Thoughts on Ezekiel's Temple

There is some dispute as to the identity of the temple described in Ezekiel chapters 40-47. Chapters 40-42 describe the physical structure of the temple, chapters 43-47 describes laws and activities associated with the temple. Here are some of the ideas as to the identity of this temple: it is 1) a literal temple yet to be built, 2) Zerubbabel’s temple, built after the return from captivity, 3) a figurative temple, and 4) an ideal temple that has not and will not exist. The identification of the temple is important, for not only does it pertain to eschatology, the description of the temple and its activities includes animal sacrifices (such as in Ezekiel 40:38, 43:18-27, 44:27, 45:18-25). The question then arises: if the temple in Ezekiel is a literal temple that will be built in the future, are sacrifices a necessary part of worship in the future? Some people cite these passages as evidence that ceremonial laws in the Torah will be followed in the future and so should be followed today as well.

Ironically, pointing out that Ezekiel’s temple involves sacrifices should be cited as evidence that it is not a temple that will be built in the future. Hebrews 10 compares sacrifices in the Old Testament law to Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Verses 10-12 compare the old sacrifices, which were performed every year because they could not take away sins, to Jesus’s sacrifice, which paid for sins once for all. Verse 18 sums it up, “Now where remission of these [sins] is, there is no more offering for sin.” The point is, because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, there is no need, no purpose, for sin sacrifices. So rather than citing Ezekiel’s temple as evidence that sacrifices will be performed in the future, the fact that sacrifices have no purpose after Christ’s death and resurrection means that Ezekiel’s temple was not and will not be built after Christ’s death and resurrection.

There is another verse which also shows that Ezekiel’s temple could not exist after Christ’s resurrection. This is Ezekiel 44:9, which says that no one uncircumcised in the flesh can enter in the sanctuary of the temple. Yet, I Cor. 7:19 and Gal. 5:6, 6:15 all say that circumcision is nothing, it has no importance to Christ. If circumcision has no importance in Christ, and if there is only one way to God, and that is through Christ, then a temple to worship God can not exclude those who are uncircumcised.

Since the rules of worship for Ezekiel’s temple include sin sacrifices and exclusion of the uncircumcised, Ezekiel’s temple could not have been built after Christ’s resurrection, and so it will not be built in the future. What then is the identity of Ezekiel’s temple?

There is an interesting connection between Ezekiel’s temple and Zerrubbabel’s temple, the temple that was built after the return from captivity. Ezekiel says that the sons of Zadok shall be priests in the temple (Ezekiel 40:46, 43:19, 44:15). Ezra was a priest restoring the law and worship in the temple after the return from captivity. Ezra is descended from Zadok (compare I Chr. 6:3-15 to Ezra 7:1-5), the same Zadok who was priest during David’s reign (I Chr. 18:16) and whose descendents were priests in Solomon’s temple (I Chr. 6:8-10) and were priests during Hezekiah’s reign (II Chr. 31:10), which indicates they were faithful to God up to the conquest of Judah.

The connection between the sons of Zadok being priests in Ezekiel’s temple and Ezra being a descendant of Zadok indicates that Ezekiel’s temple and Zerrubbabel’s temple are one and the same. There is an objection to this idea: the dimensions of Zerrubbabel’s temple does not match the dimensions given in Ezekiel. A partial answer to this objection may be derived from Ezekiel 43:10. In this verse, God instructs Ezekiel to give the pattern of the temple to Israel. Perhaps the dimensions given in Ezekiel are not a prophecy of a temple but a blueprint for a temple, a blueprint which was never fully obeyed by Israel. It should also be pointed out that not everything in Ezekiel’s description of the temple is literal. For example, Ezekiel 47:1-12 describes a river flowing from the temple that will heal anything it comes in contact with. So perhaps Zerrubbabel’s temple is Ezekiel’s temple in imperfect form with the figurative parts removed. Whatever Ezekiel’s temple is, based on the previous discussion of sacrifices and circumcision, we know that it not something that will be built in the future.