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" Imitatio Ezechielis: "
Best, Garrett
Long, Fredrick J .
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1112172
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2520761789
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| Main Entry
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Best, Garrett
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Long, Fredrick J .
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| Title & Author
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Imitatio Ezechielis:\ Best, GarrettLong, Fredrick J .
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| College
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Asbury Theological Seminary
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| Date
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2021
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| student score
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2021
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| Degree
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Ph.D.B.S.
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| Page No
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418
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| Abstract
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The grammatical irregularities of Revelation have been noticed by interpreters interacting with the book at the linguistic level since Dionysius of Alexandria commented on the unusual style in the third century CE. Although Revelation has been recognized as an incredibly complex and sophisticated document, simultaneously, a prevailing scholarly judgment was that the book contained the worst grammar in the NT and that the author struggled with Greek as a second language. To add to the confusion, there are instances of ungrammaticality which appear to be intentional while other instances appear erratic and inexplicable. The proposed solecisms include: disagreements in case, number, and gender; verbal incongruence in the use of tense and mood; incorrect use of prepositional phrases; tautology; et al. Scholars have attempted to make sense of these syntactic features of the book by appealing to various grammatical explanations; literary, rhetorical, and theological motivations; and even some aspect of John’s visionary experience. Because Revelation was designed with aural intent and because the issue of ungrammaticality is a stylistic matter, I argue that the rhetorical milieu of the Greco-Roman world preserved in the extant rhetorical handbooks provides windows into better understanding the unusual feature of grammatical irregularity in Revelation. The ancients distinguished between accidental grammatical error which was frowned upon and intentional, artistic ungrammaticality for rhetorical purposes. Quintilian even provides the criteria that one might use to distinguish intentional from unintentional ungrammaticality. Quintilian’s criteria point to the fact that ungrammaticality was acceptable and artistic if used by an authoritative, past model which is based on the pervasive ancient impulse of imitatio/μίμησις. After observing how ancients conceived of and practiced imitatio in literary and rhetorical compositions, I apply these insights to John’s systematic use of Ezekiel in Revelation. One of the most common observations in scholarship on Ezekiel is that the inaugural vision–which was influential for Revelation–is full of stylistic and grammatical difficulties. Because stylistic imitation was a central component of imitatio, I argue that John’s irregular grammar was caused by his imitation of this unusual feature encountered in the prophetic commissioning scene of his authoritative predecessor. It is one component of John’s overall strategy to align his prophetic voice with the voice of Israel’s authoritative prophetic tradition. He speaks in the vox Ezechielis. Finally, I investigate whether this proposal can be grounded in apocalyptic visionary phenomenology. Ezekiel’s merkabah vision served for centuries as the catalyst for visionary experience, especially in merkabah mysticism and the hekhalot texts. Ezekiel’s inaugural vision was also influential in rabbinic Judaism, Second Temple Jewish texts, apocalypses, and early Christianity. Several scholars contend that the meditation of Scriptural texts like Ezek 1 served as the catalyst for visionaries to “see again” what the prophets saw, and I posit this helps us understand why the unusual grammar of Ezekiel’s inaugural vision may have left such an indelible mark on the unusual style of John’s Revelation. Lastly, I demonstrate that the Greco-Roman world had ready-made categories for understanding imitatio as inspired experience, not merely rhetorical or literary fiction. Imitatio, when encountered in texts, was perceived as resulting from the divine inspiration of the gods or from authoritative figures of the past.
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Religion
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