Ezekiel’s Temple Plan Draws on Babylonian Temples

Biblical translations follow NJPS, with modifications.

Ezekiel gives the length of the wall’s sides as חֲמֵשׁ אֵמוֹת קָנִים בִּקְנֵה הַמִּדָּה, “500 rods by the measuring rod” (vv. 15–20). The reference to cubits in Ezekiel 45:2, however, has led some commentators and translators to interpret the number 500 as referring to cubits, not rods, which would mean that the walls would be approximately 250 meters on each side. (See my note on Ezek 42:15–20 in The Jewish Study Bible, ed. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, 2^nd ed. [New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.])

Editor’s note: For examples of the three-part temple structure in ancient Near Eastern sanctuaries, see the discussion in Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel, “Reconstructing the Features of Solomon’s Temple,” TheTorah (2019).

Mesopotamian sources enable us to identify motifs that are analogous to contemporary Mesopotamian culture and reflect the richness of the cultural world absorbed by Ezekiel from his Babylonian surroundings.

Newly discovered archival texts of temples such as Eanna in Uruk and Ebabbar in Sippar as well as city archives of Borsippa have increased our knowledge of how Neo-Babylonian temples were structured and how they functioned. See Caroline Waerzeggers, The Ezida Temple of Borsippa: Priesthood, Cult, Archives (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2010). Topographical texts help to reconstruct the layout of Babylonian temples, shrines, gates, and courtyards. These temples were impressive in size and dominated the urban landscape. On plans of temples see A.R. George, Babylonian Topographical Texts (Leuven: Departement Oriëntalistiek, 1992).

Since some of the Babylonian texts have no clear connection to reality, it is possible that they were written, as in Ezekiel, as plans for future temples, rather than as descriptions of existing temples.

The temple continued to flourish at least until the beginning of the Persian period (the mid-sixth century B.C.E.)—in other words, precisely in the period of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Its ruins were discovered in the nineteenth century at Birs Nimrud, a site located about one hundred kilometers south of modern Bagdad and twenty kilometers south of ancient Babylon.

Although the site was excavated many years ago, only preliminary findings have been published. The findings thus reflect only a partial picture of the temple.

Babylonian priests’ ancestry was scrupulously examined, with particular emphasis placed on determining that the candidate for priesthood was the legitimate biological offspring of a temple functionary. The ideal of purity when working in the temple was common in ancient Near Eastern temples. It reflected a preoccupation with patrilineal genealogy, unblemished physiology, and ritual purity in selecting personnel. See Caroline Waerzeggers, “The Babylonian Priesthood in the Long Sixth Century BC,” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 54 (2011): 59–70; and Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

Ezekiel also includes rules about priestly physical wholeness and marital prohibitions (e.g., 44:20–22), but these are not innovations, as similar restrictions are also found in Leviticus.

The role of the Levites in the future temple may be the same as that of the non-Zadokite priests, who, like them, belong to the tribe of Levi but are not descendants of Zadok. Both groups serve as guards: the Levites as “guards of the temple compound” (44:14), and the priests as guards of “the temple” (40:45). Support for this view comes from 44:15, in light of 44:10: the Zadokites, who did guard duty while the people of Israel were deserting God, are contrasted with the Levites, who, like the non-Zadokite priests, deserted God when Israel strayed and whose service aided the idolators.

In the ancient Near East, divine abandonment of a city indicated that the deity would no longer protect or prosper the city. YHWH’s departure from the Temple thus foreshadows the subsequent fall of Jerusalem (33:21).

Babylon’s imperial rule, from 626 to 539 B.C.E., is known as the Neo-Babylonian era.

A detailed description of these findings can be found in: Tova Ganzel, Ezekiel’s Visionary Temple in Babylonian Context, BZAW 539 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021).