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206 even once; instead the Prophet uses the term "vision." "The heavens opened and I saw Divine Visions," Ezekiel states in the very first paragraph of his book. The term used in the Hebrew is actually "Elohim visions," visions relating to the DIN.GIR of Sumerian texts. The term retains some ambiguity as to the nature of the "vision"—the actual seeing of a scene, or an induced mental image that is created, somehow, in the mind's eye only. What is certain is that from time to time reality intrudes into these visions—an actual voice, an actual object, a visible hand. In that, the visions of Ezekiel belong in the Twilight Zone. Among the several Divine Encounters that move Ezekiel along his prophetic path, more than one are instances where the unreal includes a reality that in turn fades into unreality. One has elements of Gudea's initial dream-vision in which divine beings show him a plan of a temple and hold architec- tural tools that end up materially in the king's possession. "It was in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day thereof," Ezekiel relates in chapter 8. "As I was sitting in my home, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Lord Yahweh happened upon me," And I looked up, and beheld an apparition, the likeness of a man. Figure 67 DIVINE ENCOUNTERS