Ezekiel the Tragedian – also known as Ezekiel the Dramatist and Ezekiel the Poet – was a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

dramatist who wrote in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

. Naomi Yanveh has placed his work in the 3rd century BCE, while Howard Jacobson estimates the 2nd Century BCE. Evidence of the date is not definitive. His only known work – ''Exagōgē –'' is the earliest known Jewish play. It survives only in fragments found in the writings of

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

(''PrEv'' 9, 28-29),

Clement of Alexandria Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria ( grc , Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; – ), was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen an ...

('' Strom.'' 1.23.155f.), and Pseudo-Eustathius (''Commentarius in Hexaemeron'', PG 18, 729). Nevertheless, the extensive quotations by these writers make possible the assembly of 269 lines of text, about 20-25% of the whole. The only more extensive remnant of the Greco-Jewish poets is that found in the Sibylline Oracles. ''Exagōgē'' is a five-act drama written in

iambic trimeter The Iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units (each of two feet) per line. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic ''metra''. Ea ...

, retelling of the biblical story of

The Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely E ...

from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. Moses is the main character of the play, and parts of the biblical story have been altered to suit the narrative's needs. These changes probably point to Ezekiel's intention to stage the play, since certain scenes that are impossible to stage were converted into monologue. This drama is unique in blending the biblical story with the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

tragic drama. The main modern edition is a parallel-text English-Greek edition by classical scholar Howard Jacobson.''The Exagoge of Ezekiel'', ed. Howard Jacobson, 2009: "Professor Jacobson accompanies the text of the play with a translation. In the commentary he examines the fragments line by line, comparing them with the biblical account and other accounts in related Jewish sources."

References

Bibliography

* J. Allen, "Ezekiel the Tragedian on the Despoliation of Egypt," ''Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha'', 17.1 (2007), 3-19. * Kristine J. Ruffatto, "Raguel as Interpreter of Moses' Throne Vision: The Transcendent Identity of Raguel in the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian", ''Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha'', 17.2 (2008), 121-139. * Koskenniemi, Erkki,
Dramatic Miracles: Ezekiel the Tragedian
, in: ''The Old Testament miracle-workers in early Judaism'', Mohr Siebeck, 2005, pp. 64-86 * Brant, Jo-Ann A., "Mimesis and Dramatic Art in Ezekiel the Tragedians’ Exagoge", in:
Ancient fiction: the matrix of early Christian and Jewish narrative
', Society of Biblical Literature, 2005, pp: 129-148 * Jacobson, Howard
''The Exagoge of Ezekiel''
Cambridge University Press, 1983 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ezekiel The Tragedian Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights Jews of Ptolemaic Alexandria Hellenistic Jewish writers Jewish dramatists and playwrights Ancient Egyptian writers 2nd-century BC people