Tyre You Will Never Be Found Again
Permit'south face information technology, an in-depth knowledge of aboriginal Tyre won't make you the life of any party (unless it'southward a party for archaeologists, which I imagine would be pretty dead), just these events are extremely important. Why? Considering according to many believers, some of the strongest evidence for the divine inspiration of the Bible is God's ability to predict future events, and Ezekiel'due south prophecies about Tyre are some of the most frequently cited.
Predictive prophecy stands as one of the near feasible proofs of the Bible's divine inspiration. Ezekiel'southward prophecy concerning the metropolis of Tyre provides an fantabulous instance of such show.
ApologeticsPress.org
It is our contention that when the passage is exegeted carefully and properly, these verses [virtually Tyre] are excellent witnesses to the divine inspiration of the Bible.
BibleArchaeology.org
While I'd prefer the prove exist a scrap more than direct (such as sending fire from heaven, or revealing specific insights most nature, or routinely answering prayers on a testable footing, or simply appearing in person), this is the testify we've been given, and so allow's consider it carefully.
A tale of two cities
Before we get started, it'southward important to understand that at the fourth dimension Ezekiel wrote this prophecy (roughly between 592-586 BC), Tyre was divided into 2 locations. There was the island of Tyre, which was a well-fortified city located most a half-mile off shore from modern Lebanon, and the mainland city, once called Ushu, which became a suburb of Tyre. The city of Tyre still exists today, but the island and mainland are now connected by an artificial causeway (i.eastward. land bridge) offset synthetic past Alexander the Smashing in 332 BC.
Our "proof of divine inspiration" begins in Ezekiel 26; permit'south take it verse by verse.
1 In the eleventh month of the twelfth twelvemonth, on the first twenty-four hour period of the calendar month, the word of the Lord came to me:2"Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, 'Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; at present that she lies in ruins I volition prosper,'iiitherefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am confronting yous, Tyre, and I will bring many nations confronting you, like the sea casting up its waves.
Tyre was rejoicing over Jerusalem's fall to Babylon, which God apparently found distasteful, so he curses Tyre saying, "I will bring many nations against you."
4They volition destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape abroad her rubble and make her a bare stone.5 Out in the sea she volition get a place to spread fishnets, for I accept spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She volition become plunder for the nations,6 and her settlements on the mainland volition be ravaged by the sword. Then they volition know that I am the Lord.
The isle of Tyre was famous for her impressive and impregnable "walls" and "towers." On the side facing the shore, they were said to be twenty′ thick at the base and 150′ loftier.
It'south crucial to note that the Tyre "out in the sea" refers to the island of Tyre, which was to become "a place to spread fishnets." In order to arrange those fishnets, the previous sentence tells us the island would be made bare stone by the pulling downwards of walls and towers. (If there's any dubiousness that these two sentences belong together, verse 14 links the "blank rock" in poetry 4 with the "identify to spread fishnets" in verse 5, saying, "I will brand y'all a bare rock, and you will get a place to spread fishnets.")
Most as an afterthought, Ezekiel then turns his attending to the mainland, saying "…and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword." Ezekiel refers to the island as "Tyre," and the mainland equally "settlements."
7"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar male monarch of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a groovy army.
Here, Ezekiel describes how God will accomplish these things. Ezekiel accurately predicts that Nebuchadnezzar volition come confronting Tyre. Merely how likely was this first prediction?
Either Nebuchadnezzar would attack Tyre, or he would not, and at the time of Ezekiel'due south writing, the odds were looking pretty good.
Ezekiel had been exiled to Babylon where he may have heard about the king's involvement in Tyre (the assail happened soon after Ezekiel'due south prediction). Ezekiel would've known that Babylon had already conquered the Assyrians (612 BC), and was well-nigh to deal a final blow to Jerusalem (587 BC). He also knew that Babylon was in the procedure of incorporating almost of the Eastern Mediterranean. Tiny Tyre, with its wealth and strategic ports, was a pretty obvious target, and Ezekiel's promise of an easy victory may have spurred Nebuchadnezzar to attack.
While information technology's likewise possible that Ezekiel could've written this prophecy after the fact, I tend to recollect he wrote it beforehand, simply considering he gets many of the post-obit details wrong. (Ezekiel as well expresses cognition of the set on just a few chapters later on (29:18-xix), and then it'due south not unthinkable.)
viiiHe [Nebuchadnezzar] will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set upward siege works against you lot, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. nineHe will direct the blows of his battering rams confronting your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons.
Hither, God says that Nebuchadnezzar volition brand quick piece of work of the mainland settlements, ravaging them with the sword. Nebuchadnezzar will then attempt to "build a ramp" to the island in order to "direct the blows of his battering rams against [their] walls."
This prophecy fails.
When Nebuchadnezzar arrives at the mainland, he actually finds the city abandoned. There is no "ravaging of the settlements on the mainland with the sword," because the residents had all relocated to the isle. Nebuchadnezzar also fails to annihilate the towers of island Tyre.
To whitewash this prophecy, some Christians interpret these verses as referring to the mainland simply, but there are several problems with this interpretation:
- At that place is no historical evidence suggesting the mainland was fortified with walls and towers.
- Such heavy fortifications were unnecessary, since the mainlanders would (and did) escape to the island in times of trouble.ii
- The only style to deliver a battering ram to the walls of island Tyre was to "build a ramp up to [its] walls." (This would exist the aforementioned conclusion reached by Alexander the Great some 250 years after.) On the mainland however, a battering ram could be employed without the use of a ramp.
- Finally, it was the towers of the island "out at sea" that were to be removed in social club to make the island "a identify to spread fishnets." Not the towers of the mainland (assuming there were any).
Aboriginal depiction of the fortified island city of Tyre, circa 837 BC, illustrating its walls and towers.
When speaking of Tyre, history typically places its accent on the isle metropolis and its well-fortified walls and ports. In fact, even the word "Tyre" means "stone."
And then when y'all move to attack Tyre, you move to have the island, not the mainland. The mainland was nothing more than than an unimpressive "line of suburbs rather than 1 mainland city."ane
But more importantly, even Ezekiel himself refers to the mainland as "settlements," non equally Tyre. Fifty-fifty in the capacity that follow, all emphasis is placed on the island: "Your domain was on the high seas, your builders brought your beauty to perfection;" "You lot say, 'I am a god; I sit down on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas,'" and "Who was e'er silenced similar Tyre, surrounded by the sea?" The well-nigh logical assumption is to assume Ezekiel was referring to Nebuchadnezzar destroying walls and towers of the isle of Tyre. But this results in a failed prophecy, and so Christians must adopt a far less obvious, and more convoluted, interpretation.
10His horses will be so many that they volition cover you with grit. Your walls volition tremble at the dissonance of the warhorses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates every bit men enter a city whose walls have been broken through.11The hooves of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars volition autumn to the basis.
Ezekiel predicts that in one case Nebuchadnezzar has built this ramp to the island, the walls of Tyre would be breached, and the people of the island would be killed "with the sword." (Notation that the mainland settlements had already been ravaged in verse 8. It is now citizens of island Tyre who are killed with the sword.)
Once more, this prophecy fails.
Ezekiel probably imagined that building a ramp would be a adequately rudimentary task for Nebuchadnezzar'due south impressive regular army. In reality however, Nebuchadnezzar must've ended that a ramp was too impractical, and and then he settled upon laying siege to the island.
The siege lasted 13 years, and in the end, Nebuchadnezzar never broke through the walls, or killed the people with the sword, or brought down Tyre's mighty pillars.
Once again, Christians cannot take this every bit a failed prophecy, then some insist this poesy was still speaking of the mainland. But if Ezekiel were even so referring to the mainland, then the prophecy still fails, because the mainland was constitute abandoned. Nebuchadnezzar never ravaged any community with the sword.
The island city probably made submission upon conditions, without receiving the hostile army inside her walls. The capture of the metropolis was far different from the prophecy of it according to the prophet Ezekiel himself… The siege probably ended with the nominal submission of the city and the surrender of a number of her nobles.
~Wallace Bruce Fleming, The History of Tyre, 1915
12They volition plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break downwardly your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the ocean.13I will put an terminate to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps volition be heard no more.fourteenI will make you a blank stone, and you will become a place to spread fishnets.
Hither's where things get fifty-fifty more tricky. Ezekiel is still speaking of King Nebuchadnezzar, but Nebuchadnezzar never received whatever loot, or broke down the walls of Tyre. And as we'll see in a moment, Nebuchadnezzar clearlyexpected to!
Considering this leads to a failed prophecy, believers look at the word "they" in verse 12 and assume "they" refers to the "many nations" mentioned dorsum in verse iii, and not Nebuchadnezzar.
In reading the pronoun "they," ane must first presume it refers to the most recently defined antonym, which is Nebuchadnezzar'due south ground forces. Information technology was Nebuchadnezzar's army that God was sending to make war with Tyre, and there is a very natural progression of events: Nebuchadnezzar's army comes, they break down walls, they ravage and siege, and they plunder. End of story.
It is strange to assume we have of a sudden switched gears and are now speaking of events that wouldn't take place for another 250 years. If that were the truth, the prophecy should've predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would come, lay siege to Tyre, and negotiate peaceful concessions. Then, hundreds of years later, God would pour out his wrath on island Tyre.
Does it make sense that God would look to take out his vengeance on a time to come generation of Tyre? And not the people who rejoiced in Jerusalem's fall? Why permit the guilty off with simply a few concessions? Just destroy a population that had nothing to practice with the events at hand?
Interestingly, in poesy vii, God refers to Nebuchadnezzar as "rex of kings." Information technology may be that God (or Ezekiel) considered him the male monarch of these "many nations" that would come confronting Tyre.
Just this is only half the problem.
The other point of fence is which Tyre was supposed to be thrown into the sea.
Believers prefer the mainland, considering (not surprisingly) it was rubble from the mainland that Alexander the Peachy threw into the ocean to build his causeway.
But Ezekiel indicates that information technology would exist the stones of the island that fall into the bounding main. It was the island "out in the sea" that would be used for spreading fishnets, after its towers had been pulled downward and made blank stone. And afterwards speaking of the devastation of the isle in verses 4-5, Ezekiel turns his attention to the "settlements on the mainland, again proving that he was speaking about the island'due south stones.
Being encircled past the sea, it makes sense that Ezekiel would've imagined the isle's walls tumbling into the bounding main every bit they are pulled down. If you're going to make the isle bare (a place to spread fishnets), you have to exercise something with all that rubble, and there is nowhere for the rubble to get but into the surrounding sea.
14 (Cont.) Yous will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.
The final prophecy is that Tyre would never exist rebuilt. Just Tyre was rebuilt, and nonetheless exists today. In fact, Tyre was even visited by Jesus himself. So what's a Christian to do?
Some believers defend Tyre'south existence past suggesting that mainland Tyre was never rebuilt on the exact same spot. However, fifty-fifty Biblical archaeologists acknowledge that the area was then well cleared past Alexander the Neat that no 1 knows where the original city stood. If nosotros don't know where it was, nosotros certainly can't confirm it was never built upon. And this defence assumes Ezekiel was speaking of the mainland never being rebuilt, and I'1000 positive Ezekiel was referring to the island… which was never even completely destroyed.
Other believers take suggested that this prophecy was fulfilled because Tyre would never again be rebuilt past the Phonecians,or never rebuilt in exactly same fashion, or with the same measure of success. Simply Ezekiel is clear that it would "never be rebuilt," and he offers no escape clauses. We cannot take it both ways. If the prophecy can exist said to have been fulfilled regardless of whether or not the urban center is rebuilt, and so the prophecy is rendered worthless. It succeeds no matter what happens.
Subsequently, in Ezekiel 29, Ezekiel gives us a glimpse of what actually happened following Nebuchadnezzar'southward siege confronting Tyre:
29:xviii-19Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon drove his regular army in a hard entrada against Tyre; every head was rubbed bare and every shoulder made raw. Yet he and his army got no reward from the campaign he led against Tyre. Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth. He will boodle and plunder the country as pay for his army.
There are a couple interesting facts about these verses.
Offset, in that location seems to exist an expectation that Nebuchadnezzar would plunder the wealth of Tyre (v. 12), but that didn't happen. Ezekiel must now resort to offering alternative concessions. This could be seen as an admission that what was expected of the prophecy, and what was delivered, did not match up.
2d, we tin infer that Ezekiel's words were indeed reaching the King's ears (how else would the rex have known that God now offered him Arab republic of egypt?). If Nebuchadnezzar too heard Ezekiel'south prophecies about Tyre earlier he attacked, then his attack (the but part of the prophecy to actually come up to pass) becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
As for Nebuchadnezzar's defeat of Arab republic of egypt, history is fuzzy on the details.
Conclusion
So what actually happened?
Ezekiel was most probable angry over the loss of Jerusalem to Babylon, and enraged by Tyre's rejoicing. This fueled Ezekiel'south visions of Tyre's cherished island walls being pulled down into the surrounding sea, and the urban center condign a devastated and uninhabited rock. No uncertainty this prophecy tickled the ears of many exiled Jews, and Ezekiel probably too hoped it would farther motivate Nebuchadnezzar to assault.
The most reasonable interpretation of the prophecy is a failed one, but coincidentally, 250 years later on, Alexander the Great would employ some material from the mainland (and elsewhere) to construct a causeway to set on Tyre. Later, believers would apply this fortuitous consequence to Ezekiel's predictions, and claim information technology was always Alexander the Great (non Nebuchadnezzar) who was always supposed to conquer Tyre, and that it was the mainland stones that were ever supposed to be tossed into the sea (even though the prediction is clearly most the isle stones).
If you were living in Nebuchadnezzar'southward time, there is no way you would've read Ezekiel'south prophecy and concluded that Nebuchadnezzar would fail, compromise with Tyre, and Alexander the Groovy would show upwardly 250 years to capture Tyre without destroying it. That's certainly not how Nebuchadnezzar understood it.
Ezekiel'due south prophecy is actually ambiguous enough that it doesn't matter who somewhen conquers Tyre, or when , or which stones finish upwards in the ocean, or why. You could shoehorn millions of possible combinations of events into this prophecy and even so brand it work. It is only in retrospect that the Christian can proclaim: "What God meant to say was that the stones would be thrown from the mainland , by Alexander the Neat , 250 years later , in lodge to build a causeway !"
Perhaps the virtually fascinating and significant change to the mural of Tyre was that it went from being an isle "out in the sea" to a total-blown peninsula! Who could've predicted that a causeway built to attack the island would slowly silt upwardly and one solar day become a thriving urban center unto itself!? Patently not Ezekiel, whose vision ends with an uninhabited island rock.
I believe Ezekieldid accurately predict that Nebuchadnezzar would brand a move on Tyre, though this was probably more likely than non, and peradventure cocky-fulfilling. However, I besides believe that Ezekiel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would slaughter the people of Tyre, pull the island walls and towers into the sea, and that the island would become an uninhabited bare stone. Ezekiel was wrong on all of these counts, and seems willing to admit information technology.
Ezekiel's prophecies are made to appear successful through a combination of predictions that are highly probable (5, 6 & 16), ambiguous (3), open-ended (17), liberally reinterpreted in hindsight (7, eight, 9 & 15) and peradventure cocky-fulfilling (4). There is not a single solid prophecy here that we could use as proof of divine inspiration.
If we're going to insist that the prophecies of Tyre are proof "of the Bible's divine inspiration," nosotros need to existabsolutely certain of what is beingness predicted. And ideally, i would hope that proof from God would be far less ambiguous and open up-ended. After all, my eternal life hangs in the balance, and it would be a shame to spend an eternity in hell because I misunderstood which Tyre God was referring to.
1 Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911, Vol. 27
ii "[Tyre'southward] numbers swelled greatly in time of war, when residents of nearby cities on the mainland (such as Ushu) found refuge on the island…" Katzenstein, H.J.,The History of Tyre, 1973
echevarriaanterevell.blogspot.com
Source: https://500questions.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/43-did-the-bible-accurately-predict-the-future-of-tyre-ezekiel-26/
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