Both of the prophets from the time of the captivity, Ezekiel and Daniel, belong to the visionary figures of the apocryphal literature. Jewish esoteric literature is particularly preoccupied with the phenomena surrounding Ezekiel's call. If Jeremiah could in a way be said to have been Jerusalem's Minister of the Interior, Ezekiel would be in the service of the Foreign Office, following from far off Babylon what was happening to the Holy City. As a "seer" he made his news known to his audience on the same day, even though there was of course no radio. It is worth comparing Ezekiel 24:1--2, 2 Kings 25:1 and Jeremiah 39:1 and 52:4. Ezekiel received his call and vision in his own house on the banks of the Kebar river in the year 593 BC and functioned as a prophet for 20 years.

Ezekiel's Messianic message

is largely found in chapters 33--39. The people once dispersed will once again gather together like "dry bones", and God will breath his spirit into them (chap.37). Ezekiel was the Old Testament's most "priestly" prophet; small wonder, then, that he devotes many chapters (40--48) to the description of the future temple and its symbolic sacrificial rites. His prophecy also contains much that is of consolation to the thirsty soul (eg.  chap.34).

Ezekiel describes the Messiah as a "shoot from the very top of a cedar", which the Lord will break off and plant in the soil of Israel (17:22--24). "Birds of every kind" will come and nest "in the shade of its branches" (comp. Matt. 13:32). Once again the message of this chapter proves to have its own historical background: the prophet is forced to give an "allegory" and a "parable". A great eagle, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (605--562), comes to "Lebanon", symbolising Jerusalem in the Jewish literature, and takes from it "the topmost shoot", in other words King Jehoiachin, who had reigned for only three months or so, and carries him off to "a city of traders". Some of the "seed of the land", King Zedekiah, is taken away and sprouts into a vine. It should have turned "towards the eagle" but it sends out its roots towards another great eagle, the Egyptian Pharaoh, even though Jeremiah has warned it about that. But "will he break the treaty and yet escape?" asks Ezekiel, and so Nebuchadnezzar carries off Zedekiah to Babylon and ultimately conquers Egypt too (582 BC). Still, God once more takes a "shoot", and a "tender sprig" from which a "splendid cedar" will grow on the mountains of Israel, in the branches of which all the peoples will build their nests. RaSHI and the Metsudat David, among others, see the "Messiah-King" in this figure and a prophecy which will be fulfilled in the "days of the Messiah".

Ezekiel speaks of the fact that in the age of the Messiah the people will have "one heart" (comp. Acts 4:32 and Jer.32:39):

"I will gather you from the nations...  I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees an be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God (11:17--20).

"As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, 'Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.' My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. When all this comes true -- and it surely will -- then they will know that a prophet has been among them."

"I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. I will make a covenant of peace with them... (34:23--25)." "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd...  David my servant will be their prince for ever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant" (37:24--26).

Ezekiel 36:25--27 also refers to chapter 11's "heart operation" which was mentioned earlier:

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you..."

A further mystical aspect, which the Rabbis almost always associate with the Messianic crisis in the latter days, is concerned with the so-called War of Gog and Magog and the disarmament which is to follow it (chaps 38--39). There is almost a modern ring to these descriptions. First chapter 37 describes the people of Israel who have been raised almost like "dry bones" from their graves and taken back to their own land, then chapter 38 relates how the peoples of the north will "arm themselves" against them. This will take place "in days to come" (v. 16). But when they are attacked "there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel" and "the mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble...  and I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulphur" on the attackers. Chapter 39 tells us that when the war has come to an end "those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel", which will supply them for seven years, and "men will be regularly employed to cleanse the land". "At the end of seven months [of burying the dead invaders] they will begin their search". The chapter concludes with the promise: "I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel." There are frequent references in the Talmud and particularly in the later Midrash to these events of the Last Days as signs of the coming of the Messiah (cf. the question in Matt. 24:3).

There is also a cryptic prophecy, in the middle of the chapters which describe the future Temple (40--48), about the East Gate "which was shut". These verses (at the beginning of chapter 44) hold great interest for the Jewish expositors, as they see in them a reference to the Messiah:

"The LORD said to me, 'This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no-one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD."

It may be that these mystical features are illustrative of a general expectation that the Messiah would come and occupy his temple. Perhaps Haggai 2:9 also speaks of this hope when it says that "the glory of the present house will be greater than the glory of the former". There is a current of thought in Islam concerning this Eastern or Golden Gate, that when "Issa" -- Jesus -- returns the gate will be opened. Since, however, it has apparently been closed only from the year 1530 AD, Ezekiel could hardly have meant that. It must simply be conceded that even in Jewish Messianic expectation there are features for which no solution has been found. Still they should not be brushed aside in trying to give an account of Rabbinic thought. The Christian ought simply to remember that Jesus himself steered clear of political and other peripheral issues, concentrating in the first place on his office as Redeemer. Ezekiel's main contribution is related to what he says about the Messiah as the Good Shepherd and to his promise of the people's spiritual renewal.

Daniel

is The other great prophet of the exile. He was apparently taken into captivity along with Ezekiel in the deportation of 605 BC and was active from his early youth for 65 years up to at least the "first year of King Cyrus' reign", 537 BC. The neo-platonic philosopher Porphyros claimed at the turn of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD regarding the date of composition of the book of Daniel that it was not written until the time of the Maccabean rebellion ca. 160 BC. Nevertheless, Daniel's Hebrew is closely related to that of Ezekiel, and its Aramaic chapters (2:4b--7:28) are at the latest from the year 300 BC. One of the Aramaic Qumran manuscripts, the "Genesis Apocryphon" (ca. 150--100 BC), differs markedly from the Aramaic of Daniel in its syntax, word-order, vocabulary and orthography, as Professor Gleason L. Archer and others have shown. The complete absence of Greek loan-words, with the exceptions of the three musical instruments, which were most likely part of an international vocabulary, also points to a time before the empire of Alexander the Great (356--323 BC).³⁹ Josephus has left us an interesting anecdote in his History: It was said that Alexander had visited Jerusalem after his conquest of Egypt and that the High Priest in all his splendour had come out to receive him. When Alexander bowed down before the High Priest he was asked why he did so. He said in reply that he was actually bowing to God, of whom the High Priest was the representative, and that while still in Macedonia he had had a dream of this meeting. Then the King "was shown from the book of Daniel the passage where it says that a certain Greek will come to destroy the whole Persian empire", and Alexander is said to have guessed that it referred to him. ⁴⁰

The question as to whether Moses or Isaiah, for example, are the actual authors of the books which go by their names is not of central importance. Isaiah himself was given the charge to "bind up the testimony" and to "seal up the law among his disciples" (8:16). The scribe Baruch worked as amanuensis to Jeremiah, and had to write all over again the scroll which King Jehoiakim had burned four columns at a time in the firepot of his winter appartments (chap. 36). What Baruch says of Jeremiah is, however, typical even of that time: "He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll" (v 18). Both Elisha and Elijah too had their own disciple-prophets. There is nothing to stop us from thinking that all of Daniel's prophecies are actually from his mouth and that his "school" preserved them in writing at a very early stage.

What Daniel has to say about the Messiah culminates in his vision of the figure "like a Son of Man, coming with the clouds". RaSHI says quite straightforwardly of this that "He is the Messiah-King". The Metsudat David similarly understands that "this refers to the Messiah-King". Daniel 7:9 speaks in the plural of "thrones", understood by Rabbi  .Aqiba in his day as intended for God and the Messiah, and then the picture continues from v.13:

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

Daniel's specific discussion of the Messiah centres around
a) The words of 2:22:

"He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him."

" 'Light dwells with him'; this is the Messiah-King, for it is written: 'Arise, shine, for your light has come' " (Is. 60:1).⁴¹

b) The most far-ranging discussion related to the Messiah is found in the interpretation of the 'Son of Man' concept in chapter 7, albeit fragmented throughout the vast Jewish literature. We saw earlier how this phrase is accepted as an epithet for the Messiah even in Jewish quarters. Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882--942 AD), considered one of the foremost teachers of his time, explains that "He is the Messiah Our Righteousness; and is it not of the Messiah that it is written, 'he is humble and rides on a donkey'? He will come humbly, not proudly on horseback. Regarding the 'coming with the clouds', this concerns the host of the heavenly angels; and here is the greatness which the Creator will grant the Messiah."⁴³

c) The third aspect of the Messianic discussion is centred around the words of chapter 9 which speak of the time of the Messiah's coming and how "sin will be put to an end," how the "Anointed One", the Messiah, will be put to death, and the "city and the sanctuary" will be destroyed. This has already been discussed earlier.

d) Daniel also speaks of the resurrection hope:

"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt... " (12:2--3).

e) The book of Daniel has also given great impetus to the eschatological expectation of the Last Days, in which connection the Jews often speak of the Messiah.

One kind of "common denominator" useful when dating Daniel is the phrase "the God of heaven", who will set up the kingdom, or the mention of the "King of heaven", to whom, for example, Nebuchadnezzar prayed when he had recovered from his mental illness (2:44 and 4:37).⁴⁴ This phrase was apparently current in Babylon at precisely the time spoken of in Daniel.⁴⁵ In the Far East there is much discussed of whether the oldest religion in China was a belief in the "God of heaven". In the famous National Palace museum in Taipei there is on display a Chinese model of a simple 8-stepped stone altar at which in its day the "God of heaven" was worshipped, and which nowadays is continually surrounded by a band of curious enquirers. This would form an interesting subject for some young researcher.
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39.    Gleason L. Archer Jr., Das Hebräische im Buch Daniel verglichen mit den Schriften der Sekte von Qumran, Basel 1972, or K.A. Kitchen, The Aramaic of Daniel, Bibel und Gemeinde 1965, 4; 77, p414.
40.    See Antiquities of Jews, XI; 8,5.
41.    Bereshit Rabbah, parasha 1.
42.    Midrash Eicha Rabbah, end of parasha 1. Note Nehira/nehora
43.    Mikraoth Gedoloth corr. sect. and Sanhedrin 98a. Comp. Mark 8:38 or Matt. 16:27
44.    See eg. 2 Chron 36:23, Ezra 1:2, Nehemiah 1:4,5 and 2:4 or Jonah 1:9 and the words of Abraham to his chief servant in Gen 24:3.
45.    Also of interest is the extensive study of C.H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson, The Discovery of Genesis ... in the Chinese Language, Concordia House, St. Louis 1979, 139pp.