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Ezekiel 37: The Book of Mormon, History and Archaeology

Research by Kerry A. Shirts

8/5/01 Updated - A Note: I had a long knock down drag out with an Evangelical Christian on a message board which I researched heavily into this theme of Ezekiel. I present my notes at the end of this article below. MANY new sources used and the whole idea brought sharper into focus. A most interesting thing this chapter in Ezekiel!

The Latter Day Saints believe that Ezekiel 37 is a prophecy about the Book of Mormon (BofM hereafter). Now that the claim is made, what about the evidence? Is the LDS view of the context as well as what Ezekiel says (not what scholars say they *think* he says) correct? We LDS think it is, but now it's time to take a closer look at just what is going on.

The most exhaustive analysis of Ezekiel 37 that has appeared in print is Hugh Nibley's articles in the "Improvement Era" entitled "The Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph", ("IE", Jan 1953-May 1953) Keith Meservy has also written on this theme with ancient Mesoptamian and Babylonian writing boards in mind. His article "Ezekiel's Sticks" in the "Ensign", Sept. 1977 caught the attention of one Brian Keck, who rejoined with his "Ezekiel 37, Sticks, and Babylonian Writing Boards: A Critical Reappraisal" in "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought" (I don't have the exact reference, darn it! I have the article, but when I copied it years ago I neglected to write which issue this came from - sorry!) These as well as other sources I will use in this essay to shore up the argument that Ezekiel 37 is about the BofM.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO EZEKIEL 37

The message and theme of Ezekiel 37 is that of the great final gathering of the Lord's people into a holy nation, united forever under the scepter of the rightful king, God's anointed, with the sanctuary of the Lord forever in their midst (Vv. 21-28). In the first half of the chapter, the dry bones represent Israel that has lost hope of ever becoming a nation again, as is clear with the Bible commentators. The "Interpreter's Bible" notes that "...there is nothing to prevent our thinking of this valley of dry bones as an actual battlefield. On this very spot ineffectual resistance has been offered to the invader *and the nations hopes have been dashed.*"(Vol. 6, p. 267 - my emphasis). Interestingly, it also notes that bones actually are the soul in this idea here in Ezekiel. The bones are dry and not strong, hence the nation - and the soul - of Israel are dead. The "Wycliffe Bible Commentary" likewise notes that "These bones are the whole house of Israel (both Israel and Judah) whose survivors say *our hope is lost* (p. 754 - emphasis in the original). And so it goes...

Professor Driver observed that God can restore the dead nation to life and plant it again in its old home. And in fact, points out what most scholars overlook, that the uniting of the sticks to represent (as the prophet explains Vv. 20-22) the reuniting of the nation as a necessary part of the picture. (S.R. Driver, "Einleitung in die Litteratur des Alten Testaments, trs. Rothstein (Berlin, 1896, p. 311 - cited in Nibley - "The Stick of Judah and Joseph, "IE", Feb. 1953, p. 90). Rabbi Fisch has confirmed this basic interpretation. (Fisch - "Ezekiel", p. 249, "The prediction of national resurrection, as symbolized in the vision of the dry bones, is followed by the symbolic action of the reunion of the two kingdoms to indicate that unity is an essential factor in preserving the life of the nation." cited by Nibley "Ibid").

The ancient idea that Ezekiel is hitting on in this chapter is that of the national assemblies of Israel, which had their counterpart in every nation in the ancient world (of which, also, the assembly in King Benjamin's Speech gathering in the BofM is a prime example, par excellence).

Whether in the Germanic North, the meeting at the holy "logberg" - mountain of law - in the center of a stone circle where the four quarters of the island met, or at the Persian Nauroz, similar to the ancient practices described in the Avesta and the Vedas, nay at hundreds of shrines, each believed to mark the exact center of the universe and represented as the point at which the four quarters of the earth converged - the navel of the earth - we see the mighty great assemblies of the nations - vast concourses of people, each thought to represent the entire human race in the presence of all its ancestors and gods. (Nibley - "The Hierocentric State", in the "Western Political Quarterly", 4/2 (1951): 226f). And, of course, the central feature of these great gatherings of the human race, was the enthronement of the king, who represented the Heavenly King and his right to rule. The various nations and tribes gathering at these assemblies were represented individually and collectively by rods or sticks.

Lord Raglan in his general treatment of this phenomenon ("The Origins of Religion," Thinker's Library, 1945) as well as Professor Martin P. Nilsson, "Geschichte der griechischen Religion", 2 Vols. (Munich: Beck, 1941; 1:778-79), has noted this interesting situation with the "pangyris", the great assembly gathered and involved in various rites, where there were wrestling contests, foot, horse, and wagon races, choral competitions, beauty contests and the like.

Throughout the Northern steppe it was the custom to require all who came to the king's assembly to bring arrows with them, and to present these personally to the king. From these arrows, a census was taken, each man submitting but a single shaft, which represented him and bore his mark, for both in the Old World and the New, the arrow came to stand as the token and symbol of a man. These were census arrows so to speak. These odd items are found among the Scythians, Tartars, Persians, Georgians, Norsemen, and American indians, and it survived in recognizable form in India, Egypt, and the Far East. And of course, the Greeks and Romans had this simple rod or staff, such as the marked rods they presented as admission tickets to the heliastic courts, and the sections of reed submitted by those who wanted to participate in the great public feast of the Eastern Empire. When we see the Arabs employing reed arrow-shafts, devoid of feathers or heads, but bearing the marks of the individual ownership, used to make division at their tribal feast, we understand why Freeman refers directly to the "sticks of Ezekiel 37." (James M. Freeman, "Handbook of Bible Manners and Customs", (N.Y., 1877), pp. 305ff in Nibley - "Stick of Judah", Feb. 1953, p. 91).

What is so interesting is that historically, these rods or staffs were bundled together as a ritual bundle and signified the unity of the nation. Yigael Yadin, Israel's foremost archaeologist when he was alive, found just such bundles of sticks in the Bar Kochba documents, which were legal contracts that he called "tied deeds". We'll return to these later for a stunning follow-up on this Ezekiel theme as well as the BofM being the Stick of Joseph theme.

The Tartars of Asia as well as the Osage holy bundles, which represented the seven chiefs, who held the tribe together in peacful unity come to mind as do the drawing of willow lots by the ancient Germans, Slavs, and Alans, who used this method to choose their leaders. The king of the Babylonians would shake out arrows before him in divination at the New Year, while Hoenir in the Far North would hold his holy lottery in the Golden Age. The most famous of all the tribal bundles, with one exception, was the Roman "fasces" the symbol of the unity and authority of the nation. The "fasces" was originally twelve sticks bound together to represent the twelve Etruscan tribes. The one exception, is of course, the bundle of twelve rods which, according to the Talmud was cut from one stick, and bound together when Moses laid them up in the ark of the Covenant. (Louis Ginsberg, "Legends of the Jews", Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society; 1909ff), III, p. 306).

Part 2

We ended the last part of the article mentioning the bundle of the twelve rods which represented Israel, each rod being for each tribe. The rod was certainly a symbol of power and there are some incredibly interesting accounts of Aaron's miraculous rod in Louis Ginzberg's 7 volume set "Legends of the Jews" that are worth noting, as background for ideas about the rod and how the sticks of Ezekiel are entirely in line with the ancient Israelite concepts of rod/stick/scepter.

After Aaron's rod had swallowed the Magicians' Jannes and Jambres' rod, they still refused to believe they were sent of God. They tell Aaron and Moses "If thou wishest us to acknowledge that the spirit of God worketh in thee, then cast thy rod to the earth, and if, being wood, it swallows up our rods of wood, then we shall acknowledge that the spirit of God is in thee." (v. 2, p. 336). Aaron's rod swallowed their rods and without getting any larger in bulk. The text says Pharoah reflected on "whether this wonderful rod of Aaron might not swallow up also him and his throne." (p. 236) Note that Pharoah's rod was the signature, the scepter of his power, his throne, and Aaron's rod was threatening this "kingly" authority. We are told explicitly that this rod is the same that Jacob crossed the Jordan with, which later came into Judah's possession (Gen 48:18), which Moses took with him to Egypt (Exo. 4:17) which David held in his hand with his encounter with Goliath (1 Sam. 18:40), which was hidden after the destruction of the temple. Now what gets interesting is that the rod will come out again when the Messiah comes. Aaron's rod in fact, we are told, "is identified not only with that of Moses, but also with the staff of the kings (Judah, David, and the Messiah)" (Vol. 6, p. 106). The same idea was held in Egypt where we are told, "The king is the demiurge Ra, on earth, who mirrors and perpetuates creation; he is the intermediary between God (his father) and humanity, and as such, he guarantees cosmic order." (Cheikh Anta Diop, "Civilisation ou Barbarie", trs. Yaa-Lengi Meema Ngemi, Lawrence Hill Books, 1981, p. 334) Aaron's rod also bore the ineffable name on it (Vol. 3, p. 306), which rod was hidden by Josiah, along with all the other sacred objects of the temple (Vol. 6, p. 377).

What happened to the other staves or sticks of the bundle of Israel is not known, but the variation on this theme (also mentioned in Numbers 17) is the very ancient story of how all the men of Israel were required to attend a great assembly, bringing each his staff to be handed over to the high priest and used in a lottery for the distribution of brides. (cf. Angelo S. Rappaport, "Myth and Legend of Ancient Israel", 3 vols., (London: Gresham, 1928), 2:254-58).

Interestingly, in the Qur'anic version of this same story (Quran 3:39) it is an arrow that every man presents. This conforms to the ancient Israelite usage as well as the bedouin usage. Every man presented his own rod with his name on it (Numbers 17:2); every tribe was a rod also (Numbers 34:13-29). Interestingly, the earliest gods of writing, Nebo, Cadmus, Hermes, etc., were arrow gods. (Nibley, "The Arrow, the Hunter, and the State", in "The Ancient State", Deseret, 1991, p. 12).

Herodotus informs us that the tribal bundles are had among the Scythians, Alans, Slavs, and ancient Germans as well. (Herodotus IV:67,81 Cf. I, 195 for the Babylonian staff and ring). How and Wells in their commentary on Herodotus note that the biblical Hosea 4:12 also is to be noted in connection with the use of rods for divination.

"My people ask counsel at their stocks and their staff declareth unto them..." (W. W. How & J. Wells, "A Commentary on Herodotus", Clarendon Press, Osford, 2 Vols., (reprint, 1936): 1:327) Herodotus also notes the space traveling arrow of the wizards (IV, 36). How & Wells note that later writers (Porphyry v. Pythag. 29) turned the arrow into a witch's broomstick, on which Abaris sailed over rivers and seas. (Ibid., p. 316). It was said that on this heavenly arrow, Abaris's arrow eventually flew to heaven to form the constellation of Sagittarius. (Jean Markale, "Les Celts et la Civilisation Celtique" trn. C. Hauch, 1978, p. 78) So the arrows and divination of course, degenerated into all sorts of hocus-pocus, but there is little doubt that it was an ancient device used literally the world over by every ancient tribe, clan and nation, and which Ezekiel is certainly familiar with. Gerhard Von Rad assures us in his "Theologie des Alten Testaments" that Ezekiel "...was familiar with a variety of traditional material of a mythological or legendary kind... in matters of general knowledge and culture alone, Ezekiel's intellectual horizons were unusually wide... a man of not only all around general culture, but of intellectual powers of the first rank..." (p. 221f).

In Israel, the Lord, calling upon a city to declare its allegiance to him, sends his rod to it, and a herald (a man of "tushiah"), seeing the name on the rod, calls out to the people: "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." (Micah 6:9). Jeremiah (who according to ancient Targums was Ezekiel's *father*! - Ginzberg, "Legends of the Jews", Vol. 6, p. 421) noted how Moab when she was ruined and the people mourning the destruction, used rod and staff imagery to describe her: "...how is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!" (Jeremiah 48:17). In fact, Ezekiel himself when describing Israel says "...she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule... her strong rods were broken and withered...she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule." (Ezekiel 19:10-14). Notice how the arrows of Elijah are shot as symbols of deliverance, and smitten on the ground as a token of what would happen to Syria (2 Kings 13:17-19). The arrows are God's authority symbol for Elijah in other words. Ps. 7:13, 18:13-18 (note the arrows sent out with the lightning of God), Ps. 64:7 - God shooting his own arrow at his enemies, etc. (Cf. Apollo in the opening verses of the "Illiad"!)

This heaven-arrow, the thunderbolt is the "summus deus" held on loan by an earthly king as a gauge of divine support, that everywhere gives the king his earthly power and authority, (Ps. 45:6). In the Odyssey when the hero twangs his bow, even Zeus thunders in the heaven for a manifest sign (W.H.D. Rouse's translation XXI, 410-414). Some sources claim that when the mad ruler shot his arrows into heaven and blood came pouring down, that he (Nimrod) had conquered heaven and was the new universal ruler by his arrow. (Jasher 9:29).

Arrows, of course, being the king's sceptre's of power as Ezekiel knew and such as Zeus in the Greek sources, whose herald and golden wand was used to summon his subjects, which subdues all creatures at its touch (Cf. Jasher 7:29-47).

Hermes got this staff originally from Apollo (The God of the Silver Bow in the "Illiad"), who brought it with him as an arrow from the land of the Hyperboreans, somewhere in the northern steppe. The first message of Rome to Carthage was a symbolic caduceus and javelin ("hastae simulacrum") inviting the Carthaginians to submit or be subdued by force. (Nibley - "The Ancient State", p. 5). This is the civilizing and governing rod of Hermes that makes its holder ruler of the world. The golden wand of the two intwined serpents, the caduceus, the arrow of Zeus, is seen throughout the ages as a serious symbol of rulership. It was this same caduceus with which Aesculapius presumed to raise the dead (note: when Ezekiel's sticks are brought together, then the dry bones are raised from the dead in Ezekiel 37!). This raising of the dead is reserved for God alone. To this day, the life giving staff of Aesculapius, the caduceus with its two serpents is the symbol of the medical profession!

Strangest of all, the episcopal staves borne by the head of various ancient Christian churches are still adorned by the two serpents that show the pagan origin of such symbols. Innocent III tells us that the pontifical staff signifies the power of Christ and he quotes Psalms 2 and 44 to prove it.

In fact, we can see in the "National Geographic Magazine" (1927, the pictures of The Right-Reverend Monseigneur Matheos Kaikdjian with his staff; The right reverend Basilios, Coptic Bishop of Jerusalem,with a gentleman carrying a clearly depicted caduceus; His Beatitude Damianos, Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem with his interesting staff; as well as the Most Reverend Anastasse, Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and His Beatitude Ignatius Elias III, Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, both with their caduceus staffs. The various aspects of the ancient rods of office are given here not by way of picturesque diversion at all, but because we cannot understand the sticks of Ezekiel until we know what the sticks could and did represent.

Another angle on this is the ancient Babylonian wooden book, or wooden writing tablet which we'll pursue in the next article. There have been some breath-taking archaeological discoveries with these ancient artifacts. We have examined in some detail the idea that sticks were rods or staffs, even kingly sceptre's as symbols of authority in the hands of the holder, now we will see another view of Ezekiel's sticks that help us understand the ancient ideas in Ezekiel with greater clarity.

We have noted that the Babylonian Writing Tablets may shed some light on Ezekiel. Archaeological excavations at Nimrud, just south of ancient Ninevah along the Tigris river has startled scholars, especially concerning ancient writing techniques. Max Mallowan, the excavator, also the husband of Agatha Christie, the famous mystery writer, noted that the discovery of the "oldest book in the world" was a pure chance affair. The workmen in a well descended 75 feet below surface and the workman was in to his waist in water when he discovered the wooden tablet, and the sides of the well began to cave in! They got him out just as the well collapsed with a roar, and thus the writing tablet and workman were saved by mere seconds. ("Excavations at Nimrud (Kalhu), 1953", "Iraq" XVI (1956), pt. 1, 99).

Mallowan noted that this class of documents "though it must have once existed in a hundred other cities of Western Asia, has only survived in one. Here we have the earliest known material evidence of what must then have been a familiar form of scribal record." (Ibid., p. 102).

Because Mormons equate Ezekiel's sticks with books, a closer look at this intriguing find is necessary. When we read the Septuagint (the Greek Old Test.) at Ezekiel 37:15-20 we note that the Hebrew word etz, rendered "stick" in the KJV, was rendered "rod" ("rabdos") in the Greek. A rod of course is a tribal sceptre and in Ephriam's hand connotes his rulership over the northern kingdom of Israel. In Judah's hand connotes his rulership in the south.

Keith Meservy in his article "Discoveries at Nimrud and the "Sticks" of Ezekiel 37" in "SEHA", Nov. 1978, notes that "Stick" and "rod" are the respective translations of the Hebrew word "etz" in the KJV and Septuagint (Greek) versions. (p. 2).

These are some notes from a discussion I had with an Evangelical Christian concerning Ezekiel 37. He disagreed with me and actually claimed to have spoken to a Jew who had apparently told him he agreed with the Evangelical that Ezekiel in using the two stick analogy, that of Joseph and Judah, meant Christ and the church. We asked him time and again to tell us who this Jew was, but he never told us. In the course of wrangling with him concerning the symbolism of Ezekiel I found some interesting material which I post here as a tentative conclusion to my Ezekiel 37 paper.

The Jews, who know their own tradition by far more in depth and detail than we Christians, have always maintained that Ezekiel's sticks were books. Granted they are records of the nations, but they are books. The origin of the Hebrew roll is precisely a stick, with paper wrapped around it as instructions became too voluminous to write on just a stick. That is why there is a stick in the middle of the old Hebrew rolls of scripture.

Incidentally, the old Babylonian as well as Assyrian writing boards were also called books, which were the predecessors of the Hebrew roll as well. Further, both Eusebius and Jerome in their commentaries, and both thoroughly trained in Hebrew maintained that the "woods" of Ezekiel were actually books, specifically, books of scripture. Dr. Keil, the foremost modern Jewish commentary on Ezekiel finds it most significant that though the "woods" are definitely rods or staves in some connections, Ezekiel deliberately avoids calling them such, since he does not wish to presentthe complex symbolism of the sticks in any way to obscure the priority of the "woods" as written documents.

What have the staff, the serpent and the Word of Jahwe to do with each other? In Egypt, exactly as among the Hebrews, that is, the Jews in the Old Testament, i.e. Ezekiel's time here, the staff was specifically the Word of God and the Word of God was the Matteh he-elohim or the Staff of God.

In fact, the wooden priestly staves were the symbol that God's word was with men. Ginzberg has shown that the tablets of the Law and the rod of Moses were in Hebrew tradition, identical. I would suggest you try and broaden yourself just a wee little bit and read the exhaustive and scholarly account of Ezekiel 37 in Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, Chapter 24, Deseret Book ,1978 ed.

The Hebrew word "etz" can mean almost anything in the Old Testament. It can be translated as tree if the context calls for it, or branch, image, musical instrument, framework, idol, house, ax, plow, man you name it! But the question.....yes, the question is how does Ezekiel use it? He says there is writing involved. Write on the stick for Joseph and the other stick write on it for Judah and Israel his companions. As the great Jewish commentator Kiel noted, for Ezekiel, THIS IS A WRITING. Some say a tablet. That is Ezekiel's context. If I am wrong, I await your exegesis. Ezekiel certainly is not talking about a tree or a framework here, but a writing, and Jews believe that means scripture.

Now something apparently you have missed, and which I also fill in here, is the idea of Zechariah 11. Anyone who studies the Hebrew of the Old Testament is aware that the breaking of a rod signifies the destruction of the nation. But the cutting of a rod is a different symbolism and meaning altogether. Thus Zechariah 11:10 "And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people, and verse 14 "then I cut asunder mine other staff, even bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

See, when the rod is cut in two Judah and Israel are not destroyed, but they are separated. The band that binds them no longer holds. They go their separate ways. With illustrations of the Tally Stick method, Hugh Nibley using Jewish Archaeology shows what the tallys looked like and how they worked. The nations are reunited under the tally stick methods, hence Ezekiel's using sticks, not anything else for the Hebrew word "etz," a most special and unique usage here! The sticks in ancient societies were tied together, to form tied deeds. The nations in their national assemblies gathered under the scepters of the kings, and the God would unite all the scepters together. This is the situation Ezekiel is describing in symbolic language. Except the sticks are not symbolic, but real writings, i.e. scriptures, as the Jews and the Hebrew word denotes and corresponds.

After all, sticks = books. When is a book a book? To the ancients, length was no matter at all. One word could be an entire sermon! Length proves nothing concerning whether these are books or not. Keil, again, the FOREMOST Jewish authority and commentator says with Ezekiel's emphasis on WRITING, that even the Rod of Moses was a book! After all, it had the plain letters of the exalted name inscribed on it. It had the name of the ten plagues also inscribed on it. It had the names of the three fathers and six mothers and the twelve tribes of Jacob inscribed on it also! This, in other words, IS a book, a tablet. The early use of the word logos and logographoi refers to writings of any length as a separate book.

Ezekiel tells us of a writing FOR Joseph and another FOR Judah, keeping the Hebrew Preposition "Le" in mind, which means "TO" or FOR." And the longer the message was, the more staves, or staffs, or sticks were added, and hence the origin of the ritual bundle of staves found throughout the ancient world. This is the ancient tradition that Ezekiel is tapping into. The actual ancestry of the book in Asia was just such stave bundles or strips of bamboo which were put all together. The fan of ancient China is another example. All those sticks with paper tied inbetween them to unfold and hence the more message that could be written. But for all that, this is still a stick.

Servant says: (this almost sounds like survey says! GRIN!)
What I found is, in the Hebrew Bible "ets" never was used for books. and "cepher" was never used for stick.

Kerry:
Not for the actual word "books", of course not. But if you'll look for a moment at the etymology you can clearly see it. Our own word "Book" comes from the German Buch-Stabe, the "boxwood staff" and the Slavonic bukva which recalls the box or beechwood stick scratched with runic symbools by our Norse ancestors and used exactly as the ancient Hebrews used their rods of identification at the great public feasts of which Numbers 17 hints at obviously. Books and staves are everywhere identified, but especially the tablets of the Law and the Rod of Moses as I have said. I mean even the Latin codex and liber refer to the wooden origin of books.

In the usage of the ancient Jewish synagogues themselves, mind you, the sticks around which the scrolls of the law were rolled were always regarded as holy and treated as scepters. Many Jewish commentators say the sticks of Ezekiel are exactly scepters! I have named my Jewish informants, namely Keil, and others. Who are you using? I have yet to see you name any Jew so far, who agrees with your own view, i.e. your own eisegesis that Ezekiel is talking about Christ and the Church. I have many who say these are writings, and are in fact directly tied into books and the roll of the law, as well as the rods of the ancient scriptures. There are actual archaeological pictures of this ancient tradition in Hugh Nibley's outstanding detailed article "The Stick of Judah," in the "Improvement Era," Jan 1953- May 1953. He lists absolutely dozens of sources and bonafide archaeological aspects of this ancient Jewish tradition. He actually shows how in ancient China the edict of the Empress Wu is tied together with two scrolls wrapped around two scepters. The staves of authority which the churches kept are shown in the "National Geographic" 1927, of which I also have photocopies so I can see just exactly what he is saying is correct. The Roll of the Law of Palestine he shows in the March issue, p. 150 which shows two such sticks with the law on parchment wrapped around them.

I'm giving you my sources, Jewish ones at that confirming their own ancient tradition, where are yours? You said you went and talked to a Jew and he agreed with you? Who was he? Where has he published his stuff? What's his name, and how can we reach him to talk to him?

As a side note. I know you dear Servant, (this is what he called himself) won't find this worth reading since it isn't directly and only from the Bible, but reading in G.A. Wainwright's incredibly interesting topic on the Weapon of the Egyptian God Min, it appears to ahve been a thunderbolt and lightning, and the Egyptian hieroglyph bears this out. (Wainwright, "The Origin of Storm-Gods in Egypt," in Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Dec. 1963).

The reason this is so very interesting is that this was Min's scepter of authority. This was the celestial equivilant of the earthly scepters made out of wood of the ancient Kings all over the Ancient Near and Far East.

Yahweh in the Old Testament is a storm God, the "Rider of the Clouds," taking the epithet of Baal himself! In fact. Wainwright in another article "Some Celestial Associations of Min," in JEA, 21(1935) shows several correlations with Min who was also the Egyptian God Amun, and the Old Testament God Yahweh.
In fact, Min's symbol was the White Bull (Associated with fertility in general as bulls were - see Jose M. Galan's recent study "Bullfight Scenes in Ancient Egyptian Tombs," in JEA, 80(1994) - and Yahweh was associated with the golden calf, a baby bull. The ancient Kings sacrificed bulls in honor of the Storm deities with reverence all over the Ancient Near East.

As Albright has demonstrated in his magnificent text From the Stone Age to Christianity, pp. 245ff, Israel's God was the Mountain God. This also figures in with Min, who reigned over the mountains as he threw the lightning. And of course this reminds us of Zeus often described as the lightning throwing deity of ancient Greece as well as the thunderer. Hermes was his messenger, and his staff, the caduseus was an important herald from the God, which Hermes used for HIS authority. This scepter is based on the same proinciple as the scepters in ancient Israel and elsewhere. It is the heavenly contact with earth, which the sticks of Ezekiel also are, as they represent scripture, the heavenly message from heaven to earth. The ancient world is full of symbols and religious concepts that are merely mentioned in the Bible.

Incidentally, in reading in Herodotus today as well as in Robert Graves The White Goddess, a truly astonishing mass of valuable information and analysis, I found that Herodotus demonstrated that the Scythians worked with message rods or sticks (Book 4/66}.

More interesting still, Herodotus tells the history that Demaratus learned that Xerxes had decided to raid Greece, he sent a message to Sparta. Wanna know how he did it? He wrote his message on "wooden folding tablets," which he then had sealed over with wax to hide the message from the enemy. On receiving the wooden books, or tablets, Cleomenes divined it and said to scrape the wax off the wooden boards, which they did, and so received the message (Book 7/23.) Herodotus is an important book for you to read. I read it through the other night in one setting, though it kept me up til the wee hours of the morning, but it was worth it......

Again, Robert Graves in his magnificent book The White Goddess, (I truly can't say enough about this one, I have almost finished reading it through, and I just started this morning!) shows that the word Beech is a common word or synonym for letters. This ties in perfectly with the etymology I gave you of Nibley's the other day. Graves notes that The English word "book" comes from the Gothic word meaning letters and, like the German word Buchstabe is etymologically connected with the word beech - the reason being that WRITING TABLETS were made of beech, as Venantius Fortunatus, the 6th century bishop-poet wrote: Barbara fraxineis pingatur runa tabellis - "let the barbarian rune be marked on beechwood tablets".(Graves, p. 3.) Graves also shows that Lug the son of Ethliu was given a message inscribed on a switch of Birch warning him that his wife was in severe danger. (p. 122). In ancient Greece, we have evidence of Archilochus' Message-Stick as well, (Stephanie West, Classical Quarterly, (198 : 42)
More importantly still was when Menw ap Teirgwaedd took the three Rowan-rods and read them he learned all the kinds of knowledge and science written on them! This included
1. The Story of the Deluge
2. The Cross of Christ
3. The Day of Judgment near at hand. (Graves, p. 156) Isn't it rather obvious that all this information would be had on parchment which was wrapped around the stick? This is the way it was done in the ancient world of Ezekiel, see below, comments from Nibley on Bar Kochkba!

So you see, I am not kidding a whit when I say there are ancient parallels to Ezekiel's sticks being message sticks at all. And while Brian Keck's article in Dialogue called "Ezekiel 37, Sticks, and Babylonian Writing Boards: A Critical Reappraisal," says that in Ezekeil's time it was probably not a case of fact that the Jews then were considered a "people of the book" as it was too early for them to have a "cnogruent notion of scripture," (p. 134), I would add that the early Christian Fathers understood Ezekiel's sticks as scriptures. Keck is trying to refute Keith Meservy's research into the Babylonian writing boards.
Incidentally, Meservy has the actual photos of the ancient Babylonian folding wooden books found in the archaeological excavations. They fit Herodotus's description of the ancient wooden writing tablets to the T. His articles are in The Ensign, Sept. 1977, pictures on pp. 22, and he has shown many base reliefs of people holding the ancient wooden books conversing on pp. 24, 25. as well as a hinged wooden tablet. On the picture on page 27 the wooden tablet STILL ha some of the beeswax on it! In his article in the Society for Early Historic Archaeology, #142 (Nov. 197 Meservey shows on page. 4 a picture of the interior wall in a house in ancient Pompeii, Paquius Proculus holds a scroll to his chin, while his wife carries a waxed writing board with a stylus. p. 5 shows the hinged type of wooden tablet, and pp. 6 and 7 shows reliefs carved with wooden writing boards, Assyrian style approx. 700 B.C. and on the Stela of Bar Rekub, Zinjirli, Turkey (Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Samal) he shows a relief of the kings secretary holding a wooden board for writing under his arm. On p. 7 he shows a relief of Young Prince Tarhoupas, facing a wooden book from G. Contenau Manuel d'Archeologie Orientale 4 (Paris, Picard), p. 2215, Figure 1244.

Finally, Hugh Nibley in his review of Yigael Yadin's magnificent archaeological discovery of Bar Kochkba, notes that Yadin found 23 double deeds, or tied deeds as they are called. This is a new archaeological proof of the tally sticks idea in antiquity and used for exchangeur tallies throughout the Middle Ages. "Very early, strips of parchment or cloth was attatched to the sticks and wrapped around them since there was not enough room on the stick to write a lengthy contract. This was the origin of the Hebrew scroll wrapped around a staff. (Nibley, BYU Studies, XIV (Autumn 1973): 125.

I have Yadin's book on Bar Kochkba, and sure enough as sugar is sweet, Nibley is not kidding at all. Yadin on p. 227, 228 shows photos of all these tied deeds, which are really all tied together! Yadin described in terrific detail the idea of tied deeds on pp. 229-231. These "sticks" which have become "one" in the ancient Jews hands, "is a very old and known practice of the ancient world." (Yadin, p. 229). He shows this from the Babylonian Talmud, from R. Hannaniah son of Gamaliel, and Rav Yirmiyah. All on page 230.

So, once again, I have direct, clear irrefutable and wonderful archaeological discoveries and literature information from ancient History from the British Isles, to Palestine to Nimrud and Mesopotamia concerning the proper background of Ezekeil 37 and the sticks.

there is nothing in the Old Testament that says the Jews in Ezekiel's day would see the sticks AS books. They certainly weren't......THEN. But even the early Christians saw them as bonafide and entire books of scripture as Nibley noted. I found his ideas of scepters and message sticks to be quite powerful in connection with Ezekiel, because that is the way the ancients worked.

I was just reading in the Odes of Horace and found a remarkably interesting note in Ode XXI, "Tempe. Here is where Apollo was purified after slaying the Python, and here an altar marked the spot where he plucked the laurel branch with which he returned to establish his oracle at Delphi." (C.L. Smith, "College Series of Latin Authors," Odes and Epodes of Horace, Ginn and Co., 2nd ed., 1903, p. 65.) I also found that Plutarch in his "Nicias," mentions the sending of Heralds out with messages, because that is what a herald is and does as Numbers 17 says, and which Ezekiel comfortably fits in with. (Plutarch's Lives, John Dryden, Modern Library, p. 631).

I thought it interesting that Mercea Eliade in his wonderful book "Shamanism," p. 343-344 notes that the shamans of the Nicobar Islands, the Shaman is given a scepter with which to fight evil spirits with, and on Sumatra, many ancient religious secrets are revealed to shamans from books made of tree bark, (p. 347). He also notes that in ancient Greece, Abaris carried in his hand a golden arrow, the proof of his Apolline origin and mission, i.e. the arrow was his sign that he was on God's mission, the arrow corresponding very well with Ezekiel's sticks. (p. 388.).

Jane Harrison in her truly important book Prologomena to the Study of Greek Religion, pp. 44-45 shows the staff, the scepter, the rod, being crucially important as proof of being correctly sent by the king or the gods. This magic wand gave power and held sway over the dead. Now isn't it interesting that the context of Ezekiel 37 is about the valley of dry bones?! Well so anyway, it goes. Too bad Servant quit just when it was getting fun...... This theme is held all over the ancient world in many of the nations and countries, so it ought not to surprise us that it shows up in the Bible. The real clincher, in my opinion, is the sticks being scepters and rods, is the use of the custom in Numbers 17. Here there is no mistaking it at all.

The rod in Numbers 17 blooms! This is, as Matthew Henry noted, proof positive that God is with Aaron, through the rod. This is proof of his priesthood also. Josephus said Aaron's rod was the almond wood, and again Jamieson, Fausset and Brown agree that this is proof of royalty and God's power with them, this using the rods. In Ezekiel, it is when the two sticks (Septuagint reads rods here!) come together as one in the Hand of God that the dry bones shall live. In other words, Israel shall be restored. This is wonderful.

The Wycliff Bible Commentary says that the rod of Aaron was given as a sign and symbol for future generations. This is precisely the idea at Ezekiel 37. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible says that Moses Rod became his scepter in the widlerness proving God was with him, and he was God's representative. This is precisely Ezekiel's position also. The Encyclopedia Judaica notes thjat scpeters were used for kings in the Bible, Gen 49:10, Amos 1:5, etc., and also says that God, as King of Kings, also wields a scepter (Isa. 30:31).
Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics has a huge article on staffs as wands, scepters with magic power over the dead, etc. and throughout the entire ancient world. I just don't sincerely think I am so aweful wrong in pointing out the ancient Near Eastern background and understanding for this to enlighten us on a rathe strange episode and usage in Ezekiel. Of course the ancient Jews of his day did not call them books. At that time they weren't books! But later as more instructions came and the scrolls of vellum or papyrus were wrapped around those scepters of God (hence making everything written the WORD of GOD) they became books.

In browsing through my hordes and hordes of articles, books, notes, scribblings on ancient cultures, etc., I ran across several items that has direct relevance to Ezekiel’s "sticks."

The "Danda," the royal scepter of ancient India, was a wooden staff or stick. (See Ariel Glucklich’s excellent and informative article "The Royal Scepter (Danda) as Legal Punishment and Sacred Symbol," in History of Religions, 28/2(Nov. 1988): 99.

The wood of the scepter comes form various trees in the ancient mythology, but from the Udumbara Tree the scepter becomes potent! In fact, the tree is the world Tree of Life, reaching from earth into Heaven, and it is a piece of that tree, as the stick of the King which gives the King his authority here on earth. The imagery is very reminiscent of Ezekiel’s imagery. (see Glucklich, p. 102-103).

This stick is "the shepherd’s staff that acts as the agrological equivilant of the royal scepter." (p. 105). In other words, it is an instrument of precise control over nature (Cf. Ezekiel’s sticks when they come together THEN the dry bones shall live!) In another instance, this Danda is placed in the bed of a newly married couple between them and helps them consummate their marriage! In other words, the two are joined into one, the same imagery of sticks used by Ezekiel. (p. 106).

It is also the flagstaff of military troops (p. 107). Cf. Moroni’s flag of liberty in the Book of Mormon, Alma 46 where he put the flag of liberty on the pole and went around waving the rent of the garment (incidentally, waving the rent is perfectly good Hebrew usage instead of it saying waving the rent part). Interestingly enough Moroni tells of the two garments symbolism, with Joseph representing one of them. Nibley shows that the legends of the Jews told by Tha’labi in the tenth century, legends going back many millenia incidentally, tell of the garment of Joseph which was lost and separated from his other brethren’s garments. Jacob took this to mean his son and his descendants of Joseph would be separated from Israel for a time. This is another angle on the theme of Ezekiel 37 and the two sticks coming together to be as one again. Israel was separated, and must be regathered, which is what Ezekiel 37 is all about, as well as the Book of Mormon, which is the record of Joseph and his descendants that have been brought together again with Judah (the Bible), and the two sticks (records) are one in our hands again (the Bible and the Book of Mormon). (See Hugh Nibley’s treatment in An Approach to the Book of Mormon, Deseret Book, 1978: Chapter 17).

By touching the royal scepter (Danda) the king is endowed with Kingship and special sacral powers. (Glucklich, p. 110). It is both an instrument of divine punishment as well as blessing, and it is itself a symbol, a symbol of life and death, the prominent themes also in Ezekiel 37, the dry bones shall live again when the two sticks, the scepters, the authoritative texts come together. Fecundity and reproduction is also one of Danda’s symbolic associations. This "stick" is a symbolon, or as in the Greek world also, a token of and proof of identity, which is what Ezekiel’s sticks are, identites of both Judah and Joseph! (See Meyer Reinhold, "On Status Symbols in the Ancient World," in Classical Journal, 64/7 (April 1969): 301, for token and proof of identity theme of symbol).

But the most powerful article on this theme of ancient sticks as messages, is by far that of Stephanie West, "Archilochus’ Message-Stick," in Classical Quarterly, 38 (I) 42-48 (1988), wherein we read that according to Athanaeus Apollonius Rhodius explained that the Spartans had a practice of winding official dispatches around a staff or baton. (p. 42). The Greek word "skutala" "must mean an actual staff or baton regarded as part of an official messenger’s equipment." (p. 43).

She then goes on to show how anciently tally sticks were used all over the ancient world of Greece. Some were for financial transactions, while others were for messages from king to king or person to person. The notches tally stick is one of the ideas that Hugh Nibley has described as an aspect of Ezekiel’s sticks, and he receives great support here from West’s research. (See West, pp. 44-45; Hugh Nibley An Approach to the Book of Mormon, Chapter 24).

Perhaps from our Norse ancestors the sacred nail used in sacred high seats of the Gods and kings showing the idea of "power" and "authority" are a related item, since these also symbolize the authority of the King, they being tokens as Ezekiel’s sticks are (See Albert Morley Sturtevant, "A Study of the Old Norse Word ‘Regin’, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 15(1916): 165).

My good friend Marc Schindler found this reference also:

Moshe Greenberg, the editor of the Anchor Bible volumes on Ezekiel. He flat-out contradicts your claim. Maybe that's what you get from not sticking to the Bible, but relying on all those anachronistic mediaeval commentaries that Biblicists are fond of.

After saying that ets is usually translated as "stick" as in a piece of wood, he says it's a rare word in the OT and only occurs in two other places.

But then he gives the Aramaic Targum's translation:

"T translates [ets] by [lwch], 'tablet,' possibly influenced by the analogous command to Isaiah (Isa 8:1), 'Take for you a large tablet ([lwch]) and write on it..." G. R. Driver suggested that [ets] here refers to a hinged writing board (a diptych; see G. R. Driver, JTHs 22 [1971], 549-50). Now while it is surely easier to write on a tablet or a diptych, the former does not associate with king or kingdom, and the latter in essence (di- 'two') contradicts the emphasis on oneness in this prophecy..." but then he writes, "With regard to the practicality of the command: a staff donated by Ramses II to the god Amun was inscribed over most of its length with the name and epithets of the king, and a dedication to the god (W. C. Hayes, 'The Scepter of Egypt,' II [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959], p. 342)." (Greenberg, AB vol. 22a:753)

There are clearly ancient customs, traditions and mythologies as well as symbolisms that Ezekiel was familiar with and used in his sticks symbolism for both Judah and Joseph as separate peoples. The two sticks are shown coming together as Israel was gathered, and symbolically showing this by the two sticks becoming one in the hand of God, the ultimate king with the ultimate authority over Israel.

But what if archaeologically, or linguistically, or whatever, it is discovered and found that Ezekiel 37 really is not a good candidate for a prophecy of the Book of Mormon? I mean truly sincerely it is found we are wrong on this? Would that rattle us ?
I don't think so. Is it because we are so closed minded? Again, I truly don't think so. Heavens I read all I can get my hands on and try to constantly update myself. Why wouldn't this shatter the Book of Mormon? Because, it is, that we Mormons are not book worshippers. Our faith is not built on the Bible alone, but also on the Living God and his Revelations. The Qur'an is far closer with us on this than apostate Christians are! So, if we find this Bible prophecy is not what we suppose, well, it's O.K., because then we can understand it in a truer light and go one with our learning and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My personal faith? No, it is not built on ANY book. That, as our beloved Marc Schindler has so powerfully demonstrated through the years, is the "Biblicist" point of view, because they have rejected revelation from the Living God, which we accept as the final authority. After all, the Bible is just a book. The Book of Mormon is just a book. But God? Ah, there's the rub......God is real, God is alive. God can and does speak to us in these last days, and therein is the anchor, not in some old dusty books.

Just my rambling thoughts on all this charades of Bible scholarship. We must remember that things change all the time, so we must needs remain flexible in case something goes against what we believe is truth. After all further revelation can change what was yesteryear. Otherwise, we'd all still be accepting just the Old Testament now wouldn't we......... Interesting to ponder.