by
Damien F. Mackey
“Interpreter's Bible speaks of Ezekiel's "young admirer, Zechariah".
Fairbairn, commenting on Ezek. 21: 26, "Remove the mitre", says that Zechariah
in his attitude to the high priest Joshua "took up the matter, as it were,
where Ezekiel had left it". …”.
Cameron Mackay
That Zechariah may have been the same priest-prophet as Ezekiel was what I vaguely hinted at in the very beginning of my article:
Elihu a contemporary of the prophet Ezekiel
(4) Elihu a contemporary of the prophet Ezekiel
“The prophet Zechariah has certain likenesses to the mysterious prophet Ezekiel”.
In that article I confidently identified Ezekiel “the son of Buzi” (Ezekiel 1:3) with young Elihu “son of Barakel the Buzite”, of the Book of Job (32:2).
Then, in my next article:
Some rabbinic literature has Ezekiel as a son of Jeremiah
(4) Some rabbinic literature has Ezekiel as a son of Jeremiah
in which I further (but only tentatively) identified Ezekiel/Elihu with the Rechabite, “Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah 35:3), I was somewhat more forceful about a possible connection of this holy man (Ezekiel) with Zechariah:
In that article I also note that: “The prophet Zechariah has certain likenesses to the mysterious prophet Ezekiel”. The textual likenesses are so numerous, in fact, that one feels much inclined to factor in the priest-prophet Zechariah as being, too, the priest-prophet Ezekiel.
And, if Ezekiel is also Elihu, then we may have a patronymic connection between Elihu’s ancestor, Barachel, and Zechariah’s Berechiah (Zechariah 1:1).
and:
If Zechariah were also Ezekiel/Elihu (Jaazaniah), as I suspect, then he, as the final martyr in Jerusalem before Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:35), really did fulfil Jeremiah 35:19: ‘… shall never lack a man to stand before me’.
What I want to focus on entirely in this present article are the textual similarities between Ezekiel and Zechariah, as many have already noted.
The incredible similarities between virtually the entire Book of Nahum with various parts of Isaiah were enough to convince me, in my university thesis (2007), that Nahum (Jonah) was also the great prophet Isaiah.
See also my article:
Prophet Nahum as Isaiah Comforted
(5) Comparing Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah Styles
The usual view of things, as evidenced in Cameron Mackay’s quote above, would be to consider Zechariah, a supposed minor prophet, as simply an “admirer” of the prophet Ezekiel from a good half century later.
But I have the prophetic life of Ezekiel covering the Chaldean and Medo-Persian eras - when Zechariah taught - and potentially beyond that, into the early Maccabean times.
Let us read some of Cameron Mackay’s comparisons (1968), taken from:
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1968-4_197.pdf
ZECHARIAH IN RELATION TO EZEKIEL 40-48
by CAMERON MACKAY
MR. MACKAY'S studies in the book of Ezekiel are always fresh
and fascinating. Here the earliest "commentary" on the book
(especially on chapters 40.-48) is found in the prophecies of Zechariah.
EZEKIEL and Zechariah share century, priestly stock, and Babylonian background, but the 50 years which separate their activities make personal contact unlikely. On the orthodox view that the differences between Zech. 1-8 and 9-14 are accounted for by supposing those sections the work respectively of the young and old Zechariah, his birth would have been around 550 B.C.. when Ezekiel had been silent 20 years-a not very probable dormancy if he were still alive. What the circumstances suggest is that the minor prophet grew up in the shadow of the major's repute, and that between the Return of 538 B.C. and his mission in 520 B.C. the repatriated scion of priests studied his fellow-exile's prospectus with built-in interest in the temple, the desire of his eyes (Ezek. 24: 21) in the land of desire (Zech. 7: 14).
In fact echoes of Ezekiel found by Zechariah's commentators run into three figures. In the 18 verses from 7: 9 to 8: 12 Driver in Century Bible notes "execute judgment of truth" (Ezek. 18: 8), "hearts as an adamant stone" (3: 9; 11: 19). "they shall cry, and I will not hear" (8: 18), "no man passed through nor returned" (35: 7). "I will dwell in the midst" (43: 9), "they shall be my people,' and I will be their God" (11: 20 al.)’, "the earth shall yield her increase" (34: 27). Study of the mysterious "seven eyes" (Zech. 3: 9; 4: 10) must begin with Ezekiel's eye-spangled Chariot and seven angels (9: 2; cf. Rev. 5: 6), study of the flying roll (5 : 1) with 'Ezekiel's roll of a book (2: 9). Interpreter's Bible speaks of Ezekiel's "young admirer, Zechariah". Fairbairn, commenting on Ezek. 21: 26, "Remove the mitre", says that Zechariah in his attitude to the high priest Joshua "took up the matter, as it were. where Ezekiel had left it". Mitchell in I.C.C. regards Zech. 2: 8, "After glory he sent me", as a condensed claim of mandate corresponding to Ezekiel's, who after his inaugural vision of the Glory received the commission, "I send thee", and adds that in v. 10 "the prophet is looking forward to the fulfilment of . . . 43: 111,", while v. 13 requires that "men should greet with awful attention ... the return of Yahweh to his sanctuary, as Ezekiel describes it".
The critical disinclination to allow chaps. 9-14 to the contemporary of Haggai leaves unaffected their Ezekielian background, now indeed even more marked-not surprisingly as the concern shifts from the day of small things (4: 10) to that of the King of all the earth (14: 9). The oracles against Phoenicia (9: 2-4), Egypt (10: 11), goodly cedars (11: If.), shepherds (11: 15-17), and professional prophets (B: 2-4), the symbolism of the two sticks (11: 7-14), the going forth of Jehovah with earthquake to fight against the nations (12: 9; 14: 3ff.) are immediately reminiscent of the earlier seer. The seemingly superfluous note that the Mount of Olives "is before Jerusalem on the east" (14: 4) is a reminder that there the departing Glory lingered (Ezek. 11: 23) and from the east it would return (43: 2). The emphasis on David's house (12: 7-13: 1) recalls the focusing of Ezekiel's hopes on "David", and the associated introduction of Levites their position in the oblation of 40-48. The fountain for sin (13: 1) and the living waters summer and winter (14: 8) are generally regarded as dependent on the "clean water" of 'Ezek. 36: 25 plus the sanctuary river of 47, while 13: 2, according to I.C.C., is, once again, "simply summarising Ezekiel". For chaps. 9-14, on which the New Testament imprimatur is so marked, the date question may here be left aside, particularly in face of a recent finding that no definite dating can be achieved and that it is more useful to concentrate on the contents. ….
Our present interest is in the relation of Ezek 40-48 to the book of Zechariah as it stands, wherein the first part encourages the immediately practicable work as prelude to the vista enlarged on in the second part. The repatriates had rebuilt the altar on Moriah without, it is clear from Ezra 3, idea of acting on Ezekiel's directions: they followed the laws of 'Moses, including sons of Ithamar, i.e. non-Zadokites, in the priesthood (8: 2), retaining evening sacrifice (et. 46: 13-15) and all the set feasts. But adversaries. foreigners deported to Samaria, halted the work on the temple. Then Darius in his second year authorized its restart, but the Jews were now murmuring. "The time is not come for the Lord's house to be built" (Hag. 1: 2). Among 'the causes of their discouragement commentators point to the contrast of their plight with the glowing promises of Second Isaiah. But Zechariah's contemporaries would have thought more generally of "the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets" (7: 12). and the evidence detailed above suggests that Ezekiel as much as, or more than, Isaiah provided the disheartening contrast.
Zechariah's task was to encourage his community to go ahead as they had 'begun, both with construction plans and sacerdotal …. Right away, connection with the temple-vision is made in the reappearance of a distinctive feature characteristic of Zechariah's visions, the intermediary angel who acts as instructor and guide …. In 1: 16 the angel conveys assurance that God's house shall be built in Jerusalem and a measuring line stretched over that city. Yet when a young man goes out with line to measure Jerusalem he is rebuked for setting his sights too low (2: 1-5). …. The repatriated community may well have been a microcosm of the various views later held about the plan, and the young enthusiast as a supporter of the cubit theory could have been investigating the possibilities of a city 11 miles square with the sanctuary portion transposed so that temple might adjoin city.
Reminiscence of the earlier seer is apparent both in the angel's words and in the attached oracle (vv. 6-13) which we have seen interpreted by Mitchell as continuing Ezekiel's mandate and looking to the fulfilment of 43: Iff. Driver here notes as echoes "villages without walls" (38: 11). "I will be the glory in the midst of her" (43: 2-5), "1 have spread you abroad" (17: 21). ''they shall be a spoil to those that served them" (39: 10), and his, "I will dwell in the midst of thee" (43: 9). …. In consonance the final chapter repeats in "Jerusalem shall dwell securely" (v. 11) a favourite Ezekielian phrase used of those dwelling in unwalled villages on the mountains of Israel (3S: S. 11). In reeds Ezekiel's oblation is some 50 miles square-a city, like Greater Nineveh with its much cattle, of three days' journey (Jonah 3: 3; 4: Il) …. Such emulation is indicated in Zech. 12: 6f. and 14: 10, where Jerusalem is to "dwell in her place" or "be inhabited 0n her site", curiously specified in the former passage as "in Jerusalem". The tautology is explicable if the prophet is envisaging an enlarged Jerusalem wherein the historical city is to retain its pre-eminence. ….
[End of quotes]
And there are many more such comparisons to be read as Cameron Mackay’s article continues.
But he is by no means the only one to have observed such likenesses between the text of Ezekiel and that of the Book of Zechariah.
See also, for example:
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC85605
An abundance of living waters: The intertextual relationship between Zechariah 14:8 and Ezekiel 47:1-12
M D Terblanche (UFS)
ABSTRACT
Zechariah 14:8 and Ezekiel 47:1-12 have more in common than an allusion to a common stock of images. Consequently our understanding of Zechariah 14:8 can be fruitfully informed by the perspectives of the study of intertextuality. This paper considers the question whether the author of Zechariah 14:8 wanted to replace Ezekiel 47:1-12. He seemingly assumes that the reader is acquainted with the latter text. Although one cannot speak of the displacement of Ezekiel 47:1-12, Zechariah 14:1-15 seems to be a commentary on the former text. The author of Zechariah 14:1-15 deems the transformation of the known natural order vital for the fulfilment of the expectations raised by Ezekiel 47:1-12.
….
https://www.prophecyproof.org/ezekiel-7-vs-zechariah-122-end-times/
Ezekiel 7 vs Zechariah 12:2: End Times Comparison
(5) ZECHARIAH'S SPIES AND EZEKIEL'S CHERUBIM
ZECHARIAH'S SPIES AND EZEKIEL'S CHERUBIM
By Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer
1. Introduction
There are many literary links between Zechariah’s vision report (Zech 1:7–6:8) and the book of Ezekiel. This study focuses on but one of these links, namely the similarity between the various descriptions of the cherubim in the book of Ezekiel and the description of the horses and the riders in Zechariah’s vision report. As this study will show, the overall similarity, both graphic and conceptual, between these descriptions
suggests that Ezekiel’s portrayal of the cherubim influenced the literary representations of the horses in Zechariah’s vision report.
I shall begin by determining the likelihood that the author of Zechariah’s vision report was familiar with the book of Ezekiel.
Thereafter, I shall address two general parallels between Ezekiel’s cherubim and Zechariah’s horses and riders: (1) the shared setting of both groups, that is, the heavenly court and the divine council, and (2) the shared task of both groups, namely, to function as God’s military servants who execute his commands. Turning then to the more specific aspects of comparison, I shall first discuss three visual and conceptual points of contact between the description of Ezekiel’s cherubim and that of Zechariah’s patrols:
The concept of God’s spirit/wind,
The concept of chariots,
The word “eyes.”
Secondly, using the book of Job as a third element of comparison, we shall look at the shared theme of God’s rebelling scout: The satan of Job, the patrols of Zechariah, and the cherubim of Ezekiel are all patrolling forces who report their findings to the heavenly council. All three texts contain either the outright idea of a “fallen” member of the heavenly council (the cherub in Ezek 28:14) or the seed to such a thought (the satan in Job 1–2 and Zech 3:1–2).
Lastly, we shall compare the attitude towards the high priest found in Ezek 28:11–19 and Zech 3.
