Ezekiel the Tragedian An author of Jewish tragedies who wrote in Greek, likely in the second century bc. The surviving fragments of his tragic drama about the Exodus are often grouped together with the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, since they are nonbiblical Jewish writing from the same period.

Clement of Alexandria refers to Ezekiel as “the poet of Jewish tragedies” (Stromata 1.23.155.1, quoted in Robertson, “Ezekiel,” 803). However, we only know of one of his works, titled Exagoge, “Leading Out.” Moses is the main character of this tragedy, which covers material in Exodus 1–15, from Moses’ birth to the crossing of the Red Sea and the encampment of the Israelites at Elim. In the process of adapting the biblical material to the genre of Greek tragedy, Ezekiel adds extrabiblical material, including a dream by Moses and characters not mentioned in the Bible.

Substantial fragments of Exagoge are preserved in Eusebius (Preparation for the Gospel 9.28–29), who cites them from the first century bc author Alexander Polyhistor, in Clement of Alexandria’s Stromata, and in Pseudo-Eustathius’ Commentary on the Hexameron.