Ezekiel 36:25-27 as the Besorah for Israel

Less than a century after the second Temple’s destruction two respected sages, R. Jose and R. Meir,¹ apparently viewed Ezekiel 36:25 as a national eschatological marker for Israel.

Our Rabbis taught: Mamzerim and Nethinim will become pure in the future:² this is R. Jose’s view. R. Meir said: They will not become pure. Said R. Jose to him: But was it not already stated, And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean? R. Meir replied, When it is added, from all your filthiness and from all your idols, [it implies] but not from bastardy. Said R. Jose to him: When it is [further] said, will I cleanse you, you must say, From bastardy too… (Kiddushin 72b³).

Evidently these sages had no doubt Ezekiel’s prophecy would literally occur prior to Israel’s Kingdom; their dispute is solely over the purifying effect. This Tannaic debate raises an arresting question when considered in the broader con- text of second-century Yeshua-faith, because by that time supersessionist tenden- cies of non-Jewish Yeshua-believers were well established.⁴

Could the Besorah of Yohanan ben Zechariah (? ßapt?st??) and Messiah Yeshua also have been based directly on Ezekiel 36:25-27?

It is nothing short of astonishing that modern commentators like Robert H. Stein candidly admit “the origin of John’s baptism is unknown.”⁵ NT evidence for the source of Yohanan’s rite is admittedly circumstantial at best⁶ and no explicit citation of Ezekiel 36:25-27 occurs. Moreover, the Church’s long-held creed of a universal water rite virtually eliminates consideration of Ezekiel’s nationally-ex- clusive purification as a literal source of the Besorah. Yet Yeshua-believing Jews, recognizing the legitimacy of long-suppressed bilateral ecclesiology,⁷ as well as the early effect of supersessionism,⁸ should have no reluctance weighing the pos- sibility that Ezekiel 36:25-27 is literally the basis for the Besorah.⁹

This paper explores the idea that Yohanan inaugurated¹⁰ Israel’s national purification, “I will throw¹¹ pure water on you and you shall be pure,” and that Messiah inaugurated the superlative Purification¹² of Israel, and ultimately of all nations, providing a new heart and a new spirit to all who repent, and giving them the indwelling Spirit.

I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your fetishes. And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you: I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh; and I will put My spirit into you. Thus I will cause you to follow My laws and faithfully to observe My rules. Then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-28) Tanakh, JPS [Emphasis added] ¹³

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