Main news for 27 September 2025

King James Version (en)

Ezekiel, Chapter 37, verses 13-14

¹³And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

¹⁴And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

NOTES

Ezekiel's vision of a field strewn with dead bones, which God brings to life by breathing the breath of life into them, is usually associated with faith in the universal resurrection at the end of time, on the assumption that this is what God is showing His prophet. Yet it is apparently not about this after all. Of course, faith in the universal resurrection and in the Day of Judgement must already have existed among the Jews at the time of the Babylonian exile, when Ezekiel was allowed to see what he saw. But God does not disclose to the prophet an image of the Last Judgement, but something else: the destiny of God's people. He shows Ezekiel the spiritual path that the people would have to travel. Dead bones: that was the spiritual state of the Jewish people when they found themselves in Babylon. And this is understandable, for if it had been otherwise, the historical destiny of the people would also have been different. In any event, the national catastrophe of the exile could then probably have been avoided.

But judging by what God allowed His prophet to see, no spiritual life was left among the people at all. Everything had to begin again, starting with the small community in Babylon and its spiritual renewal. Then, after that renewal, it would grow, in essence, into a new people, into that very post-exilic Jewry whose history continues to this day, the same people who would have to meet the Messiah promised by God.

Such a renewal could not, of course, be achieved by human efforts alone. God's direct intervention was needed; a miracle was needed. And the spiritual renewal of the people that took place in Babylon truly became a miracle, just as all subsequent Jewish history was a miracle, a history which, humanly speaking, simply could not have existed. The Babylonian kingdom absorbed and assimilated many small peoples, including the Jews' neighbours: the Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines and Phoenicians. All the more was the small community of Jews deported from Jerusalem doomed to assimilation in a metropolis such as Babylon was at that time.

Yet it was not only preserved, but was renewed spiritually and gave rise to a new Jewry. It was this miracle that God allowed Ezekiel to see, at a time when all of it still lay ahead. But what he saw inspired hope, the hope that what seemed to be the end of the people's historical journey was only the beginning of a new stage, leading the people directly towards the Messiah and to the threshold of the Kingdom.

Ezekiel's vision of the spiritual renewal of the people of God, of course, inspired hope in the hearts of those for whom it was intended, the deported inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is no surprise that later it was reinterpreted in the context of New Testament revelation, becoming a symbol of the universal resurrection. It is just as unsurprising that, several centuries later, a whole theology connected with the teaching about the Holy Spirit grew up around this and similar texts.

But it is still important to keep in mind that all such theological concepts belong to a completely different era and, to a certain degree, to a different tradition. The prophet speaks of the breath of God, which returns life to dead bones, making them not simply a people, but the people of God. And here before us is a prophetic or, more broadly, biblical idea of what life is, whether the life of an individual person or of an entire people, which also stood before God as a certain spiritual whole. As we can see, life here turns out to be a process that is not natural, not biological, but spiritual in the full sense of the word, at least when it concerns a human being. And this is no surprise: already at creation God "breathes" into the human being's "nostrils" (in the Hebrew text, exactly so) the breath of life, which gives the human being life. And in Ezekiel's vision He does the same thing with an entire people.

As we can see, the measure of life or, more precisely, of "aliveness" both of individual people and of whole nations is determined by the measure of the fullness of the breath of God. And that measure can vary from what belongs to the Kingdom (and here the parallel with the universal resurrection is quite appropriate, since resurrection to life presupposes entrance into the Kingdom) down to the minimum characteristic of Sheol, where only a pale shadow of life remains. And only a person's relationship with God determines how full and intense that person's life will be.

The same applies to the people of God as a whole: as we can see, by the beginning of the exile, spiritually it was a heap of bones, and this had the corresponding effect on its historical destiny. And when the spiritual life of the people regained fullness, their return to the land of their fathers became possible. But that return was preceded by another: the return to the fullness of communion with God, which happened even while the people were living in Babylon. Without it, the return to Judea would have been meaningless and, in all reality, simply impossible.

Ezekiel's vision of the spiritual renewal of the people of God certainly instilled hope in the hearts of those for whom it was intended, the deported inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is not surprising that later it was reinterpreted in the context of New Testament revelation, becoming a symbol of the universal resurrection. Nor is it surprising that a few more centuries later, around this and similar texts, a whole theology grew up connected with the teaching about the Holy Spirit. But it is still important to keep in mind that all such theological concepts belong to a completely different era and, to a certain degree, to a different tradition.

The prophet, however, speaks about the breath of God, which returns life to dead bones, making them not simply a people, but the people of God. And here before us is the prophetic, or more broadly, the common biblical idea of what life is, whether the life of an individual person or of an entire people, which also appeared before God as a certain spiritual whole. As is evident, life here turns out to be a process not natural, not biological, but spiritual in the full sense of the word, at least when the matter concerns a human being. This is not surprising: already at creation God "breathes" into man's "nostrils," exactly so in the Hebrew text, the breath of life, which gives man life. And in Ezekiel's vision He does the same thing with an entire people.

As is evident, the measure of life, or more precisely of "aliveness," both of individual people and of entire nations, is determined by the measure of the fullness of God's breath. And this measure can vary from that which is proper to the Kingdom, and here the parallel with the universal resurrection is quite appropriate, for resurrection into life presupposes entry into the Kingdom, down to the minimum characteristic of Sheol, where only a pale shadow of life remains. And only on a person's relationships with God does it depend how full and intense his life will prove to be.

The same concerns the people of God as a whole: as is evident, by the beginning of the exile, spiritually they represented a heap of bones, which showed itself accordingly in their historical fate. And when the spiritual life of the people again acquired fullness, their return to the land of the fathers also became possible. But another return preceded this return: the return to the fullness of communion with God, which took place already when the people were living in Babylon. Without it, the return to Judea would have proved meaningless and, most likely, simply impossible.

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