Scholars who read very far into the textual notes in this commentary will know they sit at the feet of a master. Bringing his vast study and experience in the Hebrew text to bear on Ezekiel's writing, Dr. Allen offers a careful melding of early and recent scholarship on this complex Bible book. Readers will appreciate
- the ample current bibliography to guide serious students to the most recent major research on Ezekiel;
- technical notes providing detailed analysis of variant textual readings;
- textual judgments based on a broad understanding of the form, structure, and setting of each pericope;
- Dr. Allen's fresh translation of the Hebrew text with special consideration given to structural and exegetical concerns.
From the intriguing wheel-in-a-wheel vision of chapter 1 to the wistful lament over Israel's "doomed dynasty" in chapter 19, Dr. Allen leads us through Ezekiel's writings and challenges us to hear Ezekiel preaching to his own contemporaries. At the same time, he helps us to discover in the ancient prophet's words a spiritual affinity to issues facing our own religious world.
Recognizing that modern commentators have tended to recreate Ezekiel's text in their own image, Dr. Allen has taken a more moderate position regarding the role of Ezekiel's redactors in producing the book as it stands in our Bibles. Positing that Ezekiel himself initiated the process of literary arrangement and amplification of his writings, Dr. Allen sees the redactors not as tinkerers with the text but as disciples of the prophet who "knew him intimately and empathized with his aims."
"Overall," Dr. Allen tells us, "the attitude taken in this commentary is that of a friend of Ezekiel and his book, an honest friend but an understanding one. This empathetic attitude is perhaps an obvious one for a professor to whom the book is part of the canonical scriptures. It is also one that has been learned from several years' experience of attempting to teach Judaism from the inside to Christian classes." Then Dr. Allen comments with undeniable validity, "If the commentator does not speak up on behalf of Ezekiel and the book that bears his name, no one else will bother to do so."
As a replacement for William Brownlee's original volume on Ezekiel in the WBC series, this work comes at a time when a number of scholars have done intensive work on Ezekiel's writings. With this volume, Leslie Allen provides a new unity between the first volume and the second volume, which he wrote earlier. Updating the contributions of the late William Brownlee, this new first volume allows Dr. Allen to stand between polarized views about the text and to attempt rapprochement between them, borrowing insights from all camps. In this way he helps all of us come to a better understanding of this compelling portion of God's word.
