Prophecy FINAL

• Arose in Israel as a check on the King
• It rose and fell with the monarchy and the divided kingdom

• God's messenger or spokesman
• "Nevi'im" is the plural for "prophets"

Great old testament prophets are primarily forth-tellers (proclaiming God's truth to the crisis at hand) rather than fore-tellers (predicting the future)

Various method to see (seer) or divine a word from God, usually an answer to a yes or no question

Within Israel, seers used divine lots

• Consulting the dead
• Astrology and animal entrails reading were used beyond Israel
• By contrast, for Israel's prophets, knowing the future is not soothsaying. It is anticipating the unfolding of a present spiritual condition

• Possessed by a spirit in an ecstatic frenzy
• Elsewhere in the ancient world, sometimes artificially induced with wine or opium
• At the shrine to Apollo in Delphi, Greece, archaeologists have discovered evidence of fumes that may account for the trance-like state

The great 9th century BCE prophets who confronted Israel's decadent kings

• Prophets who confronted Israel's Decadent kings (pre-classical prophets)
• Received much insight through dream and visions
• "When there are prophets among you, I the Lord make myself known to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams"
• Every time an angel appears to Joseph in the Gospels, it is in a dream

• The greatest of the 9th Century BCE, Pre-Classical (non literary) prophets
• He offers both a prophetic challenge and orchestrates a political collapse of the wicked King Ahab
• The Elijah story clearly places the prophet about the king in the spiritual hierarchy of Israel

• Baal was the Canaanite storm god whose consort was Baalath or Asherah
• Baal's love-making with his female consort revived the fertility of the womb and field
• This could be encouraged by the sympathetic magic of sacred prostitution
• Offered a way to control the gods and the elements rather than obey the mysterious Yahweh
• The Hebrews were drawn to Baalism especially in times of famine

• King Ahab marries a Phonecian princess named Jezebel who is an ardent promoter of Baalism
• Elijah, a fearsome prophet, arises to confront this challenge

• Elijah ascends to heaven in a chariot of fire, the only prophet so honored
• He is also presented as a new Moses, signaling a new Era in Hebrew history: the Prophets
• Elijah's successor, Elisha, arranges a bloody coup that brings Ahab's rein to an end

Dreams, Visions, Urim and Thummim, Ecstatic Vision, stillness of Conscious, and Instight

• Elisha's death marks the end of the 9th century BCE pre-classical prophets
• They are remembered mostly for their deeds rather than their words
• The 8th century BCE and beyond Classical prophets left a literary legacy: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah
• They are remembered for their spoken oracles and written words

Two sections in the Hebrew Bible

• Historical Narratives: Joshua-Kings (The Deuteronomistic History)
• History understood in light of the prophetic Torah
• 1 & 2 Kings: "King _____ did what was evil in the sight of the Lord."

Major and Minor refer to the fact if they consume one scroll or if there are several to one scroll

• Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
• Require 1 Scroll Each

• The book of the 12
• All on 1 Scroll

Law, History, Writing, Prophets

Torah, Nevi'im, Kethuvium (Law, Prophets, Writings)

Amos and Hosea

• First of the classical or literary prophets (8th century BC)
• Prophesied during period of peace and prosperity
• The Assyrian empire was on the rise
• Assyria will be God's instrument of God's judgment due to social injustice (Amos) and apostasy (Hosea)

• Inaugurated period of classical prophecy during the reign of king Jeroboam
• Scholars consider him the first of the classical prophets
• Lavish wealth of the rich created gross injustices for the poor and powerless
• Amos, shepherd and dirt farmer from the south, went to bitterly denounce the decadent north

• Social Injustice: Called for justice for the poor
• Religious Hypocrisy: Appalled by piety lacking morality
• Judgment is Coming: "The Day of the Lord" A day of judgment, not triumph

• Against the nations, including Israel
• Yahweh is no patron deity nor Israel's "mascot"
• Yahweh is a cosmic, not national deity
• Israel has been judged by God's plumb line and been found wanting

• A contemporary of Amos, for whom the root problem is apostasy, which he conceives of as infidelity to God
• Hosea's marriage to the promiscuous Gomer is a parable of Yahweh's relationship to Israel
• Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God shows hesed (covenant love)
• Yahweh also likened to a loving father
• Hosea is more compassionate that Amos, perhaps due to his personal story

• Neither Hosea's compassion nor Amos' stinging critique turn Israel from evil
• Israel falls to the Assyrians
• For the Deuteronomic historian, this is an inevitable result of Israel apostasy