Review
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Title: How to Understand the Book of Ezekiel: The Latter-day Warnings
Author: Duane S. Crowther
Publisher: Horizon Publishers / Cedar Fort
Genre: Scripture Studies
Year Published: 2008
Number of Pages: 167
Binding: Soft cover
ISBN13: 978-0-88290-638-6
Price: $13.99

Reviewed by Dallas Robbins

Packed with visions that border on fantasy, the Book of Ezekiel has been a mysterious book to me. Filled with symbolism, history, and ideas filtered through the mind of the priest-prophet, it can be a tremendously difficult book to approach and understand. And Duane S. Crowther attempts just that in his new book titled How to Understand the Book of Ezekiel: The Latter-day Warnings (hereafter, HUBE). Crowther, better known as the author of the perennial Mormon favorites, Prophecy – Key to the Future and Life Everlasting, is a prolific author of over 50 books and numerous articles. I had the opportunity to talk with him a couple of years ago at the Sunstone Symposium, where he was among the book vendors selling his backlist. In talking with him, he is a genuine gentleman who loves to talk, filled with the warmth and fire of a gospel testimony.

HUBE is structured in four parts. The first part covers “Ezekiel: His Writings and His Times” in a mere 24 pages. Part two is a “Chapter Analysis” of Ezekiel, providing a summary of each chapter in the next 35 pages. Part three, the bulk of the book, is a “Doctrinal Analysis” with a strong emphasis of last day events in Mormon theology. The fourth part, just a few pages, called “Insights from the Inspired Version,” covers textual differences between the JST and the KJV.

When it comes to books on scriptural studies, there are a few questions that I want to know. Does the author engage in the larger field of studies regarding their subject? Have they studied the work in the original Hebrew or Greek, or at least used reliable translations? What is their stance on redaction and biblical criticism in general? Even though I didn’t expect Crowther to fall within the larger field of biblical critics and be able to answer affirmative to my above questions, I was hoping for something a little more than what I got.

When it comes to his own stance on biblical criticism, he states, “During the last several decades Bible critics have advanced more and more divergent theories which lead to irreconcilable conclusions and have covered the authorship of the book of Ezekiel with a cloud of uncertainty… In short, recent Bible criticism has spread in a multitude of directions with little good being accomplished.” (p.12)

Essentially, I would categorize this book as an attempt to fit Ezekiel within a Mormon framework, with no room for anything else. This becomes clear when the only sources Crowther uses in his study are the King James Version, the Joseph Smith Translation, with the occasional use of Conference Reports, Journal of Discourses, Doctrines of Salvation, along with references to his own works.

At the end of the book Crowther states his ultimate reason for writing the book: “The purpose of scriptural study is to understand doctrine and to apply it for the betterment of one’s life.” So, Crowther’s intent in writing this book is to help Latter-day Saints understand what the book of Ezekiel means for Mormon belief, especially Latter-day prophecies and events, and to repent and live accordingly.

So, within this framework, is the book any good? It depends, but for me, the book falls short in a few ways. Let me explain.

The book is more of a series of lists and summaries, with page long excerpts from scripture, with only small moments of prose tying sections together, with next to no interpretation, context, or devotional prose. This gives the book a disjointed, skeletal feel. Let me give you an example. This is from the first page of Chapter 5, called “Prophecies of Judah and Jerusalem”:
"Chapter 4 – Three Symbolic Acts. The Fate of Jerusalem.
1. First Symbolic Act: The siege of Jerusalem.
Note: This is the first of four symbolic acts performed by Ezekiel which are found in chapters four and five.
A. Ezekiel drew a picture of Jerusalem on a tile, laid siege against it and set an iron upon it to represent a wall of iron between him and that city. (1-3).
2. Second Symbolic Act: A representative of the length of the iniquity of Israel and Judah.
A. Ezekiel lay on his left side for 390 days to represent 390 years of Israel’s iniquity. (4-5)"

So forth, and so on. Let me reiterate, this is not an introduction or summary of what Crowther is going to talk about in the chapter, this is what the majority of the chapter is like, with the entire book filled with this “list-style” of writing. It would have been more appropriate to call Crowther’s book A Skeleton Key to the Book of Ezekiel.

Another thing I take issue with is that the majority of the book is not about Ezekiel at all. From page 55 to 154, the author focuses on Mormon doctrine, using a myriad of scriptural texts, completely diverting the reader’s attention from “understanding” the book of Ezekiel, and solely focusing on topics such as, “The Nature of God and Godhood,” “The Nature of Sin,” “Counsel for Righteous Living,” along with a long list of last day events such as “World War Three,” “The Conversion of the Lamanites,” “The Fourth World War,” “The Rule of David the Prince,” etc…. These are not uninteresting things to write about, but in Crowther’s “list-style” of writing, they are only scantly summarized with little context or interpretation, leaving very little satisfaction for this reader. Even with the author’s concern of the “betterment of one’s life,” I felt like I was left holding only fragments

Even though I was disappointed by Crowther’s book, people who have enjoyed his previous work will probably enjoy this one also. But if you are looking for a commentary that will help you “understand” the book of Ezekiel, I would suggest looking elsewhere. For those willing to travel outside Mormon authors, Moshe Greenburg’s or Walther Zimmerli’s commentary would be an excellent beginning.