Texts in Conversation
Ezekiel describes a vision of light and a rainbow around God’s throne, showing divine glory in visual form. Sirach remembers Ezekiel as a prophet who saw this glory and places him among earlier prophets.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ezekiel 1:28
Hebrew Bible
26 Above the platform over their heads was something like a sapphire shaped like a throne. High above on the throne was a form that appeared to be a man. 27 I saw an amber glow like a fire enclosed all around from his waist up. From his waist down I saw something that looked like fire. There was a brilliant light around it, 28 like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds after the rain. This was the appearance of the surrounding brilliant light; it looked like the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I threw myself face down, and I heard a voice speaking.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 49:8
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
6 They set the chosen city of the sanctuary on fire and made her streets desolate, as it was written by the hand of Jeremiah. 7 For they mistreated him; yet he was sanctified in the womb to be a prophet, to root out, to afflict, to destroy and likewise to build and to plant. 8 Ezekiel saw the vision of glory, which God showed him on the chariot of the cherubim. 9 For truly he remembered the enemies in rainstorm, and to do good to those who directed their ways aright. 10 Also of the twelve prophets, may their bones flourish again out of their place. He comforted the people of Jacob, and delivered them by confident hope.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Ben Sira displays his knowledge of prophetic history generally and appears to refer to a specific collection of Twelve Prophets. In his narrative history, he refers to the three major prophets in the same order found in the Hebrew canon, from Isaiah (Sirach 48:22), to Jeremiah (49:6), to Ezekiel (49:8), culminating with a reference to the Twelve Prophets (49:10). Ben Sira meticulously only uses the title prophet to refer to characters from the conquest of the land until the exile, indicating that he has a specific concept in mind. These prophets are not merely sages, but speak for God and see visions (46:13, 16). He also references the Twelve Prophets in a similar form to that found in the later Masoretic Text: “And also the Twelve Prophets” (49:10). The use of the title “the Twelve Prophets” is likely an assumed recognizable entity. Ben Sira seems to be familiar with the twelve books as a grouping of prophetic writings. In conclusion, we see that he is familiar with a prophetic history like that found in the Jewish Scriptures and regards them as instructive for his community ..."
Peter Beckman, “Ben Sira’s Canon Conscious Interpretive Strategies: His Narrative History and Realization of the Jewish Scriptures,” Them 46.3 (2021): 562–575.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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