To most of us the passage Ezekiel 28:11-17 concerning the prince of Type poses some problems. Rejecting any interpretation of these verses as referring to the Satan of popular belief, we may yet find it strange that the divine oracle should refer to the King of Tyre as “wiser than Daniel", and should declare: “thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God"; “thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God . . . Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth; I (God) set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee . . .” (vv. 3, 6, 12-15).
Some of this language is no doubt ironical, for the King of Type was surely only “wiser than Daniel” and “perfect in beauty” in his own eyes, not in the ultimate Divine judgement. But what are we to make of the fact that he is called “the anointed cherub that covereth", when every single other instance of “cherub” or “cherubim” in the Old Testament refers to some manifestation of the Divine glory? This case in Ezekiel 28 is the only one where the word is applied to a man, and to a Gentile at that. Further, how could the King of Tyre be “on the holy mountain of God” and “walk up and down in the midst of the stones of fire"?
First, how could Tyre be in “Eden, the garden of God"? Here Ezekiel 31 provides a valuable clue; for the Assyrian was “a cedar in Lebanon . . . exalted above all the trees of the field", so that “all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him” (vv. 3, 5, 9). It is clear from a reading of the whole chapter, however, that the “trees of Eden” represent the nations who had been subdued by the might of Assyria. When the proud Assyrian fell, then “all the trees of Eden . . . were comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into hell with him . . . they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations” God then turns to Pharaoh of Egypt: “To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword” (vv. 16-18). Eden, then, is used in this chapter as the name of an area dominated by the King of Assyria, a usage which would explain its application to the prince of Tyre in Ezekiel 28.
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Author: Fred Pearce
Keywords: Satan, King of Tyre, covering cherub, trees of Eden, anointed cherub, Annointed cherub, Fallen angel, Lucifer, Fell from heaven, cast out of heaven, wiser than Daniel, Prince of Tyre, Devil thrown out of heaven, Devil cast out of heaven, Satan cast out of heaven, Satan fell from heaven
Bible reference(s): Ezekiel 28:11-17
Source: “Thou Wast In Eden,” The Christadelphian, vol. 110, no. 1311, September 1973, pp. 389-391.
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