This study focuses on chapters 40–48 of the book of Ezekiel, which present a detailed vision of a future temple, examined within the cultural and religious frameworks of Neo-Babylonian society. Through a comparative analysis between Ezekiel’s Temple Vision and documented Babylonian temples, distinctive features of Ezekiel’s descriptions emerge — elements without biblical parallels, reflecting influences from Babylonian ritual traditions.
In this work, I emphasize how Ezekiel, as a prophet of the exile, weaves together memories of the Jerusalem temple with insights from Babylonian temple culture, offering a renewed vision for the future of the Jewish community. My monograph Ezekiel’s Visionary Temple in Babylonian Context (De Gruyter, 2021), supported by an Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grant, received favorable international reviews.
The book presents an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating biblical exegesis, Assyriological and Babylonian sources, and comparative ritual law, offering a fresh understanding of Ezekiel’s Temple Vision within its cultural context.

Relevant publications:

Tova Ganzel. Ezekiel’s Visionary Temple in Babylonian Context. BZAW 539. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110740844

Tova Ganzel, “And the Name of the City from That Day On: ‘YHWH is There’ (Ezek. 48:35): A New Interpretation.” Vetus Testamentum 70 (2019):1-8. https://do.org/10.1163/15685330-12341396

Tova Ganzel, “Ezekiel’s Temple in Babylonian Context.” Vetus Testamentum 64 (2014): 211–226. Co-author: Shalom E. Holtz. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-12341148

Tova Ganzel and Shalom E. Holtz, eds. Contextualizing Jewish Temples: Opportunities and Challenges. Leiden: Brill Reference Library of Judaism, 2020. (232 pages) https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004444799

Tova Ganzel, “Priests, Levites, and the Nasi: New Roles in Ezekiel’s Future Temple.” In The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel, edited by Corrine L. Carvalho, 2020. New York: Oxford, 2020. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190634513.013.8

Tova Ganzel, “First-Month Rituals in Ezekiel’s Temple Vision: A Pentateuchal and Babylonian Comparison.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 83, no. 3 (2021): 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1353/cbq.2021.0081

Tova Ganzel and Shalom E. Holtz. “Daniel 3 and 5 As Historiography.” Biblica 103/4 (2022): 525-535.   DOI: 10.2143/BIB.103.4.3291466