Ezekiel's Vision Seen Through the Eyes of a Philosophic Mystic

The stunning vision which Ezekiel reported having seen (Chapter One) gave rise to many interpretations, some attempting to explain the vision itself and some re-interpreting the vision in new and different terms. This article traces such a re-interpretation from the pen of Hoter ben Shelomo, a Jewish fifteenth-century savant from Yemen. Hoter began by rejecting the anthropomorphisms of the vision. This forced him into a symbolic interpretation in which he construed the text as a revelation of the structure of the cosmos as follows: the figure on the Throne, which is electrum from its waist upwards and fire from its waist downwards, represented the Agent Intelligence and the Universal Soul, respectively, yet taken together; the sapphire Throne represented the first Prime-Matter (the substrate of the supernal spheres), the firmament of awesome ice represented the outermost sphere. The Hayyot represented the other supernal spheres; the wings, faces, and facets representing the sum of natural causes the emanate from the spheres while the other parts of the body represented other aspects of the spheres such as their roundness, purity, and perfect motion. Finally, the Wheels represented the (spheres of the) elements. By integrating Ezekiel's vision with other texts, Hoter was able to interpret the vision as a complete cosmology. Cosmology, however, was not enough for a medieval thinker. One had, also, to account for the downward flow of divine energy (or light) as well as for the upward flow of the human soul (or spirit). Hoter thus interpreted the Hebrew word for [the radiance of the] “electrum” to represent the emanation of the Intelligences one from another. And he interpreted the general radiance and fire that surrounded the vision as representing the process by which the forms (neoplatonic Ideas) were “impressed” into matter. As to the upward flow of the human soul, Hoter taught that man must learn about the structure of the cosmos from revelations such as Ezekiel's vision and, then, he must meditate his way up the vision: from the earth to the elements, to the spheres and their characteristics, to the Prime-Matters, to the Universal Soul, and finally to the Agent Intelligence. This last was the limit of human inquiry and meditation. To meditate upon it was to achieve the highest form of knowledge available to man. It was also to have “contact” with the divine mind. In this way Ezekiel's vision was transformed into the mystic's vision; theophany became mystical worship.

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