INTRODUCTION TO PROPHETS

By

Paul L. Redditt

Published by WM. EERDMANS

Prophets” in the ancient world were individuals said to possess an intimate association with God or the
gods, and conducted the business of transmitting messages between the divine and earthly realms. They
spoke on behalf of God or the gods, and on occasion solicited requests from the deity or brought to the
deity requests of [Link] discovery of texts from the ancient Near East in the 19th and early 20th
centuries has given us a fuller picture of prophets and prophetic activity in the ancient world, adding
considerably to reports of prophets serving other gods in the Bible and corroborating details about
prophets in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Two collections are important: (1) letters from the 18th-
century Mari written during the reigns of Yasmaḫ-Addu (c. 1792–1775) and Zimri-Lim (c. 1774–1760);
and (2) the 7th-century annals of Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (680–669) and Assurbanipal (668–627).

Prophecies at Mari are favorable for the most part, and censures of the king, when they occur, are not
harsh. Many simply remind the king of some neglect or give him some warning. One tells the king to
practice righteousness and justice for anyone who has been wronged. None censures the people of Mari
as biblical prophecies do the people of Israel. Assyrian oracles are largely oracles of peace and wellbeing,
typically giving assurance to the king about matters of succession and success in defeating enemies. If
prophets admonish the king, it is a mild rebuke about the king ignoring a prior oracle or not having
provided food at the temple. According to the Bible, Israel’s prophetic movement began with Samuel,
and it arose at the time when people asked for a king. Prophets appear all throughout the monarchy and
into the postexilic period, when Jewish tradition believed prophecy had ceased. Yet, prophets reappear
in the New Testament and early church: Anna the prophetess, John the Baptist, Jesus, and others. Paul
allows prophets to speak in the churches, ranking them second only to apostles.

Hebrew prophets give messages much like those of other ancient Near Eastern prophets, but what
makes them different is that they announce considerably more judgment—sometimes very harsh
judgment—on Israel’s monarchs, leading citizens, and the nation itself. Israel’s religion had its
distinctives. Yahweh was bound to the nation by a covenant containing law that had to be obeyed.
Prophets in Israel were therefore much preoccupied with indicting and judging kings, priests, other
prophets, and an entire people for covenant disobedience. Also, in Israel the lawgiver was Yahweh, not
the king. In Mari, as elsewhere in the ancient Near East, the king was lawgiver. Deuteronomy contains
tests for true and false prophets, to which prophets themselves add other disingenuine marks regarding
their contemporaneous prophetic colleagues. Hebrew prophets from the time of Amos onward speak in
poetry and are skilled in rhetoric, using an array of tropes and knowing how to argue. Their discourse
also contains an abundance of humor and drama. Speaking is supplemented with symbolic action, and in
some cases the prophets themselves became the symbol.
Bibliography

Anthonioz, S. – A. Mouton – D. Petit (eds.), When Gods Speak to Men: Divine Speech According to
Textual Sources in the Ancient Mediterranean Basin (OBO 289; Leuven: Peeters, 2019).

Barstad, H. M., "Comparare necesse est? Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy in a
Comparative Perspective", in M. Nissinen (ed.), Prophecy in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context:
Mesopotamian, Biblical, and Arabian Perspectives (Society of Biblical Literature. Symposium Series, 13;
Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000) 3-11.

Ben Zvi, E. – M. H. Floyd (eds.), Writings and Speech in Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy
(SBLSymS 10; Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).

Blum, E., "Israels Prophetie im altorientalischen Kontext. Anmerkungen zu neueren

Deluty, J. B., Prophet, Intermediary, King: The Dynamics of Mediation in the Biblical World and Old
Babylonian Mari (CHANE 137; Leiden: Brill, 2024).

PROPHETS, PROPHECY, AND ANCIENT ISRAELITE HISTORIOGRAPHY

Edited by Mark J. Boda and Lissa Wray Beal

Hardcover Edition

ISBN: 978-1-57506-257-0

The 18 essays by members of the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies published in this volume
showcase the work of leading authorities on ancient Israelite and Jewish historiography as it intersects
with the phenomenon of prophecy. A deep divide exists between the traditions of historiography and
prophecy in the academic study of the Hebrew Bible, and the concern of the contributors is to close that
gap, to expose the close relationship between these two traditions in the literature of the Hebrew Bible.
The first section of the book explores prophecy and prophets in ancient Israelite and Jewish
historiographic books (Torah, Deuteronomistic History, Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, Second Temple
Jewish historiography). The second section surveys historiography in Israelite and Jewish prophetic
books (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Book of the Twelve, Daniel, 1 Enoch). The contributors engage diverse
methodological perspectives in these studies, the goal first being to show the role that the prophets
played within the great Hebrew historiographic works and, second, to demonstrate the role that
historiography plays within the great Hebrew prophetic works; this makes it clear that the influence is
bidirectional. Prophets, Prophecy, and Ancient Israelite Historiography will be of value for advanced
students and scholars working on historiographic and prophetic materials in the ancient Israelite and
Jewish traditions, featuring the best of research and analysis and interacting with many major ancient
literary traditions of historiography and prophecy.

Bibliography

Face to Face”: Moses as Prophet in Exodus 11:1–12:28 Bernon Lee

The Shaping of a Prophet: Joshua in the Deuteronomistic History Gordon Oeste

Recycling Heaven’s Words: Receiving and Retrieving Divine Revelation in the Historiography of Judges
Mark J. Boda

Samuel Agonistes: A Conflicted Prophet’s Resistance to God and Contribution to the Failure of Israel’s
First King J. Richard Middleton

Prophecy as Prediction in Biblical Historiography John Van Seters

Jeroboam and the Prophets in 1 Kings 11–14: Prophetic Word for Two Kingdoms Lissa M. Wray Beal

Presumptuous Prophets Participating in a Deuteronomic Debate K. L. Noll

Prophecy Influencing History: Dialogism in the Chronicler’s Ahaz Narrative Paul S. Evans

Chronicles and Its Reshaping of Memories of Monarchic Period Prophets: Some Observations Ehud Ben
Zvi

Deus ex Machina and Plot Construction in Ezra 1–6 Lisbeth S. Fried