Religions· 2026Q1
The Recognition Formula in the Book of Ezekiel: The Prophet’s Imagination of Hope
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- 2026year
Short summary
Ezekiel utilized the "Recognition Formula" ("then you will know that I am Yahweh") to proclaim God's power to end the first temple era and usher in a new era with a second temple, offering hope to his exiled audience.
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Key points
- Ezekiel's use of the "Recognition Formula" is central to his prophetic imagination of hope.
- The formula proclaimed Yahweh's power to conclude the first temple era and initiate a new one.
- This prophecy offered a vision of a future temple and God's presence to an exiled audience.
- Ezekiel's approach is linked to Israel's pre-exilic cyclical view of history.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Walter Brueggemann argued that an important aspect of the prophetic imagination was that of hope, a hope that energized the community of faith to challenge the hegemonic culture of the day. This article adds to Brueggemann’s affirmation of the power of hope, by entering into a discussion of hope found in Ezekiel. In this study, I propose that Ezekiel drew upon Israel’s pre-exilic eschatological traditions, characterized by the cyclical periodization of history. Key to Ezekiel’s confrontation of the catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the experience of exile, is his use of the Recognition Formula (“then you will know that I am Yahweh”). As it was used in Ezekiel, the Recognition Formula proclaimed Yahweh’s power to bring about the eschaton of the failed first temple period and to create a new era defined by a future temple. Ezekiel’s prophecies energized his traumatized exilic audience by imagining an alternative to Jerusalem’s destruction and the experience of exile in Babylon. Instead, Ezekiel proclaimed that they would recognize the power of Yahweh in the establishment of a second temple era, one that secured the presence of God.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Religions, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Religious studies
Religious studiesArts and Humanities