The Science of Ezekiel's Chariot of YHWH Vision as a Synthesis of Reason and Spirit.

Introduction: The Chariot Vision (CV) of Ezekiel 1 has long been a source of fascination for exegetes. Patristic interpreters saw the individual character of the gospels reflected in the four faces of the Living Creatures and the CV as an important link between Old and New Testaments. While the focus of exegesis has largely explored the CV’s theological symbolism, its scientific significance has also attracted scholars. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) held that Ezekiel’s CV instances what might be termed ‘divine science’ as it exemplifies how rationality and revelation co-inhere. Launderville proposes a facilitation of reason by the spirit among the Israelites that connects them with both reality and the cosmic order. Using Ezekiel’s ancient context, I explore these premises and how the CV synthesizes reason and spirit and exemplifies links between rationality and revelation. Method: The thesis reviews readings of the CV within its immediate biblical context, against its background of Mesopotamian understandings of science and cosmology while critically engaging with insights of Christian patristic interpreters, notably Origen and Jerome. The style and structure of the book of Ezekiel, its relationship to the prophet and its use of rational structures in metaphor and symbol are considered. The symbolism of the CV’s Living Creatures is explored in the context of Mesopotamian astrology/astronomy and through the key link forged throughout the text between measurement and rationality as a feature of ancient mathematics and pre-science. The three-level hierarchy of the CV is investigated as an exemplar both of Maimonides’ rational revelation and Launderville’s interaction between spirit and reason. Findings: The three levels of the CV illuminate our understanding of the relationship be-tween rationality, inspiration and revelation and may therefore rightly be termed ‘divine sci-ence’. An interaction between spirit and reason are detectable in different “spheres” of the CV. In this sense, it allows the thesis to suggest a number of hermeneutical possibilities which merit scholarly consideration: (a) that the faces of the Living Creatures symbolize ra-tional and emotional dimensions of decision making; (b) that “each moved straight ahead” is an analogy for right reason; (c) that “the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels” of-fers insight into the hierarchy of reason; (d) that the vision portends the “new heart” and “new spirit” for the Israelites; (e) that the constituent elements of the Chariot Vision imply interconnectivity between cosmological, psychological, epistemological and metrologi-cal/scientific experimental domains. Conclusion: The CV is both spiritually and scientifically profound. Understanding Ezekiel’s CV as a synthesis of Reason and Spirit is not only a hermeneutically sound interpretation of its symbolism, but it also has the potential to contribute to contemporary questions regarding the unity of knowledge.