Prophecy as Divination in the Old Testament

Journal of the Amateur Theological Society, 2020

"THE PARADOX OF DIVINATION" "The Old Testament presents a paradox regarding the subject of divination. It was both a prohibited yet practiced phenomenon. The Old Testament clearly demonstrates God prohibiting the use of divination (Deut. 18:9-14), but it was also used numerous times by God’s people (Joshua 18-19; Exodus 28:30; 1 Samuel 30:7-8; Proverbs 16:33; Numbers 5:11-31). This paradox raises several questions. Does the prohibition include all forms of divination? If so, then why was the practice of divination so prevalent in the Old Testament? Also, why does the Old Testament seem to approve and sanction the use of it at various times? How does the Ancient Near Eastern worldview contribute to our understanding of divination? Although many interpreters see divination as a purely prohibited practice in Scripture, for the Israelite community, where the divine source of the inquiry was Yahweh, it was a valid way to seek knowledge and guidance. This paper seeks to examine the cultural context and worldview wherein divination was practiced and to delineate between its approved and prohibited practices throughout the Old Testament. I will argue that the practice of divination within the Israelite community is an example of how God accommodates his interaction with, and revelation to, his people’s historical and cultural context."

As OUR UNDERSTANDING of biblical prophecy has increased, there is a growing sense that the custom is linked to the broader religious phenomenon of divination. 1 The difficulty, however, lies in establishing a model that illustrates the nature of this connection. Since prophecy involves human beings, there has been a tendency to treat the procedure in isolation. This has usually, but not always, resulted in comparative studies limited to an examination of similar activities in other cultures , most especially those of Mari, Emar, Ebla, and now Neo-Assyria. 2 I would like to express my gratitude to Professors William W. Hallo and David Noel Freedman for their comments on this article. 1 Among the few scholars who have explicitly acknowledged that prophecy is a form of divination are J.-M. de

2013

Comparative studies of ancient Near Eastern prophecy in recent years have focussed on the distinction between inductive forms of divination, such as extispicy and astrology, which involve the so-called "scholarly" interpretation of natural phenomena and non-inductive, or mediumistic, forms of divination, usually associated with various forms of shamanism, including prophecy. Using Isaiah 14:28-32 as a test case, this article questions the epistemological distinction between inductive and intuitive divination in the ancient Near East on the basis of recent anthropological theory that claims a combination of inductive, intuitive, and interpretive techniques wherever divination is practiced.

Semitica, 56, p. 291-312, 2014

Divination is part and parcel of ancient prophecy. This is especially clear from Mesopotamian sources. However when reading the First Prophets or the so-called Deuteronomistic History the near absence of all divination is a striking fact. But is all divination really absent or has it been erased by successive redactions? The transformation of prophecy from what it is in the ancient Near East –a socio- and religious-cultural phenomenon belonging to the world of divination and attached to the temple rather than the court– to what it becomes according to Dtr ideology, an ideal and political institution, can be seen through the evolution of the Dtr history. The analysis of the relics of divination and the construction of the focal figure of Samuel, priest prophet and king shows that the later Dtr stratum has turned from divination to ideal and word prophecy or Mosaic prophecy. As a conclusion, Deuteronomism tends to replace the royal institution by a prophetic one but not any prophetic institution: the only possible official and lasting prophecy, that is the law revealed by Moses. Prophecy as it is built up is no longer prophetic according to ancient Near-Eastern pattern, it has become ideal and therefore more of a literary phenomenon, reiterating the law of Moses, the blessing of obedience and the kingship of Yhwh. All that is to come has therefore already been revealed! And in this sense prophecy has also come to an end with Moses at least in the Deuteronomistic History!

Divination is something that people do in order to bring benefit and wisdom into their affairs. Since like other practical arts and crafts it can be undertaken without much thinking-about it, divination's chaotic variety and liberality of scope render it unattractive to the philosophic mind schooled in clarity of definition and conceptual abstraction. Much folk divination comes over as superstitious and crass, and what passes as its theory is patently illogical. From the empirical point of view its phenomena are anecdotal and subjective, difficult to frame and replicate, and resistant to analysis. Ethnography has taken up the question of divination, but with very few exceptions this is about safely-distant tribes and cultures who are not us. Where anthropology has given an account of divination, the topic has often been treated as a subset of magic, thus losing focus on its distinctive epistemological features (Johnston, 2008, p.26). There is a further 'spiritual' dimension to the marginalised status of divination in our culture, arising from the fact that divinatory beliefs readily enter the territory of paranormal agency, including the possibility of divinities and spirits. This courts controversy with long established religious conceptions, especially where revelation and prophecy form an important element of the religion. Even where diviners imagine for themselves only a generalised and non-personal interpretation of spirit, the comparison of divination and prophecy comes into view. At this point we encounter the crucial question of the provenance of divination, that-from-which these knowings are given and that-to-which these knowings intend. The religious and theological controversy over divination, particularly in western culture, is often put down to the fact that its great religions are monotheistic and transcendent, where divination encourages either multiple divinities or pantheism. This is a battle line over which paganism and Christianity fought, but this argument is neither theologically nor hermeneutically sufficient, since it does not get to the root of a question that lies at the heart of both pagan divination and religious revelation. Christian hostility to divination as a pagan practice has had the effect of denying a significant comparison, since prophecy and revelation-definitive for the great religions – have been treated as other than divination, instead of being seen as sharing common ground. As with so much of paganism, medieval Christianity encompassed elements of the divinatory into its own understanding (Flint, 1991, p.157ff.), but the net effect was to cast divination into the wilderness of superstition. The reader might be led at this point to assume that in defence of divination and other occult practices I am setting the scene for a New Age and neo-pagan complaint against

Old Testament Essays, 2014

Recent research on the formation of the canon of the OT suggests that it is crucial to understand how theological presuppositions concerning divine revelation linked to Moses made the Torah to be authoritative for subsequent traditions of revelation such as the prophets. The early post exilic redefinition of the prophet (Deut 18:15-22) is linked to the introductory rejection of a comprehensive list of divinatory practices (Deut 18:9-14). Diverging depictions of Balaam as diviner and soothsayer are briefly discussed to illustrate the development from an appreciated diviner of divine will (Num 22-24) to a detestable soothsayer who cursed the people of God (Deut 23 & Josh 13 & 24). Finally, some thought is given to how the development from "divination" to "revelation" influenced the process of canon formation in the period after the Babylonian exile.

Unveiling the Hidden – Anticipating the Future: Divinatory Practices among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period, 2021

This monograph opens with a quotation from a Spanish contemporary poet in which the poetic persona complains about his inability to get good peaches from a market stall. He has never cared about distinguishing peaches by their visible colors-yellow and red-, so how will he be able to distinguish good from bad, these qualities being even less apparent to the eye? This inability to be mindful of visible details in order to discern hidden qualities-he confesses-is the root of all his misfortunes, but it does not prevent him from continuing to demand good peaches from other people, namely, the fruit seller. Is he wise in deeming the fruit seller an expert in distinguishing good from bad (fruit), or is he just leaving his decision to someone else? Whichever the case, is it not perhaps his attitude and corresponding assumption the root of all his misfortunes-namely, his dependence on the knowledge of others? The subject of this book, inquiring-from others or by means that are not entirely within one's reach-about what is hidden or unknown (whether these be the future, secrets, or far away things), reminded me of this poem and the paradoxical circumstances of its poetic persona. Divination was a controversial subject in some religions and societies, but a careful eye cannot fail to detect the persistence of this phenomenon in most cultures. Why do people want to anticipate the future or uncover what is hidden? The answer is apparent: to avoid errors in the important decisions of life, to have some advantage over chance and the unexpected, to improve a given situation with reliable decisions, to make easy money, to keep only trustworthy friends, to choose the right partner, etc. Not all of those who practice divination or believe in omens and portents have the same understanding about the state of things in the world and the result of individual actions, what one might call fate. The divinatory phenomenon seems to work within different mental attitudes regarding past, present, and future events, for instance a hard or a soft version of fate as regards the future (using modern terminology and leaving room for a spectrum between the two). In the hard version nothing can be changed, while in the soft version there is a possibility of changing the outcome For use by the Author only | © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV must be named an art based on experience (meleʾḵet ha-nissaion). Even so, many people consider this part as the fruit and advantage obtained from the first (astronomy), for the men of this world obtain advantage from it. Sages do not give this high consideration to it, for the proofs (reʾayot) that it uses are not sure and solid, but they rely on interpretations (hasbarot) and experiences (nisionot);" see J.M.

Ancient Divination and Experience, 2019

The introduction to this volume describes the contribution that it makes to scholarship on ancient divinatory practices. It analyses previous and current research, arguing that while this predominantly functionalist work reveals important socio-political dimensions of divination, it also runs the risk of obscuring from view the very people, ideologies, and experiences that scholars seek to understand. It explains that the essays in this volume focus on re-examining what ancient people—primarily those in ancient Greek and Roman communities, but also Mesopotamian and Chinese cultures—thought they were doing through divination. The Introduction provides an overview of the content of each chapter and identifies key themes and questions shared across chapters. The volume explores the types of relationships that divination created between mortals and gods, and what this can tell us about the religions and cultures in which divination was practised.

Croatica Christiana Periodica, 2022

This article analyzes the characteristics of divination since early Christianity, canonical regulations on the practice, and the arguments for which it was condemned by the theologians. It will also analyze the semantic ambivalence of medieval vocabulary in relation to divinatory practices. Since only God’s prophetic power was allowed, all types of prognostication of the future without His approval were considered false and illegitimate. What this article will show is that from the early Middle Ages onwards, divination was distinguished by other prognostic methods through the nature of the divine messages and human reasoning. https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/file/398419