The Ezekiel-Hitler Connection
Reading the Bible is always intriguing, though the book's writing style feels sometimes dry like a ship register, or cadastre. Not so, if you read Ezekiel. His style excells by sheer vivacity, in particular when trying to describe the arrival of the Cherubim- strange double-winged and multi-faced angel entities. Nowhere else in the Bible can we find a similar description. To find experiences vaguely comparable, one has to dig deep in other cultures, such as Tantric Buddhism.
Reading can be a strange experience, and may lead to entirely unsuspected connections of persons, ideas and minds. When reading Ezekiel in an old Lutheran Bible, I did not feel God, or Jesus, but somebody else instead: Adolph Hitler. Through the sound of the Lutheran Bible text, I almost could hear Hitler speak in his terrible political tirades and speeches, particularly those of his earlier years.
I got interested in that line of thought, and decided to dig a little deeper. Not surprisingly, other authors have hit the same golden vein ahead of me, and there are quite a number of obscure and weird websites around.
Ezekiel is one of the more elaborate writers of the Bible, but at least some researchers believe texts have been (apo-cryphically) re-composed or edited. According to a below cited wikipedia.org article:
“There have been a number of debates that have surrounded this book over the centuries. Until the twentieth century, most Ezekiel scholars were primarily interested in discussing whether the Book of Ezekiel should be included in the Biblical canon. There was apparently some concern that 'unlearned' Jews or Christians might misinterpret the book. For a time, the first chapter was not to be read in synagogues and the private reading of the prophecy was not allowed until a person's 30th birthday.
In 1924, Gustav Hoelscher questioned the authorship of Ezekiel, challenging the conventional wisdom that the book was written by one person and expresses one train of thought and style, and arguing instead that 1,103 of the verses in Ezekiel were added at a later date.
Since then, the academic community has been split into a number of different camps over the authorship of the book. W. Zimmerli proposes that Ezekiel's original message was influenced by a later school that added a deeper understanding to the prophecies. Other groups, like the one led by M. Greenberg, still tend to see the majority of the work of the book done by Ezekiel himself.
Ezekiel's writing is made up of three distinct levels: an oracle, a continuation and a closing oracle. The first two are related in their writing style and are both attributed to Ezekiel himself. The third, however, tends to be different from the first two, and as such is attributed to others who were interested in preserving and updating his work.
The book does show many examples of editing done over a period of time, but it is unclear if it's by Ezekiel or others. Most of this work was simply rearranging the order of the oracles to fit the time period to which they applied.
The book of Ezekiel is a record of the prophesying of Ezekiel who delivered these oracles and prophecies orally at first. Most people accept that Ezekiel did play a part in the written record of these visions, possibly with the help of scribes or followers. Ezekiel's writing is one of the most sophisticated of all of the Old Testament Prophets. This stems from his training as a priest for the temple, as well as his experience in ministering to the elite members of the nation of Judah.”
So-far, the view of wikipedia.org.
Most of Ezekiel’s chapter do offer a dialogue between God and the author, and primarily portray the defilement of the 6th century B. C Israel, such as shown here in chapter 8:
“1. It came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], on the fifth of the month, that I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judea were sitting before me, and the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.
2. And I saw, and behold, a likeness like the appearance of fire; from the appearance of its loins and below-fire, and from its loins and above-like an appearance of splendor, like the color of chashmal.
3. And it stretched out a form of a hand, and it took me by a lock of my hair, and a wind picked me up between the earth and between the heaven, and it brought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, whereat was the seat of the image of jealousy that provokes jealousy
4. And behold, there was the glory of the God of Israel, like the appearance that I saw in the plain.
5. Then He said to me, "Now lift your eyes northward," and I lifted my eyes northward, and behold from the north of the gate of the altar was this image of jealousy at the entrance.
6. And He said to me, "Do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel is doing here are to cause Me to distance Myself from upon My sanctuary; and you will yet return and see great abominations."
7. Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and I saw, and behold, a hole in the wall.
8. And He said to me, "Son of man, dig now in the wall," and I dug in the wall, and behold, an entrance.
9. And He said to me, "Come and see the evil abominations that they are doing here."
10. And I came and saw, and behold, every form of creeping thing and animal of detestation and all the idols of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall around and around!
11. And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan was standing among them, standing before them, and each man with his censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense was ascending.
12. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each one in his paved chambers? For they say, 'The Lord does not see us; the Lord has left the earth.' "
13. And He said to me, "You will yet see again greater abominations that they are doing."
Ezekiel, chapter 8
At first sight there seems to be little in common between the Ezekiel, the prophet of the Bible (and also Christianity, and yes, Islam), of around 592 B. C, and Adolph Hitler, the fanatic political leader of Germany, and partial mastermind of the Jewish mass-murder, that occurred 1933-1945 A.D.
On a second glance, there are striking similarities on both personal as well as socio-political levels. These are:
· Both men lived during times of defilement, and loss of both heritage and cultural/political power (Ezekiel: The kingdom of Israel just before the fall, the Nation of Israel enslaved in Babylon; Hitler: The weakened Germany after WWII, strongly confined and inhibited in foreign relations, trade, military strength in view of the Versailles Treaty).
· Both men conveyed a picture of a wrathful God destroying the Jewish Nation.
· Both men strongly believed in portraying the future as a function of fate (Hitler’s ‘Vorsehung’).
· There are strong stylish similarities between Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’ his speeches and Ezekiel’s chapters. In particular, the divine wrath in Ezekiel’s endless repetitive talks of misery, and punishment frankly look as blue-prints of Hitler’s. Both authors like to bath in terrible details and haughty self-righteousness.
· Drugs and craziness. Ezekiel is suspected to have suffered from inner-lobe epilepsy, but it is difficult to get farther-reaching medical evidence for that opinion. Hitler spent most of his public years with drugs (morphine, etc), had seizures of manic depression (a popular joke in post-war II Germany was which of his carpets Hitler wanted to bite-on and to eat as daily diet).
Some of these mental anomalies can be traced back to WW I. According to wikipedia.org:
“On October 15, 1918 Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a poison gas attack. The English psychologist David Lewis and Bernhard Horstmann indicate the blindness may have been the result of a conversion disorder (then known as hysteria). Hitler said it was during this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to "save Germany". Some scholars, notably Lucy Dawidowicz, argue that an intention to exterminate Europe's Jews was fully formed in Hitler's mind at this time, though he probably hadn't thought through how it could be done.”
Two passages in ‘Mein Kampf’ mention the use of poison gas:
“At the beginning of the Great War, or even during the War, if twelve or fifteen thousand of these Jews who were corrupting the nation had been forced to submit to poison-gas ... then the millions of sacrifices made at the front would not have been in vain. (Volume 2, Chapter 15 "The Right to Self-Defence").
“These tactics are based on an accurate estimation of human weakness and must lead to success, with almost mathematical certainty, unless the other side also learns how to fight poison gas with poison gas. The weaker natures must be told that here it is a case of to be or not to be. (Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Years of Study and Suffering in Vienna")”
· Both men projected a potential future-of-glory: Ezekiel’s time of the New Temple, and Hitler’s of the coming 1000 years of the “Third Reich.”
· Both Ezekiel’s God and Hitler were minds largely molded by anger.
It’s about killing, exterminating, and slaughtering. Please find a few Ezekiel citations below. These are full of God’s anger:
Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hearken to the word of the Lord God. So said the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the desolate ruins and to the deserted cities, which became a scorn and a mockery to the remnant of the nations that are around.
5. Therefore, so said the Lord God: Surely with the fire of My anger I spoke about the remnant of the nations and about Edom in its entirety, who appointed My land for themselves as an inheritance with the joy of every heart, with disdain of soul, because her expulsion was for plunder.
6. Therefore, prophesy concerning the soil of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, So said the Lord God: Behold I have spoken with My anger and with My fury because you have borne the disgrace of the nations.
7. Therefore, so said the Lord God: I have raised My hand; surely the nations that are around you-they will bear their disgrace.
Ezekiel, Chapter 36
The word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2. "As for you, son of man, so said the Lord God: 'To the soil of Israel, an end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
3. Now the end is upon you, and I shall send forth My wrath upon you and judge you according to your ways, and I shall repay you for all your abominations.
4. And My eye will not spare you, and I shall not have pity, for I shall place your ways upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst, and you will know that I am the Lord.'
5. So said the Lord God: An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes.
6. An end has come; the end has come, it has awakened against you; behold, it comes.
7. The dawn has set against you, O dweller of the land; the time has come; the day is near, confusion and not the shout of the mountains.
8. Now, speedily I shall pour out My fury upon you, and I shall spend My wrath in you, and I shall judge you according to your ways, and I shall place upon you all your abominations.
9. And My eye will not spare, and I shall not pity. According to your ways I shall place upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst; and you will know that I, the Lord, am smiting.
Ezekiel, Chapter 7
And:
36. I shall pour out My fury upon you; with the fire of My wrath I shall blow upon you and deliver you into the hand of brutish men, craftsmen of destruction.
37. You shall be fuel for the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall not be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken."
Ezekiel, Chapter 21
And now Adolph Hitler:
Thus did I now believe that I must act in the service of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jews I am doing the Lord’s work." ~Adolph Hitler. ‘My Struggle’.
Some of Ezekiel’s writing is outright strange, as highlighted in the following passage.
“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2. "Son of man, you are dwelling in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.
3. And you, son of man, make yourself implements for exile, and go into exile day by day before their eyes, and you shall go into exile from your place to another place before their eyes; perhaps they will see, for a rebellious house are they.
4. And you shall bring out your implements as implements for exile day by day before their eyes, and you shall go out in the evening before their eyes like the departures of exile.
5. Before their eyes, dig for yourself in the wall, and bring out through it.
6. Before their eyes, on [your] shoulder you shall carry; in the dark you shall bring [them] out; you shall cover your face and not see the earth, for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.
7. And I did so, as I was commanded; I brought out my implements as implements for exile, from day to day, and in the evening I dug for myself in the wall by hand. In the darkness, I brought [them] out; on [my] shoulder I carried [them] before their eyes.”
Ezekiel, chapter 12.
In the end, I’m not really interested, if the intellectual stinker of Hitler copied Ezekiel, or only shared/developed a similar worrying religious landscape plus some angry world view.
The central question I’m asking deals with the authenticity of the word of God. Too much depends on it – this question must not be neglected, or worse, left in the hands of fanatics and murderers.
And this is where we should compare Ezekiel’s text with other texts. Not coming as a surprise, the Word of God as portrayed in the Bible is mostly sharp, short, succinct and often cryptic. Catholic priests/researchers commissioned to verify supposed appearances of the Virgin Mary, seem to paint a similar picture: The Virgin Mary is not talkative, but short, sharp and powerful in her (few) messages.
Can Ezekiel have broadcasted the Word of God, or was he only a talented, intellectual, yet epileptic fanatic? I have my opinion, but the judgment is up to you!
http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=16134
www.wikipedia.org
© 2007 by Franz L Kessler
