 37-39, 40:1-27; 43:1-12; 44:1-31; 46:1-24; 47:1-23; and 48).

d. Oral readings: I will assign, in rotation, meaningful units of verses to be read in class. Practice your passage in advance so that you can give a correct and meaningful oral rendition.

e. During the third session (Thursdays, second hour) we will read from the lxx, S, and T, evaluating divergences from the mt and getting a sense of their translation styles, as well as their relationship to each other. 642 & 514 students should prepare 7 verses per week in Greek. Additionally, students in 642 who have had Syriac should prepare the same seven verses in Syriac, while 642 students who have not had Syriac but have had/are taking Aramaic should prepare the 7 verses in the Targum. Moreover, 642 students should be able to translate and provide comment on all lxx verses covered in class by each exam, as well as translate and comment on the parallel Syriac or Targum verses they read.

g. There will be two examinations: the mid-term on Thursday, March 9, during regular class time; the final on Tuesday, May 9, 2:45-4:45 p.m.

h. Secondary readings (available online, in BETAP, or – in some cases – from me)

Readings tested on midterm*

Callender, Dexter E., Jr. “The Primal Human in Ezekiel and the Image of God.” BETAP

Kutsko, John F. “Ezekiel's Anthropology and Its Ethical Implications.” BETAP

Lapsley, Jacqueline E. “Shame and Self-Knowledge: The Positive Role of Shame in Ezekiel's View of the Moral Self.” BETAP

Lust, Johan. “The Delight of Ezekiel’s Eyes: Ez 24:15-24 in Hebrew and in Greek.” In X Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Oslo, 1998.

Newsome, Carol. “A Maker of Metaphors – Ezekiel’s Oracles against Tyre.” Int 38 (1984) 151-64.

Raitt, Thomas. “The Content of the Deliverance Message” (chaps. 6-7 in idem, A Theology of Exile [Philadelphia, 1977]).

Readings tested on final*

Ahroni, Reuben. “The Gog Prophecy and the Book of Ezekiel.” HAR 1 (1977) 1-27.

Darr, Katherine P., “The Wall Around Paradise.” VT 37 (1987) 271-79.

Fox, Michael V. “The Rhetoric of Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley of the Bones,” HUCA 51 (1980) 1-15.

Haran, Menahem. “The Law-Code of Ezek XL-XLVIII and its Relation to the Priestly School.” HUCA 50 (1979) 45-70.

idem., Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1985) 92-111.

McKeating, H. “Ezekiel, the ‘Prophet Like Moses’?” JSOT 61 (1994) 97-109.

Schwartz, Baruch. “Ezekiel's Dim View of Israel's Restoration.” BETAP

Smith, Jonathan Z. “To Put in Place” (chap. 3 in idem., To Take Place [Chicago, 1987]).

*Other or alternative readings may be assigned, as deemed appropriate.

j. Each student registered for 642 will write a thematic essay of 10 pages. Due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, April 11. Topics:

Women and violence in Ezekiel’s imagery

Prophecy and pornography

Ezekiel’s view of false prophecy

The topography of the New Israel, its functions and meaning

Prophetic conflict in Jeremiah and Ezekiel

How Ezekiel differs from Jeremiah in their vision of restoration

The purpose of the prophecies against the nations.

Silence and speech in Ezekiel

God's personality in Ezekiel

The concept of “they/you will know that I am Yahweh”

Other topics are welcome but must be approved in advance

k. Students registered for 514 will read Wilfred Watson’s Classical Hebrew Poetry, pp. 87-200; and Adele Berlin, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), pp. 1-30. At the beginning of class on Tuesday, April 11, each student will submit a paper (10 pp.), summarizing and evaluating the various viewpoints expressed in the readings on the following topics:

a. What distinguishes poetry from prose?

b. The merits of metrical theory for Hebrew poetry: what views have been advanced, which (if any) seem viable, and to what degree is metrical theory useful in restoring the “original” form of a text (emendation metri causa)?

c. What are “fixed pairs” and what is/are their function(s)? Are they a case of “ballast variants”?

d. What is the genius of the following types of parallelism: number parallelism, gender-matched parallelism, staircase parallelism, and Janus' parallelism? What is the “pivot pattern”?

3. Your final grade will be a composite of the two exams (roughly 70%) and your paper (roughly 30%), with class participation taken into consideration.

4. I will be available for consultation in my office on Tuesdays 11-12, and Thursdays 12-1, or by appointment. Other days you may reach me via my e-mail address (see the heading of this syllabus).

If you have trouble accessing this page, contact: Chris Dargis (cadargis@wisc.edu)
Latest revision date: 1/20/2006 (cad)