NOTES for Eze 37:14
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 wonder that afterward it was reinterpreted in the context of New Testament revelation and became a symbol of the general resurrection. It is just as unsurprising that several more centuries later an entire theology connected with teaching about the Holy Spirit grew up around this and similar texts. Still, it is important to keep in mind that all such theological concepts belong to a completely different age and, to a certain degree, to a different tradition. The prophet, however, 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, a general biblical understanding 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. Apparently, life here turns out to be not a natural and not a biological process, but a spiritual process in the full sense of the word, at least when it concerns a human being. This is not surprising: already at creation God "breathes" into man's "nostrils" (that is exactly how it is in the Hebrew text) the breath of life, which gives man life. And in Ezekiel's vision He does the same with an entire people. Apparently, 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 God's breath. And this measure can range from that which belongs to the Kingdom (and here the parallel with the general resurrection is entirely appropriate, since resurrection to life presupposes entry into the Kingdom) to the minimum characteristic of Sheol, where only a pale shadow of life remains. Only a person's relationship with God determines how full and intense his life will be. The same concerns the people of God as a whole: apparently, by the beginning of the exile, spiritually it was a heap of bones, and this had its corresponding effect on its historical destiny. And when the spiritual life of the people again gained fullness, their return to the land of their fathers became possible. But this return was preceded by another: a return to the fullness of communion with God, which happened while the people were still living in Babylon. Without it, the return to Judea would have been meaningless and, most likely, simply impossible.