NOTES for Eze 40:1-49

In a prophetic vision, Jerusalem appears before Ezekiel, but this is not the city that remained in the exiles’ memory. It is the city as it must become after God’s Truth has triumphed. The thoroughness with which it is described reminds us of the detailed descriptions of the Ark of the Covenant and Solomon’s Temple on other pages of the Bible, testifying to the continuity among the different facets of Revelation and the episodes of sacred history. This verbal plan shows not only the general outlines of the structures, but also their details. The rooms are described and their dimensions are given; in short, construction could already begin according to this plan.

The opportunity to begin construction will not appear for a long time; many years of captivity still lie ahead. Yet it is not in vain that the prophet reveals to his listeners what will be realized in the distant future, and not only because time unfolds differently for God than for human beings. The building of the city in which the Temple will be erected begins in the hearts of the faithful, however far they may be from both earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem proclaimed in the Revelation of John the Theologian, which calls to mind the city described by Ezekiel.