Fragments on Ezekiel

The Powers Above and Three Righteous Men§1

1Fragments from the Catenae on Ezekiel.

“And four wings for each one” (Ezekiel 1:6). For in a sense the rational powers on high always stand: they do not sink down toward baser things, but speed along the straight and blameless path of the life that befits them.

“And they shall be on the mountains like doves” (Ezekiel 7:16). These are the blessed disciples. For they went about all the earth under heaven, speaking the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:3), and they had it as their song and their lyre.

“And if these three men, Noah and Daniel and Job, are in its midst” (Ezekiel 14:14). Since I think we must not leave the prophet’s words unexamined, come, let us say why it is that, when Noah and Job and Daniel were already dead (and perhaps even Daniel himself), he says that they will be saved by their own righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14), even though all the rest of the land, against which the sentence of death might be pronounced, is being destroyed.

Noah, Daniel, Job, and the Cedar§2

2It seems, then, that he likens to Noah those who, through faith in God, serve him well; to Daniel, those who are wise and clear-sighted; and to Job, in turn, those who please him through endurance, clearly meaning endurance in anything at all that is praised.

“And I will take from the chosen parts of the cedar, from its top” (Ezekiel 17:22). He likens to cedars, tall and most beautiful, those who are from Israel. Among them the chosen part, and, as it were, a kind of heart, was the blessed David. From him God the Father took and planted Emmanuel, who also rose up into a great cedar and received all into his own shade (Ezekiel 17:23). And so, from then on, the whole world under the sun came to know the power and authority of God, who can do all things.

For he has brought low the green tree, and has made the dry tree grow and sprout again (Ezekiel 17:24), that is, the Church from among the Gentiles, which by the devil’s…

Ordinances That Were Not Good, and Greedy Shepherds§3

3…greedy encroachments had been withered.

“And I gave them ordinances that were not good” (Ezekiel 20:25). For in so far as it bears on spiritual contemplation, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good (Romans 7:12). But in so far as it concerns the futility of the practice itself, and worship in shadows alone, the ordinances are not good; indeed they do not even bring eternal life. For no one is justified by the Law, as it is written (Galatians 3:11).

“See, you eat up the milk” (Ezekiel 34:3). For while they demanded tithes, firstfruits, and thank offerings according to the Law, and reveled wantonly in the gifts the people brought, they took no account at all of the people’s salvation.

“Is it not enough for you that you grazed on the good pasture?” (Ezekiel 34:18). For those of the blood of Levi, being learned in the Law, and with, as it were, the finest pasture…

The Shepherd and the Water§4

4…and fine, clear water, namely the instruction given through Moses, which was well able to guide them to the truth, in a way trampled the pasture and muddied the water as well (Ezekiel 34:18), setting a thick, material teaching, full of earthly impurity, before those who followed them as sheep follow rams.

“And I will raise up over them one shepherd … my servant David” (Ezekiel 34:23). That he says such things about Christ is easy to see. For when the blessed David had already died and was already lying in the tomb, the blessed Ezekiel prophesied; and God the Father made the promise as one that would come to pass in due time, not as one already fulfilled. For promises concern what is yet to be, not what has already been done.