THE PROPHETS AND THE
PROMISE
BY
WILLIS JUDSON BEECHER
Digitized by Ted Hildebrandt at Gordon College 2005
1905 by Thomas Y. Crowell, New York.
PREFACE
IN part the Stone lectures as delivered were a selec-
tion from the materials of this volume, and in part the
volume is an expansion of the lectures. It is a product
of studies, accumulating during many years, rather than
a predirected discussion of a subject, but I hope that it
will not be found deficient in logical coherence.
The presentation it makes is essentially a restatement
of the Christian tradition that was supreme fifty years
ago, but a restatement with differences so numerous
and important that it will probably be regarded, by men
who do not think things through, as an attack on that
tradition. If what I have said makes that impression
on any one, and if he regards the matter as of sufficient
importance, I ask him to consider it more carefully. I
have tried to make my search a search for the truth,
without undue solicitude as to whether its results are
orthodox; but it seems to me that my conclusions are
simply the old orthodoxy, to some extent transposed into
the forms of modern thought, and with some new ele-
ments introduced by widening the field of the induction.
It follows, of course, that my position is antagonistic
to that of the men who attack the older tradition. But
I have tried not to be polemic. I have tried to give
due consideration to the views of the men with whom
I differ. Where practicable, I have preferred the
broader statements, in which we are in agreement, to
the narrower ones that would emphasize our differences.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
PAGE
Scope of the work 3
I. Sources. The scriptures as a source. Direct study versus
general reading. Is the testimony credible? Direct examination
versus cross-examination. Dependence on critical questions. The
provisionally historical point of view. Evidence tested by use 4
II. Interpreting the sources. Avoid eisegesis. Eisegesis of
Christian doctrine. Of negative assumptions. Of theories of reli-
gion. Of particular schemes of Comparative Religion. A true
method 9
III. Points concerning the treatment. Outline. Certain matters
of detail 15
PART I
THE PROPHETS
CHAPTER II
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS
Prophet. Nabhi and its cognates. Hhozeh and its cognates.
Roeh and its cognates. The uses of raah and hhazah. Man of
God. Word of Yahaweh. Saith Yahaweh. Man of the Spirit.
Massa. Hittiph. Metaphorical terms 21
Terms used at all dates. Interchangeable as to the person de-
noted. Three degrees of extension. Raving 32
CHAPTER III
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS
Introductory. The subject attractive. Division into periods 36
I. Prophecy in the times before Samuel. Before Abraham.
The patriarchs as prophets. Prophecy in the times of Moses and
vii
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
Joshua. In the times of the Judges. The dearth of prophecy in the
time of Eli 38
II. Prophecy in the times of Samuel and later. First period,
that of Samuel, David, and Nathan : the great names, the organ-
izations, the terms that are used. Second period, from the disrup-
tion to Elisha: distinguished prophets, "the sons of the prophets,"
false prophets, the use of terms. Third period, that of Amos and
Isaiah: the great prophets, the numbers of the prophets true and
false, the use of terms. Fourth period, that of Jeremiah and others:
the great names, the many prophets true and false. Fifth period,
the exilian prophets : the great names and the many prophets true
and false. Sixth period, the postexilian prophets: the great names
and the many other prophets. The cessation of prophecy 47
CHAPTER IV
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE
The question. How affected by one's critical position 66
I. External appearance of the prophet. Baseless current ideas.
Unearthly phenomena absent. Was there a prophetic costume?
The facts significant even if negative. Did the prophets rave?
The prophets long-lived 67
II. The organizations of the prophets. Samuel's "companies."
The Naioth institution. "The sons of the prophets" 76
III. The so-called prophetic order. Holy orders. The prophets
a succession. They had no priestly character. Was the prophet a
graduate? Ordination. How one became a prophet 80
The prophet especially a manly man. The absence of insignia
noteworthy 85
CHAPTER V
THE FUNCTIONS OF A PROPHET—NATURALISTIC
AND SUPERNATURALISTIC
Introductory. Guarding against mistaken assumptions. The
name indicates the function. Passages that outline the prophetic
function 88
I. Naturalistic functions. They were public men. Jeremiah as
a statesman. Isaiah and Hosea as statesmen. Prophetic ideal of
a reunited Israel. Elijah and Elisha as statesmen. The prophets
were reformers. Some of their reforms. They were preachers of
CONTENTS ix
PAGE
good tidings. They were literary men. Certain points need to be
guarded. Different grades and kinds of prophets. The prophet
both local and cosmopolitan. The sense in which devout persons
or great leaders are prophets 93
II. Supernaturalistic functions. The prophets claim them.
Working of miracles, disclosing of secrets, prediction, the giving
of torah, the messianic forecast. Revealers of the monotheism of
Yahaweh 105
CHAPTER VI
THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE
I. How given to him. The source of his inspiration is the Spirit
of Yahaweh. Utterances inspired by the Spirit. Deeds inspired
by the Spirit. Micaiah's lying Spirit. The nature of the Spirit of
Yahaweh. The modes in which the prophet received his message.
Classification of them. Dreams. The interpreting of dreams.
Picture-vision. Visions of insight. Hhazah versus raah. Vision
other than by sense-images. Theophany. Its forms. The Angel.
Theophany versus picture-vision. The notable absence of artificial
excitation 110
II. How uttered by him. Prophetic object lessons. Types.
No double meanings. Manifold fulfilment. Generic prophecy.
The art of persuasive speech 125
CHAPTER VII
THE PROPHET AS A GIVER OF TORAH AND
WRITER OF SCRIPTURE
General statements 133
I. The term "law" in later writings. Current use. Use in
Jewish literature, later and earlier. In the New Testament. Ira
the Apocrypha 134
II. The term "law" in the Old Testament. Derivation of torah
and horah. Torah is from Deity. Is authoritative. Revealed
through prophets. Guarded and administered by. priests. Inter-
preted by both. No separate priestly torah. Its forms. Oral or
written. A particular revelation. An aggregate. The noun used
abstractly. The known and definite aggregate. Some section of
the aggregate 139
x CONTENTS
PAGE
The nature of the torah-aggregate. Limitations of the term.
Examination of instances. From earlier records of the Mosaic
times. From Deuteronomy and the writings that presuppose it.
From the earlier prophetic books. The torah not primarily the
pentateuch. Law and Prophets and Writings from the first. A
separate pentateuch? The torah and the Old Testament. Some
sources were torah and others not. Five torah-producing periods.
Not three canons. Later emergence of the threefold division 155
III. The prophets as writers of scripture. As bringers of torah.
Their authority the highest. All scripture equally of prophetic
authority 168
PART II
THE PROMISE
CHAPTER VIII
THE PROMISE–DOCTRINE AS TAUGHT IN THE NEW
TESTAMENT
Introductory. The Christian messianic idea distinctive. Mes-
sianic prediction, prophecy, doctrine. The proposition 175
I. The New Testament claim. That there is one promise. The
promise to Abraham. Consisting of many promises. The theme of
the whole Old Testament. Pervading all New Testament thought 179
II. The use made of the claim. The promise eternally operative
and irrevocable. Jesus Christ its culminating fulfilment. The gen-
tiles share in the benefit of it. It underlies the great doctrines of
the gospel: the kingdom, immortality, the Holy Ghost, redemption
from sin 185
Concluding statements. Recapitulation. A Christocentric theology 192
CHAPTER IX
THE PROMISE AS GIVEN TO THE PATRIARCHS
Outline of treatment. Pre-Abrahamic passages 195
I. The promise as made. Earliest statement. Its subordinate
items. The principal item emphasized. Climacteric order. Five
times repeated. The name Abraham. Seed. Covenants. Pecul-
iar people. The promise eternally operative. This emphasized.
Therefore of progressive fulfilment. The seed a continuing unit 197
CONTENTS xi
PAGE
II. Problems concerning the promise. How affected by critical
theories. What is true according to all theories. The contem-
porary understanding of the promise. In what sense they under-
stood it to be predictive. Its value as practical doctrine 207
CHAPTER X
THE PROMISE AS RENEWED TO ISRAEL AND TO
DAVID
I. For the times of the exodus. Israel Yahaweh's people
Yahaweh's son. Separative institutions. For eternity. Irrevocable
even for sin. Rest. Has mankind a share in this? That all
may know Yahaweh. "My own, out of all the peoples." A king-
dom of priests. Continuity with the patriarchal revelation. Con-
sistent with the treatment of Amalek and the Canaanite. Critical
point of view. Contemporary interpretation 217
II. For the times of David. 2 Samuel vii. David's house. His
seed. The temple builder. Line of kings. An eternal kingdom.
Irrevocable even for sin. In continuation with the promise to
Abraham and Israel, and therefore for mankind. The rest promise.
"To thee for a people." "One nation in the earth." Yahaweh's
son. The torah of mankind. Critical views. Contemporary in-
terpretation 228
CHAPTER XI
THE PROMISE–DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS AND
PSALMISTS
Introductory. Recapitulation. A new phase. The messianic
dogma. Its homiletical presentation 241
I. Modes of expressing it. The predictive passages. A sermon
text or a proof text. Repeating the old phrases. Amplifying them.
Psalm lxxxix. Celebration songs. Technical terms and collateral
lines. Presupposition oftener than open statement 243
II. The matters which they emphasize. The three promises the
same. The promise cosmopolitan. The temple for the nations.
Israel for the nations. The promise for eternity and irrevocable.
Modes of thinking that it created. Israel as the people of the
promise. Mediatorial suffering 252
Critical questions 261
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII
MESSIANIC TERMS. THE SERVANT
PAGE
Introductory. Recapitulation. Rise of technical terms. "Ser-
vant" the most conspicuous term. Isaiah xl—lxvi 263
I. Two auxiliary matters. First, national personality in the
Hebrew. Second, presuppositions of the promise history 265
II. The Servant. Outline. Instances in which the Servant is
said to be Israel. Interpreting the instances. The promise point
of view. The Israel of the promise. Instances that are less explicit.
Servants. The Servant speaking in the first person. Israel's mis-
sion to himself. Isaiah xlii. 1—4. Isaiah lii. i3-liii. Mediatorial
sufferings 270
III. Servant a representative term. Two one-sided interpre-
tations. The true interpretation. Universalness. A glimpse at the
fulfilments 285
CHAPTER XIII
MESSIANIC TERMS. THE KINGDOM AND ITS
ANOINTED KING
I. The kingdom. In the earliest times. The time of Eli. From
David onward. In the psalms and prophecies. Yahaweh's king-
dom. Universal peace. Independent of disputed dates. A king-
dom of influence 289
II. The anointed king. The words "anoint," "anointed."
Correct form of the question. The Messiah as a coming person.
Transition to the New Testament idea 298
III. The eschatological trend. The latter days. The day of
Yahaweh. That day. History of the phrase. Exodus. Joel. Oba-
diah, Amos, and others. Always impending. The New Testament
presentation 304
CHAPTER XIV
MESSIANIC TERMS. YAHAWEH'S HHASIDH. OTHER
TERMS
I. Hhasidh. Its derivation and meaning. Outline of instances.
Yahaweh as hhasidh. The hhasidhim are Israelites as people of
the promise. Not a sect. Israel a hhasidh nation. Hhasidh as
equivalent to Anointed one. The instances where the readings
vary. Summary. The Asideans. In the New Testament 313
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
II. The Chosen one. Meshullam. The Called one. Jeshurun.
Yahaweh's Son. Sons of promise. The virgin mother. The
Branch. Netser. Nagidh, that is, Regent. "My Lord" in
Psalm cx 329
The common characteristics of the messianic terms 342
CHAPTER XV
COLLATERAL LINES OF PROMISE-DOCTRINE
Introductory. Recapitulation. The Person of the promise. That
in him which is extraordinary. Genesis xlix. to. Psalm cx. To
what extent a reality. A nucleus for doctrine. Both typical and
antitypal 344
I. The prophets themselves types of the Person of the promise.
Deuteronomy xviii 350
II. The theophanic Angel in his relations to the promise. In
the earliest times. At the exodus. In later times. In Malachi 352
III. Israel's institutions as typical of the promise. The ark and
the mercy seat. The sacred year. Some worshippers had insight.
Israel's priesthood. Victim and priest 357
IV. Other matters. Persons or objects as types. Particular
passages. In fine, almost all Old Testament details 361
CHAPTER XVI
MESSIANIC EXPECTATION AND FULFILMENT
I. The expectation in the time, of Jesus. Sources. A temporal
deliverer? More adequate statement. The promise-doctrine
known. Not a Pauline view merely. The kingdom expected.
And its Anointed king. Heir of David. But many unsettled
points. There were spiritual expectations. Especially of redemp-
tion from sin. False messiahs 365
II. How the promise has been fulfilled. As a promise, and not
mere prediction. An eternal fulfilment necessarily cumulative.
National and cosmopolitan and through a Person. In what sense
may Jesus be the fulfilment? A summary of the fulfilling facts.
Exclusive Jewish interpretation. Exclusive Christian interpretation.
The true Jewish-Christian interpretation. Fulfilment in the ethnical
Israel, in the religions of Yahaweh, in Christ 375
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVII
THE APOLOGETIC VALUE OF PROPHECY
PAGE
Introductory. The old argument. Need of restatement. Our
conclusions thus far provisional; are they true ? Theistic pre-
suppositions 387
I. Recapitulation. The prophet as we have found him. Pre-
diction as we have found it. Messianic doctrine as we have found
it. The gospel in the Old Testament as we have found it 391
II. The argument. From the presentment of the prophet. The
biblical ideal a true ideal. Apologetic bearings. Its concept of
divine revelation. From the presentment of the national ideal.
The bearing of critical theories. The significance of the ideal.
How is it to be accounted for? A contrasting ideal. The pro-
phetic mode of presentation. From historical verisimilitude. Self-
consistency. The promise-doctrine as a solution of difficulties.
Credibility. Unmiraculous events. Miraculous events. Intelligible
continuity. Bearings in the argument. From fulfilled prediction.
Has the promise been kept? The thing promised exceptional.
Fulfilled in the secular history of Israel. Eternal fulfilment? Media-
torial suffering. The argument not trivial. Fulfilled in the three
religions of Yahaweh. Their civilizational results. Their spiritual
results. Fulfilled in the person of Jesus. A futile objection. No
need that Apologetics surrender historical fact 394
THE PROPHETS AND THE
PROMISE
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
THE prophets of Israel: what manner of men they
were, their functions, naturalistic or supernaturalistic,
how their messages were given to them and how uttered
by them, their part in the writing of the scriptures, the
doctrine they taught concerning Israel's peculiar rela-
tions to Deity and to mankind, the messianic kingdom
they heralded and its king, and the value of their mis-
sion for the current illustration and defence of the Chris-
tian religion, —this theme and these topics under it are
certainly not new. They are familiar, trite, common-
place. Yet it seems to me that in this field a pains-
taking student may still hope to gather something. The
older treatments seem to me inadequate, by reason of a
certain lack of insight into the literary character of the
sources and into the nature of historical movements, and
by reason of too great reliance on traditional interpre-
tations. The newer treatments seem to me yet more
inadequate, by reason of the too easy rejection of por-
tions of the testimony, and the too ready substitution
of conjecture for evidence. Both leave something to
be desired in this field of study, and something that is
not beyond the reach of diligence and industry.
3
4 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
Without taking time to discuss thoroughly the prin-
ciples that should govern such an investigation as this,
I shall try to present, in this preliminary chapter, a few
considerations touching the sources to be used and the
interpretation of them, followed by a brief outline of the
treatment that will be attempted.
I. The Old Testament is our one direct source of in-
formation concerning the prophets and their teachings.
Indirect sources are, first, the New Testa-
Sources ment and other later writings, including the
evidence of the 'monuments; second, analogies drawn
from other religions, or from later times, or from our
theories or opinions.
Of these sources the Old Testament, supplemented
at some points by the New, is principal, and all others
The scrip- are subsidiary. Simple as this fact is, it is
tures as a imperative that we pay it due attention. Our
source generation is much in the habit of substitut-
ing superficial reading for careful study. If a person
has read a hundred volumes, in six or seven languages,
concerning the prophets, he is in danger of fancying
that he has done more work on the subject than if he
had carefully examined all that the Old and New !Testa-
ments say about them. To avoid being misled, he
should have it in mind that the hundred volumes con-
tain very little real information save that which has
been drawn from these principal sources. Nireteen-
twentieths of all that we really know on this subject
comes from the bible. Only the other twentieth comes
from extrabiblical tradition, or from monuments, or from
the analogy of other religions, or by inference from
the theories we hold, or from our general knowledge
of things and men.
My purpose is, mainly, to reexamine the evidence
PRELIMINARY 5
found in the Old and New Testaments. To some this
programme will seem exceedingly simple and rudimen-
tary. They would think it a greater thing to The need
read many books, and discuss the bearing of of original
their contents on the subject in hand. But study
no amount of reading can supersede the necessity of
examining for ourselves the direct evidence in the case.
Just this has been more neglected than anything else
in dealing with the subject of the prophets of Israel.
Men of learning as well as others have neglected it.
We must do this first of all, and do it with care, or
all other study of the subject will be of little value
to us.
Men have assumed that they were already famil-
iar with what the Old Testament says concerning the
prophets, when they were not really so ; and have
hastened on prematurely to the examination of the col-
lateral branches of the evidence. Many of the current
statements as to what the Old Testament says are based
on analogies, or on later traditions, to a much greater
extent than on the actual testimony of the Old Testa-
ment. Such statements are instances of mistaken
method. The direct evidence in the case is not only
the most important, but it is essential to the correct
understanding of the indirect evidence. The indirect
evidence can genuinely assist in interpreting the direct
only on condition of its being itself interpreted by
the direct. In Old Testament studies, the thing now
more needed than anything else is a more correct
knowledge of what the Old Testament says. Always
the, beginner should begin by attaining to this correct
knwledge; and at present, in Old Testament work,
this is the need of advanced scholars as well as of
beginners.
6 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
At once we see the importance of the question of the;
degree of credence to be accorded to the testimony of
In what degree our principal sources, If we hold to a divine
is the testimony inspiration that guarantees the remarkable
credible? truthfulness of all parts of the bible, it
does not therefore follow that we must take this doc
trine as a presupposition in our historical study of
the prophets. And if one holds that the bible is full
of mistaken statements, that does not justify him in an,
undiscriminating rejection of the statements concerning
the prophets. Both as a matter of correct method;
and for the sake of convincing those with whom we
differ, we should waive, at the outset, all questions of
inspiration, and treat our sources merely as literature
that has come down to us from a remote past. In
respect to trustworthiness we will make no stronger
claim than this : that statements of fact found in the
Old and New Testaments are to be provisionally
regarded as true except as reasons appear to the
contrary.
This is not an extravagant claim to make for the
truthfulness of the scriptures. Our courts would accor l
as much credence as this, not to a reputable witness
only, but even to a witness who is a jailbird or a harlot
or a noted liar. If statements of fact are self-contradic-
tory, or contrary to known truth, we will not accept
them. Even if they are seemingly credible we will at
the outset accept them only provisionally, till we can
test them by their results when we bring them into corr.-
bination with other truths. We will fully admit the prin-
ciple that human historians often make mistakes. Blot
this we must insist upon: that statements of fact are
to be provisionally accepted unless there are substantial
reasons for not accepting them.
PRELIMINARY 7
It follows that in using the testimony of the Old and
New Testaments on this and other questions, we ought
to begin with a direct examination, and not Direct examination
with a cross-examination. We ought to take versus cross-
the trouble to understand what their statements examination
mean, in the form in which they have come down to us,
as preliminary to testing the truth of them, and either
accepting or rejecting them.
As our investigation depends largely on the question
of the historical correctness of the affirmations of the
bible, so it depends indirectly on questions Dependence
concerning the structure, the date, and the on critical
authorship of the books. For these have questions
their bearing on the question of historicity, and also on
the question of the interpretation of the statements we
find. Yet we need not wait till all these other questions
are settled before we begin our studies concerning the
prophets. Indeed, many of the questions concerning
the prophets are more simple and primary than the
others, and therefore ought to be studied first, that the
results reached may assist us in our inquiries into mat-
ters that are less obvious.
Our first inquiry is : What are the representations of
the Old Testament in regard to the prophets? In other
words : What manner of men were the proph- The provi-
ets, supposing the statements of the Old sional point
Testament concerning them to be historical, of view
so far as they purport to be so, and supposing them also
to be correct? From the point of view of all parties this
is a fair question. It is supposable that, in seeking the
answer, we may find the statements of the Old Testa-
ment unsatisfactory, but at the outset the question is a
fair one. On the supposition that the Old Testament
gives a truthful account of the prophets of Israel, what
8 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
is that account? We do not affirm that it give a
truthful account; we do not deny it; we simply up-
pose it.
It is wisest to start from this point of departure, not
trying to settle beforehand all questions in regard to the
character or the trustworthiness of our data, but using
them at first as provisional, and as leading only to pro-
visional results. We shall surely test the data as we ad-
vance. If they are not trustworthy, we shall find it but.
If they are trustworthy, we shall see them to be so, and
shall thus transform our provisional results into final
results.
These last considerations are important. How shall
we determine whether statements of fact found in any
Use as a test source are to be depended upon? There is
of evidence no better test than that of actual use. By
carefully examining what the Old Testament says on
such a subject as the prophets, we may form a judgment
concerning the Old Testament as a source of evidence.
Certain schools of criticism deny that these books are
historically valid, asserting that they are full of anach-
ronisms and inconsistencies and absurdities. In base
this is so, we shall be pretty sure to find traces of the
unhistorical character of the books, if we carefully ex-
amine some section of them, running through different
chronological periods. Such a section for testing them
is afforded in what they say concerning the prophets.
This is found scattered through all the books, including
a vast number of details and allusions, belonging to
periods of time separated by centuries. It is conceivable
beforehand that we may find these details so confused
and inconsistent as to be incredible in many points, and
that we may be compelled to estimate the books accord-
ingly. On the other hand, if we find their account of
PRELIMINARY 9
the prophets to be throughout consistent and probable,
that will be an argument of no little weight in favor of
the historical trustworthiness of the books themselves.
Thus our attitude toward these writings and their
testimony is at the outset neutral. It will not remain
so. As the investigation proceeds we shall inevitably
either gain or lose confidence in the witnesses.
II. In the interpretation of our sources, and especially
of the Old Testament, there is one point in particular in
which we need to be sedulously on our guard. That is
the point where we are in danger of substituting an
eisegetical treatment for an exegetical.
None of us come to this study as to a new and unfa-
miliar subject. We already have pretty distinct ideas
concerning the prophets and their activities, Eisegesis is
and in particular concerning messianic predic- to be avoided
tion, and the meaning and use of the term Messiah. It
is supposable that our preconceived ideas may be crude
and misleading. We can decide this only by holding
them in suspense until we can test them by the facts
we find by study. We cannot be too jealously careful
against the process of merely first putting our ideas into
the Old Testament passages, and then dipping them out
again. There is especial danger of eisegesis from two
sources, Christian theology and theories of Compara-
tive Religion.
We must avoid alike the carrying back of Christian
ideas into the Old Testament and the neglecting of
those ideas that belong to the Old Testament in com-
mon with Christianity.
When we are studying the Old Testament we ought
not to import into it ideas drawn from the New Testa-
ment, or from some scheme of Christian messianic the-
ology. This rule is nowadays often laid down; if we
10 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
violate it, we shall not do so for lack of being warned; but
it is a correct rule. And we shall not properly observe
Eisegesis of it unless we take pains. We are familiar, for
Christian example, with a certain interpretation of w5at
doctrine the New Testament says concerning Jesus
as the Messiah, and we go to the Old Testament look-
ing for the same teaching expressed in similar terms.
In this way we are likely to find what we are looking
for, whether it is there or not. We sometimes find
thing's where they are not. We put the idea into he
passage, instead of looking to see what is already in he
passage ; and then, by way of interpretation, we take out
just what we have put in, possibly a little miscolored by
the process.
This way of studying the Old Testament is all he
more dangerous because it is not altogether valueless.
The method of interpreting the Old Testament by he
light of the New is within its proper limits correct.
Even when the method is incorrectly used, such study
is study. Though faulty, it may, especially in the case
of persons who have spiritual insight, result in he
reaching of truth. Critically bad as this way of learn-
ing is, we cannot afford to forego it save as we an
replace it by something better.
Nevertheless it is logically bad. It is contrary to
accepted laws of investigation. There are grave objec-
tions to it. First, it is needless. All the truth it yields
is equally attainable by methods that will stand the test
of correct criticism. Second, it is perilous. The truth
we thus reach, though genuinely true, has yet been
inferred from premises that can be shown to be false.
There is danger that when we come to see that he
premises are false, our confidence in the truth will be
shaken. Third, it is wasteful. By this particular way
PRELIMINARY 11
of learning the Old Testament through the New we
obtain from it nothing but a pale reflection of the New.
This is a great loss. In a wide range of truths the
Old Testament is more rudimentary, and therefore
simpler and fuller than the New. It is capable of
illuminating the New, and not merely of being illuminated
by it. When so much light is ready to glow, we cannot
afford to take a point of view which brings the object
perpetually into the shadow.
Equally true, however, and at present far more to
the purpose, is the converse rule that, in studying the
Old Testament, we should not drop out the Eisegesis of
ideas which we actually find there, merely be- negative
cause the same ideas are also found in the assumptons
New Testament. We are just now in far greater danger
of making this mistake than the other. There are men
who are so afraid of reading into the Old Testament
some more recent truth that does not belong there that
they actually expel from it, in their interpretations, some
of its simplest and most evident teachings. They say,
for example, that the fatherhood of God is a New Testa-
ment teaching; ands they affirm that the Old Testament
passages which speak of God as father must be under-
stood as meaning something less than they say. We are
not infrequently told that the heart of the religious teach-
ing of Jesus is his doctrine concerning love — to love God
with the whole heart, to love our neighbors as ourselves,
to love our enemies and in this the religion of Jesus is
contrasted with that of the Old Testament; and pas-
sages in the Old Testament which verbally teach just
these doctrines are subjected to a squeezing process to
expel from them this alleged impossible doctrine of love.
Those who practise this style of interpretation ignore
the fact that the doctrines of supreme love to God,
12 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
equal love to men, and love to enemies are chiefly
taught in the New Testament by direct citation from
the Old, with distinct affirmation that these are the doc-
trines which are to be regarded as central in the Old
Testament. The same style of interpretation is prac-
tised in many other instances, and in particular n the
interpretation of the Old Testament statements concern-
ing the prophets.
Against this I protest as being critically worst than
even the current habit of reading New Testament ean-
ings into the Psalms and the Prophets. We are to go to
the Old Testament to find what is there, and not to find
what we suppose ought to be there. Anything we find
there is not removed from there by the fact, if such be
the fact, that it is also found in the New Testament, or
in the Vedas or the Sagas or the Chinese or the reek
literature. Not to speak at all of possibilities rising
from the inspiration of the writers of the Old and New
Testaments, nothing is more in accord with probability
than that great truths should be repeated by the great
minds of different ages.
Quite as baneful in its effect as any other form of
eisegesis is the practice of unduly interpreting the
Eisegesis of biblical statements by the theories th t one
theories of may hold as to the evolution of religion. To
religion the evidence from the analogy of other reli-
gions we should allow just its proper value, and no
more. There are scholars who reason on the asump-
tion that certain propositions, inferred from the com-
parison of the various human religions, are to be
regarded as ascertained scientific facts; so that biblical
statements, if they conflict with these alleged facts, are
thereby proved to be untrue. This is unscientific. The
religion described in the bible is the one early religion
PRELIMINARY 13
in regard to which we have, on the whole, fuller and
more trustworthy information than in regard to any
other. Any generalizations on the rise and develop-
ment of religions, made without using the data given in
the bible, are, by that very circumstance, so far forth
defective and unscientific. Again, no other known re-
ligion is so decidedly marked by its own peculiarities
as the religion described in the bible. If generalizations
were made by the comparison of all other known reli-
gions, still no one would be justified in arguing that these
give us facts concerning the religion of Israel, in oppo-
sition to the specific evidence we have concerning that
religion.
Here is the danger in one direction. On the other
hand, the analogies of other religions may indirectly
throw great light on the history of the religion of the
bible. It is foolish to neglect this or any other source
of possible evidence. In fine, these analogies are, in
biblical questions, of the nature of remote evidence, and
should be treated as remote evidence is properly treated
in any investigation. They should neither be discred-
ited, nor pushed into the chief place to the discrediting
of the direct evidence.
This is the general rule. How much credit should
be given to any particular scheme of Comparative
Religion is another question. For instance, how shall
we account a theory which assumes that the religion of
Israel was primitive in the times of the judges, and
advanced thereafter by certain specified steps from
lower to higher? Do we know that the religion of the
time of the judges was primitive? If the chronological
opinions now current are correct, the times of the
judges are modern compared with the earliest times
in which splendid religious cults are known to have
14 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
existed in Babylonia or Egypt. Who knows that the
order of evolution in a religion is uniformly in an as end-
ing series, according to some particular theory of ascent
and descent?l It is obvious that conclusions derived
from such processes need to be very cautiously used
when they are set forth in contradiction to specific
evidence.
In opposition to such methods as have just bee dis-
cussed, the true method is to come to an Old Testament
A true passage with the question : What did this
method mean to an intelligent, devout, uninspired
Israelite of the time to which it belongs? The Old
Testament passage, whatever its date may be, is it elf a
monument of the Israelite mind of that time. As a dis-
closure of Israelite religious thought in the time when
it was written or in earlier times, it is more authoritative
than any inferences we may draw from what we happen
to know of the religious thought of the Iroquois o the
Hottentots or the Chinese or the Thibetans. In order
to understand the passage, we must bear in mind t at it
was uttered for thoughtful people, and was suite to
their capacities. The great majority was then as now
unintelligent and superficial in matters of religious
thinking, and we are not to gauge the utterance by the
likelihood that such would take an interest in it
1 "Scholars of this class are in the habit of arranging all know
and cults in linear series, placing those which they consider the lo
the bottom, and those which they consider the highest at the to
others graduating between these two extremes. From this artificial
proceeding on the assumption that the lowest must of necessity
most ancient, they write the history of civilization and thought.
method is a radically pernicious one. The series of facts might
easily read in the descending scale; . . . The history of religions
be based, not upon gratuitous assumptions . . . but upon such real
cal facts as are obtainable." — Merwin-Marie Snell in Biblical
September, 1896, p. 209.
PRELIMINARY 15
there were miraculously inspired men in those days,
they may supposably have understood the thought
given in the passage in the light of all the future history
of mankind ; but it was not for such men that the utter-
ance was chiefly given. The givers of the message
claim to be inspired, but it was to uninspired though
thoughtful men that the message was immediately
directed. So far forth as we can assume their attitude,
we are in shape to understand the utterances that were
primarily designed for them.
III. The order of treatment adopted in this volume
is based in part on a conception of the relative present-
day importance of the several topics treated. Order of
The greatest interest we feel in the prophets treatment
arises from the doctrine they taught concerning the
Messiah. On the basis of this fact, the subject separates
into two principal parts, dealing respectively with the
prophets as the men who promulgated the messianic
promise and with the promise which they promulgated.
In treating the first of these two parts we must necessarily
begin by some discussion of the terms used. Then we
pass naturally to a biographical and historical account
of the succession of persons known as the prophets.
Nowhere in history can we find a line of men more
picturesque and interesting in themselves, or whose
achievements have been more, significant. They figure
more prominently than any other men in the history of
Israel. A series of the biographies of the prophets
would be a complete history of Israel. This particularly
attractive part of our subject, however, we must dismiss
with a single chapter, instead of allowing it to expand
into a volume. With the questions of the personal pre-
sentment and the functions of the prophet we must deal
somewhat more fully. Further, the authorship of the
16 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
Old Testament is attributed to the prophets, alike in
the Old Testament itself, in the New Testament, and in
Jewish and Christian tradition. There is no studying
the Old Testament or Old Testament criticism, apart
from the prophets. We must discuss this claim, though
briefly. These topics will occupy the first part of the
volume, leading up to the consideration, in the second
part, of the messianic promise. The second part
naturally closes with the question of the bearing of the
whole upon Christian Apologetics.
It may not be superfluous to mention a fe matters
of detail. Most of the scriptural passages used have
Certain mat- been freshly translated. The translating has
ters of detail been done with the fact in mind that readers
are likely to have the current English version s within
reach. The translations I have given are ordinarily
more literal than those in the versions. In same cases
I have deliberately made them so at the cost of liter-
ary smoothness. Occasionally, however, the variation
from the common translation is made for the purpose
of bringing out the point under discussion.
The use of Hebrew type has been avoided. In
transliterating Hebrew words the attempt as been
to make them look as little un-English as possible, and
to avoid employing unusual type. Proper names and
other words familiar to the eye of English readers have
been retained in their traditional form. In words less
familiar a more accurate transliteration has been used,
though even in these the vocal sh'was are sometimes
represented by a short vowel instead of an apostrophe.
The continental vowel system has been used in trans-
literating, on account of the clumsiness of ou English
way of writing the vowels. Waw is represented by
w, and Yodh by y. The quiescing Waw is omitted,
PRELIMINARY 17
save in special instances. The quiescing Yodh is
omitted after Hhiriq, but retained after Tsere and
Seghol, to distinguish these words from those that are
spelled with Aleph. I have not thought it necessary
to distinguish between Sin and Samekh, or between
Taw and Teth. Readers who know even a little
Hebrew can make these distinctions for themselves,
and for others the matter is unimportant. Aleph and
Ayin are commonly omitted in transliteration, though
for distinction Aleph is sometimes represented by the
spiritus lenis, and Ayin by the spiritus asper. Tsadhe
is represented by ts, and Hheth by hh.
For the name of the national God of Israel I have
used the form Yahaweh. No one should judge this
name until he has first acquired the habit of The name
pronouncing it correctly, according to the Yahaweh
analogies commonly accepted in pronouncing Hebrew.
Accent the last syllable, make the middle h distinctly
a consonant, and pronounce the middle a so short as to
make it a mere breathing. I do not care to discuss
the question whether "Yahweh" is theoretically a more
correct transliteration. Whoever tries to pronounce the
word with this spelling will inevitably either accent the
first syllable, or fail to sound the middle h, or introduce
a slight vowel sound after it. The third is the correct
alternative. If the word were rare, the best translit-
eration might be Yahweh, but for a frequent word,
Yahaweh pleases the eye better. For the rest, the
purposes of this volume require that this word shall
be distinguished as a proper name, and it seems to me
that the correct form of the word is better for this pur-
pose than the artificial combination "Jehovah.”
As for other designations of the supreme Being.
The name Yah should not be confounded with Yaha-
18 THE PROPHETS AND THE PROMISE
weh, as is done in the English versions. Even if
holds that Yah is an abbreviated form of Yahawe
must also acknowledge that the two are used
tinctively. The Hebrew word El is most exactly!
English word God, while Elohim is a more abs
term, like our English word Deity. Sometimes in
volume Elohim is translated Deity, for distinction;
more commonly it is translated God, following
established practice.
PART I
THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
CHAPTER II
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS
OUR English word " prophet " is, of course, the Greek
word profh<thj, from pro<, and fhmi<. The word needs
no discussion here, as it is fully considered in “Prophet"
dictionaries and other accessible works.1 It in Greek and
denotes, not one who speaks beforehand, English
though the prophet was believed to be a foreteller of
events ; nor one who speaks in behalf of another, though
the prophet ordinarily speaks in behalf of Deity; but a
person who speaks forth, speaks publicly, speaks out
the word that he has to speak. When he predicts, he
speaks forth the future verity that would otherwise
remain in concealment. When he speaks for another,
he speaks forth the message which the other has com-
mitted to him, and which would otherwise have remained
unknown. The thing uttered is often a divinely given
prediction, but the word "prophesy" does not signify to
predict.
In the Hebrew, the prophet and his functions are
described in various terms. The standard term, the one
that is most distinctive, is the noun nabhi and Nabhi and
its cognates of the stem nabha. The words its cognates
of this stem are used in every part of the Old Testa-
ment. In our English versions they are uniformly
translated "prophet," "prophesy," "prophecy," and so
1 See the Greek lexicons of Cremer, Thayer, Liddell and Scott, etc.
Or see the Century Dictionary, or Skeat's Etymological Dictionary, or simi-
lar books of reference.
21
22 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
forth. Except in five verses, no other word is so trans-
lated.1 The instances number some hundreds in all, and
they can readily be found for study by the aid of a con-
cordance, either English or Hebrew. We shall have
occasion to examine many of them, one by one, in our
present study of the prophets. The lexicons attribute to
the stem an original physical meaning, "to boil up," and
from this derive the idea of fervid utterance as charac-
terizing the prophets ; but this is an etymologist's con-
jecture, and is disputed by other etymologists. It is too
uncertain to build upon. What we know as to the
meaning of the word is inferred solely from the use of
it. Fortunately, the usage is abundant and unequivo-
cal. The whole of our study of prophecy will be really
a study of the meaning of the word. We need not antici-
pate further than to say that the meaning of the Hebrew
term is well expressed in its Greek-English equivalent.
In our English versions two different Hebrew words
are translated " seer," and each of them has a group of
cognates widely used for expressing matters concerning
the prophets.
Of the two, the one most properly so used is hhozeh.
It is the active participle of a verb that is common to the
Hhozeh and Hebrew and the Aramaic. In the Aramaic
its cognates it is the ordinary word for physical seeing,
but in Hebrew it is little used except to express thought-
ful insight, or in connection with prophetic matters.
David's friend Gad is described as a seer (2 Sam. xxiv.
11; 1 Chron. xxi. 9, xxix. 29; 2 Chron. xxix. 25). Asaph
and Heman and Jeduthun are severally called seers
(2 Chron. xxix. 30, xxxv. I 5 ; I Chron. xxv. 5). The
term is applied to Jedo and Iddo and Jehu and Amos
1 The five verses are Prov. xxx. i, xxxi. I; Isa. xxx. 10; Mic. ii. 6, ii.
The five verses contain in all ten instances.
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 23
(2 Chron. ix. 29, xii. 15, xix. 2; Am. vii. 12), and is also
used in cases where no individual is mentioned (2 Ki.
xvii. 13; Isa. xxix. 10, xxx. 10; Mic. iii. 7; 2 Chron.
xxxiii. 18, 19).
The verb of this stem is commonly translated "see."
It is often used in cases where an object is thought of
as presented to the eye, but it does not necessarily imply
that. It may denote any form of mental perception,
whether through the senses or not. The following are
examples. " The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz,
which he saw " (Isa. i. 1, cf. ii. 1, xiii. 1; Am. i. 1; Mic.
i. 1; Hab. i. 1). "The diviners have seen falsely "
(Zech. x. 2, cf. Lam. ii. 14 ; Ezek. xiii. 6, 7, 8; and the
Aramaic of Dan. vii. 1, 2, 7, 13, etc.). In one passage
the English versions render this noun and verb by
"prophet" and " prophesy," in order to distinguish
them from the other words for "seer" and "see"
(Isa. xxx. 10).
Several different nouns of this stem are also in use,
and each of them is sometimes rendered " vision " in
the English versions.1
1 The following are the nouns that occur most frequently: —
Hhazon, used thirty-five times. It commonly denotes a revelation
given to a prophet, whether through an appearance presented to the eye
or by some other method (t Sam. iii. i; i Chron. xvii. 15; Isa. xxix. 7;
Jer. xiv. 14, xxiii. i6, etc.). Often the word is used as part of the literary
title of a prophecy (Isa. i. i; Nah. i. t; 2 Chron. xxxii. 32).
Hhazoth (2 Chron. ix. 29). Part of a title of a writing.
Hhizzayon (2 Sam. vii. 17; Job iv. 13, vii. 14; Zech. xiii. 4, etc.).
Like Hhazon, except that it is not used in literary titles.
Mahhazeh appears four times: "The word of Yahaweh was unto Abra-
ham in the vision" (Gen. xv. 1 JE). Balaam habitually " saw the vision
of Shaddai, falling, and being uncovered of eyes" (Num. xxiv. 4, 16 JE).
"Have ye not seen a vain vision " (Ezek. xiii. 7).
Hhazuth, translated "vision" (Isa. xxi. 2, xxix. 11), "agreement "
(Isa. xxviii. 18), "notable horn" (Dan. viii. 5, 8).
Add to these the Aramaic noun Hhezev, occurring only in Daniel,
24 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
The other noun translated "seer" is roeh. It is the
active participle of the verb which is in most common
Roth and its use for physical seeing. The persons who
cognates in the use of this word are called seers are
Samuel, Zadok, and Hanani (1 Sam. ix. 9 et al.; 2 Sam.
xv. 27; 2 Chron. xvi. 7, lo). The word is also used in
this sense without particularly mentioning the person
(Isa. xxx. io). As a participle the word is used dozens
of times. The stem is used hundreds of times.
The English versions make no difference in transla-
tion between this word with its cognates and hhozeh with
its cognates. For the sake of distinction, even at the
cost of somewhat ungainly English, I shall translate the
words of this stem by the English words "behold," "be-
holder," "a beholding," "appear," "appearance," "sem-
blance," reserving the words "see," "seer," "vision," for
rendering the Hebrew words of the stem hhazah.
The verb in the simple active voice is used of a per-
son beholding something, and thus receiving a revelation
from Deity. Ezekiel says : " The heavens opened them-
selves, and I beheld divine beholdings " (i. 1). Zecha-
riah says: " I lifted my eyes and beheld, and lo, four
horns " (i. 18). Jeremiah is asked: "What art thou be-
holding? "He replies: "I am beholding a pot that
boils, its face being from the direction of the north"
(i. 13).1 In the reflexive or passive stem the verb is
used of Deity appearing to men for purposes of revela-
tion. "Yahaweh appeared unto Abram;" "and Deity
appeared unto Jacob again;" "Yahaweh appeared to
Solomon the second time;" "the Angel of Yahaweh
eleven times in the sense of prophetic vision, and once (vii. 20) in the
sense of outward appearance.
1 See also Isa. xxx. 10; Dan. viii. 2, x. 8, etc., and the construct infini-
tive in 2 Chron. xxvi. 5.
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 25
appeared" unto Moses at the burning bush (Gen. xii.
7, xvii. 1, xviii. 1, xxxv. I, 9; I Ki. ix. 2; Ex. iii. 2).
In the causative-active stem the verb is used of Deity,
causing one to behold something that constitutes a divine
revelation. Amos says: "Thus the Lord Yahaweh
caused me to behold, and lo, he formed locusts." Again
he says: "Thus the Lord Yahaweh caused me to be-
hold, and lo, he called to contend by fire." And again :
"Thus he caused me to behold, and lo, the Lord stood
beside a plumb wall, with a plumbline in his hand "
(vii. I, 4, 7). Jeremiah says: "Yahaweh caused me to
behold, and lo, two baskets of figs" (xxiv. I). Finally,
there are two nouns from this causative stem, a mascu-
line, mareh, and a feminine, marah (mar-eh and mar-ah),
which denote either the divine process of causing one to
behold, or the human act of beholding so caused, or the
object which one is thus made to behold.1
1 These nouns start in usage as the hiphil participle, "causing to be-
hold," either in the sense of giving one power to behold or in that of an
object presenting itself to be beheld, and thus causing one to behold it.
Once the feminine noun denotes mirrors (Ex. xxxviii. 8). A mirror
causes one to behold, in the sense of enabling one to see what would other-
wise be invisible. Elsewhere the noun is used only of revelations from
Deity. It can always be translated, though in some instances awkwardly,
by the English noun "beholding," denoting either the divine enabling or
the human act or the object beheld. The object is thought of as either
really or ideally presented to the eye. The following are the instances: —
"And Deity said to Israel in beholdings by night" (Gen. xlvi. 2 E).
"In the beholding I will make myself known unto him ; in the dream I
will speak with him "(Num. xii. 6 E).
"Samuel being afraid to declare the beholding unto Eli" (I Sam. iii.
15)
"The heavens were opened, and I beheld beholdings from Deity"
(Ezek. i. I).
"A spirit . . . brought me in to Jerusalem, with beholdings from De-
ity" (Ezek. viii. 3).
"With beholdings from Deity he brought me in unto the land of
Israel " (Ezek. xl. 2).
26 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
The nature of the functions denoted in these two
groups of words is reserved for a future chapter. For the
The uses of present we note that the words of the two stems
raah and are not properly interchangeable. At first
hhazah sight, especially in the book of Daniel, the words
of one stem seem to be confused with those of the other,
but closer examination shows that this is not the case.
"Beholdings like the appearance which I had beheld" (Ezek. xliii. 3).
See below under mareh.
Mareh, the masculine noun, is more widely used than its feminine. It
appears participially, for example, " all that I am causing thee to behold "
(Ex. xxv. 9; Ezek. xl. 4). Most commonly, however, it is a substantive,
denoting the external aspect of persons or things, their looks, semblance,
appearance. Like marah it implies either a real or an ideal presentation
to the eye, or to the other senses. It is oftener translated by " appearance"
than by any other word. In cases of revelation from Deity it has four
different meanings. First, it has its usual signification, denoting the looks
of anything. Second, it denotes an apparition, a visible semblance, of
some particular person or thing. Third, it denotes more generally a mani-
festation or disclosure coming from Deity to a man. Fourth, it is some-
times used in the sense of marah.
The first and third of these meanings are illustrated in the following
instance: —
"And the appearance of the appearance which I beheld was as the ap-
pearance which I had beheld at my coming in to destroy the city; and
[there were] beholdings like the appearance which Thad beheld at the
river of Chebar; and I fell upon my face" (Ezek. xliii. 3). The meaning
of this becomes clear if we translate: "And the aspect of the manifesta-
tions which I beheld was like that of the manifestations which I had beheld
at my coming in to destroy the city; and [there were] beholdings like the
manifestations which I had beheld," etc.
The following are additional instances of the third meaning. In each
case notice that the word " appearance" denotes a manifestation, a dis-
closure, from Deity.
"That I may behold this great appearance" (Ex. iii. 3 E). Burning
bush.
"And the appearance of the glory of Yahaweh as devouring fire at the
head of the mountain" (Ex. xxiv. iq P).
"There used to be over the mishkan as it were an appearance of fire,
. . and an appearance of fire by night" (Num. ix. 15–16 P).
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 27
For example, the verb hhazah never has mareh or marah
as its object. When this verb is used of the seeing of
a vision, the word for vision is always of its own stem.
"Mouth unto mouth I speak with him, and an appearance, and not in
riddles" (Num. xii. 8 E). In contrast with nzarah of ver. 6.
"The glory of the God of Israel, according to the appearance which I
beheld " (Ezek. viii. 4).
"And a spirit lifted me up and brought me in at Chaldea unto the ex-
iles, in the appearance, by the Spirit of Deity; and the appearance which
I beheld went up from upon me" (Ezek. xi. 24).
The second of the four meanings is frequent, and may be illustrated by
the following instances. In some cases there may be room for doubt as
between the second, third, and fourth meanings. Using the English word
"appearance " for each, there is room for difference of judgment as to the
meaning of the word.
"According to the appearance which Yahaweh made Moses behold',
(Num. viii. 4 P). Is the "pattern" here a semblance, or a divine mani-
festation?
"And his face according to the semblance of lightning" (Dan. x. 6).
"And lo, there stood before me as it were the semblance of a person"
(Dan. viii. 15). See also Ezek. i. 26, 27, viii. 2, 4.
In the book of Daniel the distinction between mareh and nzarah is not
so consistently maintained as elsewhere. In the following instances I trans-
late the masculine noun by "appearance," and the feminine by " behold-
ing"; but the two alike denote a manifestation or disclosure by Deity.
"Gabriel, make this man to understand the appearance " (viii. 16).
"He understood the word, and had understanding as to the appear-
ance " (x. i).
"And the appearance concerning the evenings and the mornings, as
bath been said, is truth ; and as for thee, close thou up the vision, because
it is for many days " (viii. 26). The reference here is to what has been
said concerning the "vision" and the 2300 "evening-mornings" (vv.
13-14).
"And I was astonished concerning the appearance" (27).
"And to understand the matter, and to give understanding in regard
to the appearance " (ix. 23).
"And I Daniel myself alone beheld the beholding, while the men who
were with me beheld not the beholding" (x. 7).
"And I beheld this great beholding" (x. 8).
" My lord, at the beholding my pangs are turned upon me, and I retain
no strength" (x. 16).
28 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
The verb raah, however, a few times takes as its object
a word of the stem hhazah. "Your young men shall
behold visions " (Joel ii. 28 [iii. 1]). " As I Daniel was
beholding the vision " (Dan. viii. 15). In this context
in Daniel the reflexive voice of raah is also used with
derivatives of hhazah. "A vision appeared unto me
. . . after the one that had appeared unto me at the be-
ginning " (viii. I). But these expressions are explained
by the parallel expression, " I beheld in vision " (viii. 2)
2, ix. 21), and also by the use of the nouns in these chap-
ters of Daniel. Hhazon here denotes the whole transac-
tion (viii. I, 2, 2, 13, 15, 17, iX. 2I, X. 14, xi 14). It is
something that can be put into written form, and sealed
or closed up (ix. 24, viii. 26). Mareh and marah, on the
other hand, designate certain parts of the transaction,
parts that may be thought of as presented to the eye
(viii. 15, 16, 26, 27, X. 1, 6, 18, 7, 7, 8, 16). The use of
the verbs is quite congruous with this. It is everywhere
true that the words of the raah stem imply the possi-
bility of presentation to the eye or to the senses, while
those of the hhazah stem are capable of being used inde-
pendently of that implication, in the sense of insight or
reflection or other mental processes, as distinguished
from physical seeing.1 It further illustrates the differ-
ence to observe that the derivatives of hhazah are fre-
quently employed, as we have seen, in the literary titles
of the prophetic writings, but the words from raah
never.
The phrase "man of God," ish elohim, ish haelohim,
occurs often in the Old Testament as the equivalent of
nabhi, and is probably never employed except in this
1 The cases in which a preposition is used with a noun of either stem,
forming the phrase " in vision," afford no additional instance that is signifi-
cant.
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 29
use. Moses is many times called a man of God (e.g.
Deut. xxxiii. i; Josh. xiv. 6; i Chron. xxiii. 14).1 So are
Samuel and Shemaiah and David and Elijah and Elisha
and many others (1 Sam. ix. 6, 7, etc.; i Ki. Man of God
xii. 22, etc.; 2 Chron. viii. 14, etc.; 2 Ki. i. 9,
io, etc.; 2 Ki. iv. 7, etc., and concordance). The Angel
that appeared to Manoah and his wife is by them
described as a man of God (Jud. xiii. 6, 8, JE). The
person who spoke against Jeroboam's altar (called Jadon
by Josephus, probably "Jedo the seer" of 2 Chron. ix.
29) is several times called "man of God," and once
"prophet" (1 Ki. xiii. 1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, etc., and 18, 23),
while the term "prophet" is uniformly used of the
resident prophet who brought him back (11, 18, 20,
etc.).
Corresponding in form to the phrase "man of God "
is the phrase "word of Yahaweh," d'bhar yahaweh,
the usual designation for a message given Word of
by Deity to or through a man endowed with Yahaweh
the prophetic gift. " The word of Yahaweh came unto
Abraham in a vision " (Gen. xv. 1, 4 E). Moses is rep-
resented as saying: "I stood between Yahaweh and
you at that time, to tell to you the word of Yahaweh"
(Deut. v. 5). Isaiah says: "Out of Zion law shall go
forth, and the word of, Yahaweh from Jerusalem " (ii. 3).
The phrase appears in the titles of prophetic books:
"The word of Yahaweh that came to Micah" (Mic.
i. I). It is habitually used for opening the prophetic
narratives: "The word of Yahaweh came unto Jonah";
"the word of Yahaweh came unto Jonah the second
time" (Jon. i. I, iii. I). The phrase is probably never
employed in any other meaning, and at least this is its
1 The new tradition assigns Deut. xxxiii to a date earlier than J or E,
and Josh. xiv. 6 sq. to JE.
30 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
ordinary use.1 The parallel term "word of God,"
d'bhar elohim, or d'bhar haelohim, sometimes occurs,
though but seldom.
Cognate with this are the phrases of asseveration,
amar yahaweh and n'um yahaweh, each occurring hun-
Saith dreds of times, and in our versions both trans-
Yahaweh lated " saith Jehovah." Both are commonly,
perhaps exclusively, applied to prophetic utterances (e.g.
Jer. ii. 2, 5, iv. 3 and i. 8, 15, 19), though it is in many
cases doubtful whether amar yahaweh is used as an as-
severation or as giving a mere statement of fact. In
asseverations of this kind the word elohim, "God,"
"Deity," is not often used, except in combination with
other words. The different expression yomar yahaweh,
“Yahaweh is saying,” sometimes appears (e.g. Isa. i.
11, 18, xxxiii. 10, xl. I), though it is not distinctively
translated in the English versions. In numberless in-
stances we find the merely descriptive statement that
Yahaweh, or Deity, spake, or said.
As the prophetic gift is constantly represented as
bestowed by the Spirit of Yahaweh (I Ki. xviii. 12;
Man of the Isa. lxiii. 10, 11; Joel ii. 28–29; 2 Chron.
Spirit xv. I; Num. xi. 25-29, etc.), the prophet is
very naturally designated by the descriptive phrase
"the man of the Spirit" (Hos. ix. 7).
The word massa, "burden," is used to denote a
prophecy of a certain kind, from the days of Elisha,
and later. A massa is poetic in form, and
Massa in most cases minatory in character, and
always relatively brief. Jehu is represented as saying
to Bidkar his captain that Yahaweh had "lifted up this
burden" upon Ahab: —
1 For additional instances see Isa. i. 10; i Ki. xvii. 2, 8, 16, 24; i Sam.
iii. I, 21, xv. 23, 26; Ex. ix. 20, 21, and concordance.
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 31
"Surely the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons
I beheld yesterday, so saith Yahaweh!
And I will make requital to thee
in this plat, so saith Yahaweh!"
Jehu mentions this as a reason for casting the corpse
of Ahab's son, whom he has just slain, into the plat of
Naboth (2 Ki. ix. 25-26). In Isaiah, the "Burden of
Babylon," "Burden of Moab," "Burden of Damascus "
(xiii. 1, xv. 1, xvii. 1), are poems of threatening upon
those countries. The instances of "burdens " are nu-
merous (e.g. Ezek. xii. 10; Nah. i. i; Zech. ix. 1, xii. i;
Mal. i. 1; Isa. xiv. 28; 2 Chron. xxiv. 27 and concord-
ance). In Prov. xxx. 1, xxxi. 1, where the poems are
not minatory, the King James's version translates massa
in the title by "prophecy." The revised version every-
where proposes "oracle " as the alternative translation
of the word. Massa seems to be used in 1 Chron. xv.
22, 27, to denote the singing when David brought the
ark to Jerusalem, and this may possibly indicate the
nature of its use in matters prophetic.
Certain forms of the causative-active stem of nataph
are sometimes applied to prophetic utterance. The
verb means to drip, to fall'' in drops, as in Hittiph,
the case of drippings of honey, or a gentle mattiph
shower. When used of human speech (Prov. v. 3;
Cant. iv. 11; Job xxix. 22) the idea seems to be that of
sweet or smooth or persuasive talk. When the words
of this stem are applied to prophets (Am. vii. 16; Mic.
ii. 6, 11; Ezek. xx. 46 and xxi. 2 [xxi. 2, 7], they can
be forcibly translated by the English words "preach,"
"preacher." In Micah ii these words seem to be used
by enemies, and ironically.
“Preach ye not! They will be preaching! They shall not preach
to these! One never ceaseth uttering reproaches!"
32 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
And a few verses farther on appears this statement:
" If a man going in wind and falsehood has lyingly said, I will
preach for thee of wine and of strong drink, then he will become the
preacher of this people " (Mic. ii. 6, i 1).1
A prophet is also sometimes called an angel of
Yahaweh (e.g. Hag. i. 13), or a shepherd or a servant
Metaphor- Or a watchman, or by other like names ; but
ical terms these terms are properly figures of speech
rather than appellations. Other like forms of expres-
sion might be added.
Three general observations are to be made in regard
to the use of these several terms in the Old Testament
— observations that are equally true whether we apply
them to the history or to the records that contain the
history, and in the main equally true whether we follow
the old tradition concerning the dates of the records, or
follow some form of the newer tradition.
In the first place, there is no definite succession of
dates at which the various terms describing the prophets
The several come successively into use. In a general
terms not sense it is true that all the principal terms
confined to are employed in all parts of the record.
particular One critic may infer from this that the prophetic
dates phenomena were practically all in existence
before the earliest records were written; and another
may account for it by some theory of interpolation into
the records by later writers; but in any case the fact
exists. It is true that particular words have a limited
range of use. For example, roeh in the sense of seer
1 The English words " prophet," " prophesy," " prophecy," are used in
the King James or the revised versions to translate hittiph in this passage,
to translate massa in Prov. xxx. 1, xxxi. 1, and to translate the hhazah
words in Isa. xxx. lo. Elsewhere they are restricted in these versions to
words of the stem nabha.
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 33
appears only in the literature treating of the times from
Samuel to Isaiah ; while hhozeh first appears in the
history of David, and may possibly be said to supersede
roeh for the later times. In the time of Samuel roeh
was the appellative in common use in place of nabhi
I Sam. ix. 9, I0, II, cf. x. 5, IO, II, I2, I3). Massa
appears only from the time of Elisha and onward. But
it is doubtful how far an absence of these terms from
any part of the Old Testament is really significant.
Their not being used in the writings which we have
for any period does not necessarily prove that they were
at that time unknown. And one may see, by running
over the references given in this chapter, that the
phrase " man of God " is applied to Moses, and to other
men from his time on ; and that the phrase " word of Yaha-
weh," with words of the stems nabha, raah, and hhazah,
are used in describing divine revelations to men from
the times of Abraham. And these several terms are in
frequent use, not only in those parts of the Old Testa-
ment which the critics of the Modern View regard as of
relatively late origin, but in those which they assign to
the times of Amos and Hosea and earlier. For example,
the references include passages from those parts of the
book of Judges that are regarded by the men of the new
tradition as early, and also passages from those parts of
the hexateuch which they assign to J or E or J E or
independent early sources. Follow what critical theory
you please, there is a somewhat extensive vocabulary of
prophetic terms from a time as early as the earliest sur-
viving records of the earliest times in Israelitish history.
Further, it is in general true that the terms we have
been considering are interchangeable, so far as their
application to any given person is concerned. Each
term has of course its own differential meaning. The
34 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
terms differ in meaning when they denote the functions
of the prophet. The seers seem to be distinguished
The personal from the beholders. As we have seen above,
terms all applicable the men who are spoken of by name as seers
to the same are different men from those who are spoken
person of as beholders. Samuel the beholder is spe-
cifically distinguished from Gad the seer, and beholders
in general are distinguished from seers in general
(i Chron. xxix. 29; Isa. xxx. 10). But Samuel was both
a roeh and a nabhi. Gad was both a hhozeh and a
nabhi (i Sam. xxii. 5 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. i r, etc.). So was
Amos (Am. vii. 12-16). So probably was Jehu, the son
of Hanani (r Ki. xvi. 7, 12, etc., cf. 2 Chron. xix. 2), the
alternative being that Hanani was both roeh and hhozeh
(2 Chron. xvi. 7, 10, cf. xix. 2). With perhaps some limi-
tation in the case of roeh and hhozeh, a person who was
regarded as having certain supernatural gifts was called
indifferently man of God, prophet, seer, beholder. One
term may have been at certain times current, rather than
another, the term roeh, for example, just before the pro-
phetic revival under Samuel, but all four of the terms
were current from very early times. The permanent
differences between the terms were differences in the
form of the thought, and not in the person designated.
Finally, it should be noted that these several terms
are used in the Old Testament with different degrees of
What is com- comprehension. First, they are applied to
prehended in persons who are better known as prophets
the terms than in any other capacity, for example, Sam-
uel or Elisha or Jeremiah or Isaiah. Such prophets were
also eminent as judges, priests, statesmen, and the like;
but the mention of any one of these names suggests to
us the services of the man as a prophet, rather than in
any other capacity. Second, the terms are applied to
TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING THE PROPHETS 35
persons who are better known in some other capacity
than as prophets, but who exercised prophetic gifts.
Some of these, as Moses the lawgiver or David the
king, stand very high in the prophetic ranks. By
parity the character of prophet belongs to other men of
like position, for example, such men as Joshua and Solo-
mon and Ezra and Nehemiah. It will sometimes be
convenient, for distinction's sake, to call such men pro-
phetic men, rather than prophets. That is partly a
question of convenience in the use of language. But
when we are discussing the prophets as a subject, we
must take into the account all persons who have the
prophetic character. Third, the terms are applied to
persons who were prophets only in a secondary sense,
to the pupils or disciples or assistants of the men who
were strictly prophets. As we advance in our study we
shall find much said concerning certain prophetic "com-
panies," and certain so-called "sons of the prophets,"
men who were banded together into organizations under
such great prophets as Samuel or Elijah, men who were
recognized as disciples of such a prophet as Isaiah. A
person of this type may naturally be spoken of as a
prophet or a man of God, especially when he is sent by
his superior on some prophetic errand. The secondary
prophets were at times much more numerous than the
primary prophets, and it sometimes becomes important
to distinguish between the two.
In addition to these uses, many assert that the words
that denote the prophet and his functions are also used
to denote mere frenzied utterance, and that primarily
the prophetic gift is conceived of as a kind of insanity.
We shall find that there is no ground for this, and that
herein there is a difference between the prophets of
Israel and the prophets of the nations.
CHAPTER III
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS
THIS subject, though we must dismiss it with a single
chapter, is a fascinating one. Some of the older treat-
The attrac- ments of it are dull through the lack of
tiveness of imagination, or through the wrong use of
the subject imagination. They regard the prophets as
unearthly revealers of the divine will, with no human
blood in them. Some of the more recent treatments are
yet more faulty, rejecting half the biblical data, filling
in the gaps thus made from conjecture or by inference
from theory, and thus giving portraits utterly different
from those in the bible, and immeasurably inferior. In
contrast with both these modes of treatment would be
that of one who should simply take the trouble to find
out just what the biblical statements mean, using his
imagination only to render the facts distinct and vivid.
What we need is a treatment at once correct and im-
aginative. Why does not some one write a history of
Israel in the form of a series of biographies of the
prophets, working it up, not from Bible Dictionaries,
not from volumes, not from Josephus, not from com-
mentaries, not from theories of the evolution of religion,
but purely from the data given in the bible ? There are
no heroes in history more picturesque or interesting or
full of vitality than these same prophets, provided we
picture them rightly.
Many of the books of reference affirm that the succes-
36
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 37
sion of the prophets began with Samuel. In proof they
cite passages from the Acts and from I Samuel. But
the context in Samuel, as we shall see below, The division
implies that prophecy was previously in exist- into periods
ence, and that in the Acts affirms that prophecy had
been in existence from the days of Moses, and, indeed,
from the beginning of the world.1 Other parts of
the record give details in abundance. Certainly the
biblical view is that what occurred in Samuel's time
was not an origination but a revival. There was
then a new beginning in the progress of an ancient
institution.
The biblical presentation of the history of the prophets
is in very clearly marked chronological periods. The
first great period, that before Samuel, includes as sub-
ordinate periods the pre-Abrahamic times, the patriar-
chal times, the times of the exodus, and the times of the
Judges before Samuel. The prophets of the second
great period, from Samuel to the close of the Old Testa-
ment, fall into six groups, namely, the group in which
Samuel and Nathan and David were eminent, the
Elijah and Elisha group, the Isaiah group, the Jeremiah
group, the exilian prophets, and the postexilian prophets.
Then any survey of these two great periods is incom-
plete unless supplemented by obtaining, in part from
1"Yea and all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after
.. . told of these days" (Acts iii. 24). It is easy to understand this as
affirming that Samuel was the earliest prophet, but the immediate con-
text shows that the writer intended no such meaning. Only a few sen-
tences previously he has used this language: "The times of restoration of
all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which
have been since the world began." Moses indeed said: "A prophet shall
the Lord God raise up unto you . . . like unto me " (Acts iii. 21-22, cf. vii.
37; Lc. i. 70). With this agrees the New Testament mention of the pro-
phetic gift in the times of Balaam and of Enoch (2 Pet. ii. 16; Jude 14).
38 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
extrabiblical sources, some account of the closing of the
succession of the prophets.l
I. We take up the first great period. The Old Tes-
tament agrees with the New in representing that the
patriarchs exercised prophetic gifts; that such gifts were
abundant in the time of Moses, and that they continued
during the time between Moses and Samuel.
Books on the subject have been very free in ascribing
prophetic phenomena to the times before Abraham.
Prophecy Jude says that Enoch prophesied (14), and in
before Luke and the Acts it is affirmed that there
Abraham have been holy prophets from the beginning
of the world (Lc. i. 70; Acts iii. 21). Parts of the
first eleven chapters of Genesis have figured largely in
discussions concerning prophecy ; for example, the pro-
tevangelium, the sacrifice of Abel, some of the experi-
ences of Noah (Gen. iii. 15, iv, vi—ix, and New Testament
parallels). Something very like prophetic character
has been attributed to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Abel, Noah,
and others. Any detailed consideration of these mat-
ters belongs to a later stage in our investigation. For
the present it is sufficient to note that the various terms
denoting prophetic function are not used in the accounts
of the times before Abraham; but that there is nothing
to forbid the opinion that the writers of these accounts
1 The biblical account seems to be that with Samuel there began cer-
tain arrangements for cultivating the prophetic gift, which, thenceforward
to the close of the Old Testament times, secured a more abundant succes-
sion of prophets than had previously existed. If we distinguish between
prophets and prophetic men, applying the latter term to men who had
prophetic gifts, but are better known in some other capacity, the great
names before Samuel are of prophetic men only. It further happens to
be true that the Old Testament books called the Prophets, in distinction
from the Law and the Hagiographa, are ascribed in the traditions to the
prophets of Samuel's time and later, while the Law and the Hagiographa
are ascribed, in the main, to prophetic men.
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 39
thought of pre-Abrahamic men as possessing prophetic
gifts.1
Old Testament history, however, properly begins with
Abraham. From Abraham onward the Israelite litera-
ture is familiar with the distinctive titles and duties and
powers that belong to a prophet.
It is represented that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
had prophetic gifts, though this representation is not
very greatly emphasized. Abraham is once The patri-
expressly called a prophet. In the time when archs were
he led a migratory life, going from one coun- prophets
try to another, we are told that Abimelech took posses-
sion of Abraham's wife. To him a revelation was
made: —
"And now, restore thou the wife of the man, for he is a prophet,
that he may make his prayer in thy behalf," etc. (Gen. xx. 7 E).
One of the psalmists, centuries later, cites this incident
in the following lines : —
"And they went about from nation unto nation,
from one kingdom unto another people.
He suffered no man to wrong them,
and he rebuked kings for their sakes:
Touch ye not mine anointed ones,
and to my prophets do ye no harm."
(Ps. cv. 14-15, repeated in t Chron. xvi. 20-22.)
In addition to this one instance in which the word
"prophet " is used, it is represented that Abraham had
visions, and that the word of Yahaweh came to him in
1 One who accepts the Graf-Wellhausen analysis should observe that the
passages which have commonly been cited as prophetic occur alike in the
earlier and the later J and in P, though with characteristic differences.
On any critical theory it is probable that all the authors of Genesis, earlier
or later, thought of the prophetic gift as current among these predecessors
of Abraham.
40 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
vision (Gen. xv. I, 4 E). A very prominent part of his
experiences consists in those when Yahaweh " appeared "
to him.1
"And Yahaweh appeared unto him at the oaks of Mamre," fol-
lowed by extended details (xviii..i J).
It is further represented that Isaac and Jacob had simi-
lar experiences. Yahaweh appeared unto Isaac, for-
bidding him to go down into Egypt as Abraham had
done ; and again appeared to him, promising to bless
and multiply him (Gen. xxvi. 2, 24 D. Jacob had a
prophetic dream, wherein the Angel of God commanded
him to return to Palestine (Gen. xxxi. 11, E). God ap-
peared to him at Bethel, after his return from Paddan-
aram (Gen. xxxv. 9 P). When he was about to go
down into Egypt,
"God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night" (Gen. xlvi.
2E).
Look up these instances in detail, and it will be evident
that the patriarchs are here represented as having per-
sonal interviews with the supreme Being, essentially the
same as were enjoyed by the prophets of later times.
This is not a matter which depends wholly on the
critical theories one may hold. If the hexateuch was
written by Moses and Joshua and their associates, then
we have the testimony of that generation to the facts in
the case. But how is it on the theory of those who
analyze Genesis into the three documents, J and E and
P, dated respectively 800, 750, and 400 B.C.? On the
basis of their partition some of the passages that have
1 For example, at his first coming to Palestine,
"Yahaweh appeared unto Abram, and said, To thy seed will I give this
land. And he built there an altar to Yahaweh that appeared unto him"
(Gen. xii. 7 J).
"And Yahaweh appeared unto Abram, and said unto him, I am El-
shaddai" (Gen. xvii. 1 P [RP?]).
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 41
been cited are taken from J, some from E, and some
from P. That is, all three alike testify to the prophetic
gifts of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It is not unim-
portant which theory of the hexateuch we hold; but on
any theory the oldest Hebrew literature testifies to the
view we are advocating.
In the records of the times of Moses and Joshua
the mention of prophecy is very abundant. In the
account of the exodus, for example, the stem Prophecy in the
nabha occurs seventeen times, and the other time of Moses and
terms that denote prophetic phenomena are Joshua
much used. Instances will presently be given. Per-
haps we habitually think of Moses as a statesman, a
warrior, a lawgiver but, none the less, the record says
that he was remarkably endowed with the prophetic
gift. He is described as the greatest of prophets.1
He is frequently spoken of, both in the hexateuch and
elsewhere, as "the man of God " (e.g. Deut. xxxiii. i;
Josh. xiv. 6; Ezra iii. 2; I Chron. xxiii. 14; 2 Chron. xxx.
16). He has the various experiences that characterize
a prophet. Habitually he has supernatural communica-
tion with God. Yahaweh appeared unto him (Ex. iii. 2,
16, and many places). Yahaweh caused him to see in
the prophetic sense (Ex. xxvii. 8; Num. viii. 4 et al.).
Using words of the stem raah, the beholding of visions
is attributed to Moses (Num. xii. 8; Ex. iii. 3). In cer-
tain instances presently to be cited, he is the typical
prophet with whom others are compared. The prophet
who is to be raised up he describes as "like unto me."
Yahaweh enables other men to prophesy by taking of
1 "There arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses" (Deut.
xxxiv. so).
" And by a prophet Yahaweh brought up Israel out of Egypt, and by a
prophet he was guarded" (Hos. xii. 13 [14]).
42 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
the Spirit that was upon Moses and placing it upon
them. He is so superior to other prophets as to be
fairly in contrast with them.
The records represent that Moses was not the only
prophet of this period. We read that " Miriam the
prophetess took a timbrel in her hand," and celebrated
the overthrow of Pharaoh at the Red Sea (Ex. xv. 20 E).
Miriam appears again in the narrative in which she and
Aaron find fault with Moses on account of the Ethiopian
woman. Yahaweh rebukes them, in language that im-
plies that Miriam is a prophet with whom Yahaweh
communicates in beholdings or in dreams, and that per-
sons of this sort were not unfamiliar to that generation
of Israelites.1 This same fact of the multiplication of
prophecy appears in the story of the prophesying of
Eldad and Medad and the seventy, and in the wish then
expressed by Moses that all Yahaweh's people were
prophets.2
1 "If there be a prophet of you,
I Yahaweh make myself known unto him in beholdings,
in dreams I speak with him.
Not so is my servant Moses,
in all my house he is trustworthy.
Mouth unto mouth I speak with him,
even causing him to behold, and not enigmatically,
and the likeness of Yahaweh he gazeth upon " (Num. xii. 6—8 E).
It is not implied here that Moses has a different gift from the prophetic
gift of Miriam and Aaron, but that he has prophetic seeing power in a
much higher degree than they.
2 "And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and made
them stand around the Tent. And Yahaweh came down in the cloud, and
spake unto him, and took of the Spirit which was upon hire and gave it
upon seventy men, the elders. And it came to pass, as the Spirit rested
upon them, that they prophesied, and did no more. And there remained
two men in the camp, the name of the one being Eldad, and the name
of the second Medad; and the Spirit rested upon them, they being among
those who were written, and they not having gone forth to the Tent; and
they prophesied in the camp. And the young man ran and told Moses,
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 43
Besides these passages, in which certain persons are
spoken of as prophets, there are others which make
such mention of prophetic functions as to imply that
prophets were something well known in that generation.
Words of the stem hhazah are less used in the records
for this period than in those of later periods. But it is
said of the elders of Israel: —
"They had vision of Deity, and did eat and drink " (Ex. xxiv.
11 J).
And it is represented that Balaam twice describes
himself as —
"He that heareth the sayings of El,
That seeth the vision of the Almighty,
Having fallen, and his eyes having become uncovered" (Num.
xxiv. 4, i6 JE).
Whatever the date of the book of Job, its action is
located in the time of the exodus or earlier. It affords
such instances as the following : —
“In thoughts from the visions of the night" (iv. 13).
"Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me with visions "
(vii. 14).
"He shall be chased away as a vision of the night" (xx. 8).
Passing to the use of other terms, the relations of
Aaron to Moses are defined in the words: —
"Behold I have given thee for a Deity unto Pharaoh, Aaron
thy brother being thy prophet" (Ex. vii. i P).
Such language presupposes familiarity with the notion
of a prophet, and of the relations he sustains to Deity.
In Deuteronomy laws are given formally defining the
and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. And answered
Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, of his choice young men,
and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said to him, Art thou
jealous for me? Would that all Yahaweh's people were prophets! that
Yahaweh would give his Spirit upon them!" (Num. xi. 24—29 JE).
44 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
character of a prophet, prescribing how true prophets
are to be distinguished from false, forecasting a line
of prophets to come (xiii. 1, 3, 5 [2, 4, 6], xviii. 15, 18,
20, 22). There is no need here to consider these pas-
sages at length. They will be discussed when we reach
the subjects of the functions of a prophet and of mes-
sianic prophecy.
In these several passages a prophet is defined, as we
have seen, as a spokesman of Deity, divinely inspired
through visions, dreams, trances, divine appearings.
These affirmations are found not merely in the narrative
portions of the books, but in the statements which the
books say were made by the persons whose history they
narrate. Their validity depends not at all, directly, on
the question who wrote the pentateuchal books. If the
books are historically true, then the statements are true,
no matter when they were written in their present form.
And even from the point of view of those who regard
them as unhistorical, they testify to what their authors
believed to be true of the times of Moses. Further,
our citations have been made indifferently from sections
which the critical hypotheses ascribe to J, E, JE, P, and
D. If there were authors of all these classes, then all
alike agree in affirming that prophecy was abundant in
the days of Moses.
For the times from the settlement of Israel in Canaan
to the birth of Samuel the mention of prophecy in the
Prophecy in narratives is relatively unusual; but the
the times of stream of prophecy through this region of
the Judges the history is perceptible though slender.
Deborah is called a prophetess (Jud. iv. 4). Perhaps
we may be at a loss whether to classify her as a states-
man sometimes acting the part of a prophet, or as a
prophet sometimes doing the duty of a statesman.
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 45
Gideon and others are occasionally represented as hold-
ing communication with God, such as a prophet might
hold. We are told of a prophet whom Yahaweh sent
to Israel in the days of Gideon (Jud. vi. 8), and we
have a record in three verses of his prophecy. We
are told of the appearing of the Angel of Yahaweh
to Gideon (Jud. vi. 12) and to Manoah and his wife
(Jud. xiii. 3, 10, 21). Few instances of theophany in
the bible are presented with as much fulness of detail
as these two. "The Angel," in the book of Judges,
is always a supernatural being, and not a prophet.
This is particularly the case with the Angel who ap-
peared to the wife of Manoah, and afterward to her and
Manoah, announcing the birth of Samson. But, four
times in the narrative, they speak of him as a " man of
God " ( Jud. xiii. 6, 8, 10, 11 ). Evidently a man of God,
a prophet, was a well-known fact within the range of
their experience.
In the time of Eli, just at the close of this period,
the dearth of prophecy was deepest.
"The word of Yahaweh being precious in those days, there being
no widespread vision" (i Sam. iii. I).
These words affirm that prophecy had then nearly dis-
appeared from Israel. The same fact is implied in the
statement concerning the recognition of Samuel.
"And all Israel knew, from Dan and even unto Beer-Sheba, that
Samuel was made sure for a prophet to Yahaweh. And again
Yahaweh appeared in Shiloh ; for Yahaweh disclosed himself unto
Samuel in Shiloh in the word of Yahaweh " (I Sam. iii. 20-21).
From these statements it has been inferred that there
was no prophecy in Israel before Samuel. This infer-
ence differs from the representations of the In the time
bible. If the passage last cited implies that of Eli
the wealth of prophecy which came in with Samuel was
46 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
in contrast with the poverty which directly preceded, it
equally implies that there had been an earlier time
when Yahaweh appeared in Shiloh by his prophetic
word. The other passage says that prophecy was at
that time a rare thing, not that it was nonexistent.
From the context we learn that it was not nonexistent.
We are told of a "man of God " who came to Eli with
just such a message as prophets are accustomed to
bring.1 Further, we are told that Eli was sufficiently
familiar with the idea of prophetic function to recog-
nize the nature of Samuel's call when it came to him.2
In fine, the history of the times of the Judges justifies
the assertion of Jeremiah: —
"Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of
Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the
prophets, daily rising up early and sending them" (vii. 25 RV).
So much for the first great period of the history of proph-
ecy. Besides other statements in other terms, the words
"prophet" and "prophesy" are applied not less than
twenty-four times, in the Old Testament, to the period
before the death of Eli.3 And let us once more remind
ourselves that this is the testimony of the records irre-
spective of the question when or by whom the records
were written. Assuredly, if a person is in the habit
1 "And there came a man of God unto Eli and said unto him, I surely
revealed myself unto the house of thy father when they were in Egypt,"
etc. (I Sam. ii. 27-36).
2 Of Samuel it is said that he, being an inexperienced boy, "did not yet
know," that "the word of Yahaweh was not yet disclosed unto him."But
Eli was older and more experienced. "And Yahaweh again called Sam-
uel the third time, and he arose and went unto Eli, and said, Here am I
for thou calledst me; and Eli understood that Yahaweh was calling the
boy. And Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be, if he call unto
thee thou shalt say, Speak, Yahaweh, for thy servant is hearkening"
(i Sam. iii. 7-9).
3 As we shall presently see, there is in this nothing contradictory of
I Sam. ix. 9.
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 47
of designating certain parts of the hexateuch and of
Judges and Samuel as J and E, and of saying that J and
E are "prophetic" narratives, that person is precluded
from denying that these narratives recognize a prophetic
element in the history. And if he admits that these
writings which he regards as the earliest testify to the
existence of prophets in this part of the history, he must
all the more admit that what he regards as the later
parts of the record testify to the same fact. Any one
who reads the writings without thus dividing them into
earlier and later sections, will find the same testimony
there. In other words, there is a consensus of testi-
mony among the writers of the Old Testament, no mat-
ter how you regard them critically, to the effect that
prophecy in Israel came down from the earliest times.
II. In the second great period of the history of the
prophets, the first subordinate period is that in which
Samuel and Nathan and David are proms- Prophecy in
nent. Its natural limits are from the death of the times of Samuel,
Eli to the disruption of the kingdom after David, and
Solomon. The chronology is in dispute, but Nathan
the biblical numbers make it about one hundred and
sixty years.
The distinguished prophets named in the record for
this period are Samuel and Gad and Nathan, David and
Solomon, Zadok, Asaph and Heman and
Ethan or Jeduthun, Ahijah and Shemaiah and The prophets
Jedo. The easiest and most effective way of obtaining
information concerning these men would be to look
them up, with the aid of a concordance, in the Old
Testament. In this chapter we must dismiss them with
just a few sentences.
Samuel is the earliest and, with the exception of
David, the most distinguished great prophet of this
48 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
time. His career is too well known to need recapitula-
tion here. Gad was associated with David from the time
when David first became an outlaw to near the close of
the reign. It was by his advice that David chose his
hiding places within the borders of Judah, and he was
the prophet consulted when Oman's threshing floor
was purchased, and the temple site fixed (i Sam.
xxii. 5; 2 Sam. xxiv. 11ff.; I Chron. xxi. 9 ff.).
Nathan first appears in the middle years of David's
reign, rebuking him for his sin in the matter of Uriah;
and, later,1 as the prophet through whom the great
promise was given to David, in response to David's dis-
position to build a temple (2 Sam. xii ; Ps. li, title; 2
Sam. vii; I Chron. xvii). Still later Nathan figures as
the strong supporter of the claims of Solomon to the
throne (I Ki. i). The Chronicler groups David and Gad
and Nathan, and refers to "the words" of Samuel and
of Gad and of Nathan as written sources for the history
of David and of the times before him (r Chron. xxix. 29;
2 Chron. xxix. 25).
David is spoken of as a "man of God," upon whom
the Spirit came mightily, to whom Yahaweh appeared
(e.g. 2 Chron. viii. 14; Neh. xii. 24, 36 ; I Sam. xvi. 13,
etc.; 2 Chron. iii. I. Also Acts ii. 30). In these and
other terms he is presented to us as richly endowed
with prophetic gifts. To Solomon also prophetic reve-
lations are attributed.2
1 The affair of Uriah occurred while the Ammonite war was in progress,
before David's conquests had brought him rest. The bringing up of the
ark to Jerusalem and the giving of the great promise occurred after Yaha-
weh had given David rest from all his enemies, and when his dominions
extended from Hamath to Shihor of Egypt (2 Sam. vii. I; I Chron. xiii.
5). That is, the Uriah affair preceded the others, though it is narrated
after them.
2 "In that night Deity appeared to Solomon." "In Gibeon Yahaweh
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 49
Zadok, afterward highpriest, is in one passage called
a seer (2 Sam. xv. 27). In his detailed description of
the large temple choirs organized by David, the Chron-
icler speaks of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun as
prophesying, and calls Heman the hhozeh of the king.1
In his account of the last reigns in Judah he makes
similar statements, speaking of Asaph as "the hhozeh,"
and of "Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the hhozeh
of the king " (2 Chron. xxix. 30, xxxv. 15).
Ahijah the Shilonite, we are told, in the later years
of Solomon, promised the kingdom to Jeroboam, tear-
ing his robe into twelve pieces, and giving Jeroboam
ten. Later he gave a most uncomforting reply to
Jeroboam's queen, who sought him in behalf of her sick
son (1 Ki. xi. 29-39, xiv. 1-18). We are told of an-
other prophet who came from Judah, when Jeroboam
was king, and prophesied against the altar of Bethel,
and of an old prophet who entertained him (I Ki. xiii ;
2 Ki. xxiii. 17-18). Josephus says that the prophet
from Judah was named Jadon. In Chronicles, Jedo or
Jedai is mentioned (2 Chron. ix. 29), along with Ahijah
and Nathan, as a source for the history of Solomon.
The name appears as Iddo in our English versions, but
it is different from the name Iddo as elsewhere occur-
ring, and Jedo is probably the Jadon of Josephus. Be-
appeared unto Solomon in a dream by night." "And the word of Yaha-
weh was to Solomon, saying " (2 Chron. i. 7-12; I Ki. iii. 5-15, vi. 11-13,
cf. ix. 2).
1"And David and the captains of the host separated to the service the
sons of Asaph and hIeman and Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, with
harps, and with cymbals . . . the sons of Asaph upon the hand of Asaph
who prophesied upon the hands of the king. To Jeduthun; the sons of
Jeduthun . . . upon the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied
with the lyre, to give thanks and to praise Yahaweh. To Heman; . . .
all these were sons to Heman the hhozeh of the king in the words of God,
to lift up horn" (i Chron. xxv. 1-5).
50 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
longing to the same group of prophets is Shemaiah, who
forbade the attempt of Rehoboam to subdue the ten
tribes, and who encouraged Rehoboam against the inva-
sion of Shishak (I Ki. xii. 22; 2 Chron. xi. 2, xii. 7).
The Chronicler refers to him along with Iddo (probably
a much later writer) for the history of Rehoboam
(xii. 15).1
These distinguished prophets, with other great men,
constituted a brilliant circle around the thrones of David
Organiza- and Solomon. But besides these there were
tions a large number of other prophets. With
Samuel, prophecy had entered upon a brighter era.
There was a great revival of prophetism. When the
writer of 1 Sam. iii. I says that during Samuel's child-
hood there was no widespread vision, he implies that
vision was widespread when he wrote. That prophets
were numerous is suggested by Saul's complaint that
Yahaweh answered him not, either "by dreams or by
Urim, or by prophets" (I Sam. xxviii. 6, 15). Promi-
nent among the evidences of the growing influence of
prophecy, at this time, are the organized bands of
prophets that present themselves to view. We find a
procession of prophets meeting Saul when Samuel had
anointed him, and a body of them engaged in concerted
services at Naioth in Ramah when David fled thither
(I Sam. x. 5 ff., xix. 18-24). The nature of these organi-
zations we are to consider later. For the present we
simply note that they are characteristic of the period.
Through the influence of Samuel, prophecy so impressed
itself upon his generation, that the impression remained
to future generations. There is no room for our being
1 In the long addition after 1 Ki. xii. 24 in the Greek copies, Shemaiah
is said to be the prophet who tore his robe into twelve pieces and gave
Jeroboam ten.
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 51
surprised that he is commonly regarded as the father of
prophecy.
In the literature concerning this period we find nearly
all the different terms that are used in the bible to
designate prophetic function, — "man of The terms
God," "word of Yahaweh," "Spirit of Yaha- that are used
weh," and the words of the stems nabha and hhazah
and raah.l On the strength of i Sam. ix. 9 many
affirm that the word "prophet " was new in Israel when
this narrative in Samuel was written, and that neither
the word nor the fact had ever before been known.
The true inference from the biblical phenomena is that
both the institution and the word had formerly been
well known, but had temporarily faded from use, and
now reappeared.2 The statement in Samuel is: —
“He that is to-day called a prophet was formerly called a seer."
But the writer of this statement says that the word
"prophet " was in familiar use, and that prophets were
well-known personages, not merely at the time when he
1 Samuel and Zadok are called roeh (1 Sam. ix. 9, II, 18, 19; I
Chron. ix. 22, xxvi. 28, xxix. 29; 2 Sam. xv. 27). Samuel has vision,
mar’ah (I Sam. iii. 15). Theophany is frequent (e.g. 1 Ki. iii. 5, ix. 2,
xi. 9).
The term hhozeh is applied to Gad, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, Jedo,
Iddo (2 Sam. xxiv. II; I Chron. xxi. 9, xxix. 29, xxv. 5; 2 Chron. xxxv.
15, xxix. 25, 30, ix. 29, xii. 15). Other nouns of the stem appear in I Sam.
iii. 1; 2 Sam. vii. 17; I Chron. xvii. 15; Ps. lxxxix. 19 [20]; 2 Chron.
ix. 29. The word hhazon first appears in I Sam. iii. 1, this being the
word that is afterward mostly used in the literary titles of the prophetic
writings.
2 The disappearance of words from use, and their subsequent reappear-
ance, is one of the familiar phenomena of language. For example, Mr.
Leon Mead is quoted as saying in his book Word Coinage that such words
as transcend, bland, sphere, blithe, franchise, carve, anthem, in good use
in Chaucer, were regarded in the seventeenth century as obsolete, but have
since been reinstated.
52 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
wrote, but at the time concerning which he makes the
statement.1 On the very next day, this writer says,
prophets were seen, mentioned, discussed, not by
Samuel alone, but popularly. The point which he
makes is this : that though prophets and the name
prophet were now familiar in Israel, Saul was one of a
class who took no particular interest in them. He still
habitually used the term "seer," which had till recently
displaced the term "prophet." The writer contemplates
prophecy, both the word and the fact, as a gift to Israel
which had been interrupted but was now restored, and
not at all as a new gift which had never till now been
bestowed. In this he agrees with the writers of the
earlier history, who speak of prophets as existing at least
from the times of Abraham.
1 "And the young man . . said, Behold there is found in my hand a
quarter shekel of silver, and I will give [it] to the man of God, and he
will tell us our way. (Formerly in Israel thus said the man when he went
to inquire of God, Come ye and let us go unto the seer. For he that is to-
day called the prophet was formerly called the seer.) . . . And they went
unto the city where was the man of God. . . . And when they found young
women coming forth to draw water, they said to them, Is the seer within ?
. . . And Saul approached Samuel, . . . and said, Tell me, pray, where is
the house of the seer. And Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the
seer."
The next day, when the two parted, Samuel gave Saul directions.
"Thou wilt come unto the hill of God, . . . and wilt fall in with a
string of prophets coming down from the highplace, and before them
psaltery and timbrel and pipe and harp, and they prophesying. And the
Spirit of Yahaweh will come mightily upon thee, and thou wilt prophesy
with them, and wilt be turned to another man."
It happens as Samuel has said. "And they came there to the hill, and
behold a string of prophets meeting him, and the Spirit of God came
mightily upon him and he prophesied in the midst of them. And it
happened in the case of any one who knew him formerly, that they looked,
and behold he prophesied with prophets. And the people said, each to his
neighbor, What is it that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also
among the prophets ?" (1 Sam. ix. 8-11, 18-19, x. 5-6, 10-12).
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 53
The second subperiod may be designated by the
names of its two great prophets, Elijah and Elisha. It
extends from the disruption of the kingdom Prophecy
to the death of Elisha, about one hundred and from the disruption
thirty-five years by the biblical data. Its last to Elisha
fifty years correspond nearly to the earlier Assyrian
period, when Shalmanezer II and Rimman-nirari III
made most of Palestine tributary. Its distinguished
prophets are Ahijah and Shemaiah and Jedo, who
survive from the former period, Oded and Azariah and
Hanani and Jehu, Elijah and Elisha, Micaiah and Jahaziel
and Eliezer, Jehoiada and Zechariah.
Oded and Azariah his son urged Asa to reforma-
tion work, after his victory over Zerah the Ethiopian
(2 Chron. xv. I, 8). Hanani the reek rebuked Asa for
his intrigues with Ben-hadad, and was imprisoned
(2 Chron. xvi. 7-10). "Jehu the son of Hanani the
hhozeh," elsewhere described as "Jehu the prophet,"
prophesied against Baasha of Israel (I Ki. xvi. I, 7, 12).
He met Jehoshaphat with rebuke and counsel, on his
return from the Ramoth-gilead expedition, and his his-
tory of Jehoshaphat is said to have been "brought up
upon the book of the kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xix. 2,
xx. 34). His career was largely contemporary with
that of Elijah the Tishbite. Elijah and Elisha are so
well known that they may here be passed by. The
picture of Micaiah the son of Imlah prophesying before
Ahab and Jehoshaphat (i Ki. xxii; 2 Chron. xviii) is a
familiar one. A little later, when Jehoshaphat was
preparing to meet the Moabite invasion, the Spirit of
Yahaweh came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, in
the midst of the congregation (2 Chron. xx. 14). Just
after the death of Ahab, when Jehoshaphat had joined
with Ahab's son Ahaziah to build Tarshish-going ships,
54 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
Eliezer the son of Dodavah prophesied against the
alliance (2 Chron. xx. 37). The long life of the pro-
phetically gifted highpriest Jehoiada (2 Ki.;
2 Chron. xxiii–xxiv, especially xxiv. 15) was nearly con-
temporary with this whole period of prophetic history.
His death and that of his spirit-gifted son Zechariah
(2 Chron. xxiv. 19-22) occurred not very long before
that of Elisha.
In several instances prophets are individually men-
tioned, though their names are not given. Such, for
example, is the prophet who announced to Ahab his
victory over Syria (1 Ki. xx. 13). Later in the same
chapter a prophet promises him another victory, and
yet later a prophet, also spoken of as " of the sons of
the prophets," rebukes Ahab for not securing the fruits
of his victory. We have also an account of a person
who is described as "a prophet," and as " one of the
sons of the prophets" (2 Ki. ix), who anointed Jehu as
king.
In the northern kingdom the organizations described
as "the sons of the prophets " are, next to the person-
The sons of ality of Elijah and Elisha, the characteristic
the prophets feature of this period. Their character will
be considered later. For the present we only note that
they were under the supervision of Elijah and Elisha,
and that they probably account for the very large num-
ber of the prophets at that time.
That the number was large the record clearly affirms.
Of those in the northern kingdom, Elijah at Horeb says:
"They have slain thy prophets with the sword" (Ki.
xix. to, 14). "When Jezebel slew the prophets of Yaha-
weh," Obadiah the steward of Ahab hid a hundred of
them by fifties in a cave (I Ki. xviii. 4, 13), and the ac-
count seems to suggest that this was but a fraction of
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 55
the whole number. The prophets of Baal and of the
asherahs numbered eight hundred and fifty (i Ki. xviii.
19), and it is possible that Yahaweh's prophets were
as numerous. Perhaps, however, there were not many
prophets who were supernaturally gifted. Most of those
who are called prophets may have been "sons of the
prophets" (see i Ki. xx. 35, 38, and 2 Ki. ix. 1, 4), that
is, either pupils of some particular prophet, or members
of the organizations. Note that the community at Jeri-
cho was able to send out detachments of fifty (2 Ki. ii.
7, 16, 17). For the southern kingdom the accounts are
less explicit, but prophets were also numerous there.
Jehoshaphat gives the exhortation: "Believe his proph-
ets, so shall ye prosper" (2 Chron. xx. 20). In the
account of the defection of Joash of Judah we read:
"He sent prophets to them to bring them again unto
Yahaweh, and they testified with them, but they did not
hear" (2 Chron. xxiv. 19).
A class of men make their appearance within this
period whom the biblical writers regard as false
prophets of Yahaweh, and from this time False
on they abound throughout the history. Of prophets
this class is the old prophet of Bethel (1 Ki. xiii).
Apparently he has had genuine prophetic gifts, and
has perverted them. There were four hundred proph-
ets, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah being one of
them who prophesied falsely in the name of Yahaweh
to persuade Ahab and Jehoshaphat to go up to Ramoth-
gilead (1 Ki. xxii. 6, 11; 2 Chron. xviii. 5). The proph-
ets had become so influential that there was a field of
operations for counterfeit prophets.
Words of the stems nabha, raah, hhazah, and also the
usual phrases descriptive of the prophet and of prophetic
function, are current in the accounts of all parts of this
56 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
period. In the latter part of the period, Jehu the king
is represented as using the word massa, "burden," in the
technical sense in which, from this time on, it denotes a
prophecy of a certain type (2 Ki. ix. 25-26).
The third subperiod is that of Isaiah and his near
predecessors and successors. It extends from the death
Prophecy from of Elisha to the captivity of Manasseh, per-
the death haps about two hundred years, but fifty years
of Elisha to less by the usual interpretation of the A.ssyr-
Manasseh ian chronology. It covers the middle As-
syrian period, that in which Tiglath-pilezer is prominent,
and the later Assyrian period, that of Sargon and his
dynasty. To it belong the earlier group of the so-called
literary prophets. The distinguished names for the
period are Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, the Zechariah of Uz-
ziah's time, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, the author or authors
of Zech. ix-xiv, Micah, the Oded of the time of Ahaz.
This is the most conspicuous time in the history of the
prophets, and the fullest in the materials it offers, but
we must deal with it only in the barest outline.
We have no information concerning the prophet Joel,
save as the author of the book of that name. It is gen-
erally agreed that the book is either the earliest or the
latest of the fifteen known as the major and minor proph-
ets. I have no doubt that it is the earliest. It pre-
sents a very distinct historical situation, which seems to
me to be that of the invasion when Hazael swept the
region and besieged Jerusalem (2 Ki. xii. 17-xiii. 9 and
2 Chron. xxiv. 23-25), the prophet being contemporary
with the event. Perhaps the death of Elisha occurred
after this event, in the same year, so that Joel was in
early life a contemporary of the illustrious northern
prophet. Joel teaches a doctrine of the Day of Yaha-
weh, on which the succeeding prophets build. He prom-
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 57
ises an outpouring of the Spirit, which may be plausibly
regarded as having its first fulfilment in the days of
Isaiah and his contemporaries.
Obadiah takes up the great theme, the Day of Ya-
haweh, illustrating it by a single instance, Yahaweh's
dealings with Edom. The brief prophecy pictures two
historical situations, — that of Edom's offence, and that
of Edom's punishment. The offence-situation, it seems
to me, is the situation that had been outlined in Joel, the
punishment being that inflicted in Amaziah's expedition
(2 Ki. xiv. 7 and 2 Chron. xxv). There is an account
of a man of God who persuaded Amaziah not to take
Israelitish allies with him on this expedition, and an
account of a prophet who rebuked him after his return
for worshipping Edomite gods (2 Chron. xxv. 7-10, 15-
16). Supposably this prophet and this man of God may
be identical, and supposably one or both may be identi-
cal with Obadiah.
The prophet Jonah lived just before the conquests by
Jeroboam II.1 This historical prophet Jonah is the hero
of the story in the book of Jonah, whatever one may
think of the authorship or the character of the book.
The Chronicler tells us of one Zechariah, " who had
discernment in beholding of the Deity " during those
years of Uzziah in which that king was faithful and
prosperous (2 Chron. xxvi. 5).
Concerning Amos we have no information except in
the book of that name. He is represented as a Judean
prophet, not affiliated with the " sons of the prophets "
of the northern kingdom (i. 1, vii. 14, etc.), though his
1 "It was he who restored the coast of Israel, from the entering in of
Hamath unto the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Yahaweh
the god of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah the son
of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher" (2 Ki. xiv. 25).
58 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
extant prophecies concern mainly the northern kingdom.
The book has a title, dating it "two years before the
earthquake," at a point of time when Jeroboam was
king in Israel and Uzziah in Judah, perhaps making
Amos a boy when Joel was a man. The several proph-
ecies in the book seem to be of one date. The book
opens with a motto cited from Joel (Am. i. 2; Joel
16), and, apparently, it rebukes certain persons who are
taking unwarranted encouragement from what Joel has
prophesied concerning the Day of Yahaweh (v. 8 ff.).
What we know concerning Hosea comes from the
title and contents of his book. He began prophesying
almost contemporaneously with Amos, but his career
extended through the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, and
into that of Hezekiah, a period of several decades„ He
is a prophet of the northern kingdom, but his sympa-
thies are wholly with the house of David.
Isaiah is perhaps the greatest of all the prophets.
The title to his book mentions the same kings of Judah
with the title to Hosea. Isaiah's career began later in
the reign of Uzziah than those of Amos and Hosea, and
may have extended into the reign of Manasseh. In
more passages than one he perpetuates the preaching
of the Day of Yahaweh, which his predecessors had
inaugurated. We cannot here consider the questions
that have been raised concerning the relations of Isaiah
the son of Amoz to our existing book of Isaiah.
The second part of our book of Zechariah consists of
two "burdens " (ix–xi, xii–xiv). The first presents a
situation in which the separate kingdoms of Judah and
Ephraim are in existence, and in which Assyria is the
great world-power (ix. 1o, 13, x. 6, 7, 10, 11). The
second is addressed to persons who can remember the
earthquake in the time of Uzziah (xiv. 5). Other marks
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 59
of like significance abound in both. These marks seem
to date these two Burdens during the time when Isaiah
was contemporary with Hosea.
Micah, according to the title of the book, was the
contemporary of Isaiah from some date in the reign of
Jotham. In later times Jeremiah's friends cite him as
a precedent in favor of prophetic freedom of speech
(Jer. xxvi. 17-19). So far as appears, he was exclusively
a prophet of Judah.
Early in the reign of Ahaz, in the midst of the careers
of Hosea and Isaiah and Micah, we have a brief note
concerning a prophet named Oded, a different man from
the Oded of the time of Asa. He secured the return
of two hundred thousand women and children whom
the Israelites under Pekah had carried captive from
Judah (2 Chron. xxviii. 9).
Many allusions in the literature dealing with these
times indicate that the prophet was a familiar figure,1
and that prophets were numerous.2 This indication is
reenforced by the very frequent mention of false proph-
ets.3 The true prophets were numerous enough to have
numerous counterfeits. Perhaps the statement of Amos
that he is not a son of a prophet implies that the pro-
phetic organizations were still maintained in northern
Israel (vii. 14), but this allusion stands alone.
1 "The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet"
(Isa. iii. 2). "I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young
men for Nazirites " (Am. ii. 11).
2 "Yahaweh testified unto Israel and unto Judah by the hand of every
prophet, and of every seer." "As he spake by the hand of all his servants
the prophets" (2 Ki. xvii. 13, 23). "I have also spoken unto the prophets,
and I have multiplied visions, and by the hand of the prophets have I used
similitudes" (Hos. xii. 10 [11]). See also, among other instances, 2 Ki.
xxi. 10 and 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10; Isa. xxx. 10; Hos. vi. 5, iv. 5, ix. 7, 8;
Am. ii. 12, iii. 7, 8, vii. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; Mic. iii. 6, 7.
3 Isaiah is emphatic concerning these. "The prophet that giveth lies
60 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
Roeh, in the sense of seer, is employed for the last
time in the Old Testament in Isa. xxx. 10. The other
derivatives of raah, with those of nabha and hhazah,
continue to be used in this and the subsequent periods.
So do the phrases " man of God," " word of Yahaweh,"
"Spirit of Yahaweh." In Isa. xxx. to the English
versions render hhazah and its noun by " prophesy "
and " prophets," to distinguish them from raah and its
noun which they render "see" and "seer." Massa,
"burden," is much used in this period (e.g. Isa. xix. t„
xxi. t, xxii. I). Twice (Prov. xxx. t, xxxi. t) the old
version renders it " prophecy " and the revised versions
"oracle." Hittiph and its noun are used of prophesying
only in this period (Am. vii. 16; Mic. ii. 6, 11) and in
two places in Ezekiel.
The fourth subperiod is that of the Palestinian
prophets of the time of Jeremiah, he himself being the
Prophecy from central figure. Counted from the captivity of
Manasseh to Manasseh to the burning of the temple, the
the exile time is perhaps about sixty years; counted
to the death of Jeremiah it is longer, perhaps by some
decades. The distinguished names are Nahum, Habak-
kuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, with three others that are
incidentally mentioned in the records. In the great
crisis of the reformation under Josiah, the prophet con-
sulted was not Jeremiah or Zephaniah, but the prophet-
ess Huldah, then living in Jerusalem (2 Ki. xxii. 14 and
2 Chron. xxxiv. 22). The narrative makes the impression
that she was a person of distinction and influence, and
highly gifted with prophetic power. In the book of
for torah, he is the tail" (ix. 15 [14]). "Priest and prophet have erred
through strong drink " (xxviii. 7). "Yahaweh . . . hath closed your eyes,
ye prophets, and hath covered your heads, ye seers; and to you vision
hath become wholly like the words of the book that is sealed" (xxix. 10).
And Isaiah is not alone in this (e.g. Mic. iii. 5, 11).
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 61
Jeremiah, Baruch the scribe appears with prominence
(xxxii. 12-16, xxxvi, xliii, xlv), though it is not expressly
said that he is a prophet. We have also an account of
one Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, who
prophesied in the time of Jehoiakim, and who was
brought by some form of extradition from Egypt and
put to death (Jer. xxvi. 20-23).
Other prophets were numerous. The biblical writings
concerning the time speak of them in more than thirty
places. They speak thus of true prophets (e.g. 2 Ki.
xxiii. 2 and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16 ; Lam. ii. 9 ; Jer. vii. 25,
xxvi. 5), and of false prophets as well (e.g. Zeph.
iii. 4 ; Lam. iv. 13; Jer. ii. 8, 26, xiv. 18, xxiii. 9, 11).
The false prophets are more to the front than the true.
Not less than four are mentioned by name. In the
fourth year of Zedekiah, the prophet Hananiah the son
of Azzur broke the yoke from off the neck of Jeremiah,
in token of the breaking of the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah predicted his death in punishment for thus
making the people trust in a lie ; and the prediction
was fulfilled (Jer. xxviii). Ahab the son of Kolaiah and
Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah prophesied a lie in the
name of Yahaweh, and were roasted in the fire by
the king of Babylon (Jer. xxix. 21-23). Shemaiah the
Nehelamite prophesied, causing the people to trust in a
lie, and sent letters to Jerusalem reviling Jeremiah as a
madman, and was divinely punished ( Jer. xxix. 24, 28, 31,
32). The last named and possibly some of the others
prophesied in Babylonia among the exiles.
The fifth subperiod is that of the prophets in Babylonia
during the seventy years of the exile. It begins with
the earlier deportations by Nebuchadnezzar from Jeru-
salem, nearly twenty years before the burning of the
temple, and thus overlaps the preceding subperiod, the
62 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
distinction between the two being in part geographical.
The two great names are Daniel and Ezekiel. On the
Prophecy in basis of views concerning the book of Isaiah
Babylonia that were held twenty years ago, many scholars
among the exiles exiles would add a yet greater name, that of the sup-
posed second Isaiah. These prophets flourished in the
country of the Euphrates, and are thus placed in a dif-
ferent class from their contemporaries in Palestine,
whom we have assigned to the preceding period.
In the earlier part of this period, at least, we find
mention of numerous false prophets, male and female,
prophesying in the name of Yahaweh ; men who daub
with untempered mortar, and women who sew pillows
upon all elbows (e.g. Ezek. xiii. 2, 3, 4, 9, 15–16, 17-18,
xiv. 4, 7, 9, 10). True prophets are not so much in
evidence, though there may have been numbers of them
also. Certain critical theories now current seem to
require the hypothesis that prophets now began to
multiply in the lands of the exile.
The last subperiod is that of the prophets after the
return from exile in the first year of Cyrus. The great
Prophecy in names are those of Haggai, the Zechariah of
the post- Zech. i–viii, Ezra, Nehemiah,- the author of
exilian times Malachi. Daniel was still alive at the open-
ing of the period. Haggai and Zechariah flourished
in the early years of it (Ezra v. 1, 2, vi. 14; Hag. i. 1;
Zech. i. 1, etc.). It is supposable that in early life they
may have known Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Ezra is chiefly
known as the scribe, and Nehemiah by his political
achievements ; but there is no room to doubt that the
biblical narrators regard them as exercising prophetic
gifts. No one is qualified to say whether the book of
Malachi was written by a prophet of that name, or by
Ezra, or by some one else.
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 63
The period was not without its other prophets, true
and false (Zech. vii. 3, viii. 9; Neh. vi. 7). Nehemiah
speaks of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, who had been
hired to pronounce a false prophecy, and of "the
prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets" who
sought to frighten him (vi. 10-14). These notices, with
the analogy of the preceding periods, confirm the tradi-
tions concerning the Great Synagogue, which affirm
that prophets were numerous at this time.
Nevertheless the time is priestly rather than prophetic.
So far as the record shows, the prophetic organizations
have vanished. In their stead we find the place Casiphia,
for training men for the various duties of the temple
service (Ezra viii. 17). A marked feature of the period
is the habit of appeal to the prophets of earlier times
(Zech. i. 4, 5, 6, vii. 7, 12; Mal. iv. 5; Ezra ix. 11;
Neh. ix. 26, 30, 32). Evidently these earlier prophets''
are regarded as authoritative scriptures.
The question of the cessation of prophecy we must
here dismiss with a few sentences. The period of the
so-called men of the Great Synagogue covers The cessa-
the last two prophetic periods and the time tion of
following. With the exception of Ezekiel, prophecy
who is probably included by implication, all the distin-
guished exilian and postexilian prophets are expressly
named in the lists of the men of the Great Synagogue.
Others besides prophets are also named, the number
being one hundred and twenty in all, and the latest
great name being that of the highpriest Simon the
Just. The Talmuds say that Simon was highpriest in
the time of Alexander the Great, and Josephus is clearly
mistaken in assigning him to a later time.
Most statements that are made concerning the men
of the Great Synagogue as an organization are insuffi-
64 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
ciently based—alike those that affirm and those that
deny. But there is no room for doubt that this succes-
sion of men existed historically, or that the traditions
apply this name to them, or that they did many of the
things which the traditions attribute to them. Among
the acts attributed to them are the writing of the latest
Old Testament books and the completion of the Old
Testament.
While the traditions say that many of the men of
the Great Synagogue were prophets up to the time of
Nehemiah and the writing of Malachi, they also say
that the men of the Great Synagogue as a whole are
later than the succession of the prophets taken as i'a
whole, that is, that the succession of prophets ceased at
some time before Simon the Just, and therefore before
the beginning of the Greek period. This finds confirma-
tion in the phenomena of the latest narrative books of
the Old Testament. The latest events mentioned in
these occurred (many assertions to the contrary notwith-
standing) some time before the death of Nehemiah.
Both in and out of the Old Testament, prophets are
abundantly mentioned as contemporaneous with Nehe-
miah, but none as living later. Josephus testifies (Cont.
Ap. I, 8) that the succession of the prophets ceased
with the reign of the Artaxerxes who reigned after
Xerxes. Of course he means that it ceased with the lives
of the prophets who were contemporary with Artaxer-
xes. Some of these, Nehemiah for example, may have
survived Artaxerxes by several decades.
There has been some dispute over the interpretation
of the Jewish traditions in this matter, and there is some
confusion in the traditions themselves, this last being in
part due to the inexplicable confusion of the rabbinical
chronology for the Persian period. But there are cer-
THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE PROPHETS 65
tain very solid facts which ought to interpret the facts
that are less evident. Judas Maccabus and his asso-
ciates regarded themselves as under the influence of the
divine Spirit, and claimed a certain power of making
predictions and working miracles. It has been inferred
that they counted themselves as prophets, but there is
clear proof to the contrary. We are told that they were
at a loss what to do with the altar of burnt offering
which the heathen had profaned. So they pulled it
down and laid away the stones "until there should
come a prophet to give answer concerning them"
(I Mac. iv. 46). A few years later they decided "that
Simon should be their prince and highpriest forever,
until there arise a faithful prophet" (xiv. 41). We are
told that under Bacchides "there arose a great affliction
in Israel, such as had not occurred since the time that
a prophet appeared not amongst them " (ix. 27). Such
instances show that the Maccabees were consciously not
prophets, however conscious they may have been of the
possession of supernatural powers. In their time proph-
ets in the proper sense were thought of as belonging
to the past. Similar reasoning would apply to Simon
the Just, or to Jesus the son of Sirach, or to others.
In fine, the Jewish tradition holds that the succession
of the prophets ceased with the dying out of Nehemiah
and his associates, about 400 B.C. There was an expec-
tation that it would sometime be renewed, but it be-
came at that time non-existent. From the Christian
point of view it is plausible to affirm that the succession
reappeared in the person of John the Baptist, followed
by Jesus himself, and by the apostles and prophets of
primitive Christianity.
CHAPTER IV
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE
WHAT manner of man was the prophet outwardly?
What do we know concerning his personal appearance
and the external insignia of his office and the visible life
he lived among his fellow-citizens? In answer to these
questions we will discuss mainly three topics : first, the
outward presentment of the prophets; second, their
communal organizations; third, the so-called prophetic
order.
There is no reason why one's conclusions on these
topics should be greatly affected by the critical position
One's view as he occupies. In regard to the external his-
affected by his tory of the prophets, as we ran it over in the
his critical position position last chapter, the men of the Modern View
differ widely with the older scholars ; though even here
the difference is less over the question what the scrip-
tures say than over the question how far what they say
is to be believed. But in the matter of the outward
phenomena presented by the prophets there is less
room for difference. The prominent characteristics are
the same at all dates in the history, however the proph-
ets of the different periods may differ in matters of
detail. This fact the scholars of the Modern View
might account for by regarding all the scriptural pic-
tures of the prophet as late ; but however one accounts
for it, it is a fact. Owing to it, our conclusions on these
points depend much less than in some other cases on
66
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE 67
our opinions as to the dates of the writings. Some of
the views presented in this chapter are unlike those that
have been commonly held; but the differences are not
along the lines of the controversy between the Modern
View and the older views.
I. This preliminary being disposed of, we proceed to
inquire as to the external appearance of the prophet of
Israel.
In centuries past Christian people have been accus-
tomed to think of him as though he were a Christian
priest or monk. Painters have painted his Baseless cur-
picture with this idea in mind. In Christian rent ideas
art a prophet is hardly more or less than an ecclesiastic,
barefoot, with a robe and a tonsure and a general air
of unearthliness. This is a miracle equal to that by
which art has transformed the angels of the bible, who
are always either young men or old men, into stocking-
less winged women. Far be it from me to make criti-
cism upon this as art; I only remark that art isn't
history.
With this idea of an ecclesiastical personage has been
combined that of a revealer of hidden things. Certain
lines of the picture have been modelled upon the medi-
eval astrologer, or the priest of a Greek oracle, as if
the prophet were a weird, mysterious being who sits on
a tripod in a cave, and gives other-world advice to such
frightened souls as come to him.
Or one starts with the assumption that religion is
developing from lower forms to higher, and that the
earlier Hebrew prophets must have started at a pretty
low degree. So he comes to the study of them with a
mind preoccupied with African fetich-men, or voudou
practitioners, or American Indian medicine-men. Look-
ing through glasses of this color, he may see in Samuel's
68 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
companies of prophets little else than medicine dances
and powwow circles.
Or, taking his cue from the notion that the Orient
never changes, that what now exists there is what always
existed there, one may imagine the prophetic companies
as bands of whirling dervishes.
Evidently we are in danger of being misled both by
our preconceived notions and by our love of the pictu-
resque, and we therefore especially need to be on our
guard, attending with care to the evidence in the case.
Let us do this. Let us examine what information we
have, and base our pictures of the prophets upon that,
instead of first forming our ideas concerning the proph-
ets, and then manipulating the information to make it
conform to the ideas.
A particularly significant thing in the biblical ac-
counts is the absence of phenomena of this unearthly
Significant sort among the prophets as a class. On cer-
absence of tain occasions particular prophets practised
unearthly austerities for purposes of symbolical teach-
phenomena ing. But ordinarily Moses or Samuel or Isaiah or
David or Nathan or Daniel appear as men arnong men,
citizens among citizens, and not at all like the frenzied
seers or oracle priests of the heathen religions. To
this even Ezekiel is not wholly an exception, though he
comes near enough to it to be quite in contrast with the
other prophets. An average Old Testament prophet is
not weird or mysterious. He is not a recluse, but an
active citizen. He is not picturesque through eccentric
personal appearance or habits. Elijah, indeed, was a
man of unusual personal appearance (2 Ki. i. 7-8), and
for a time led the life of a recluse, but he is presented
to us as being peculiar in these respects. He is as dif-
ferent from other prophets as he is from citizens of any
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE 69
other class. We make a serious mistake if we count
him as typical, instead of counting him the exceptional
instance he purports to be.
The books of reference tell us that the prophets wore
a distinctive costume. In proof they cite what is said
in Zechariah (xiii. 2–6) concerning certain Was there a
prophets associated with idols, who "wear a prophetic
hairy mantle to deceive." It is inferred that costume?
Jehovah's prophets were accustomed to wear a hairy
mantle, and that these frauds adopted the usual pro-,
phetic garb, to give color to their pretences. It would
be exactly as logical to infer that they adopted an un-
usual garb in order to attract attention. Further, the
hairy mantle is here one of two devices by which these
idol prophets made themselves conspicuous. The other
was by cuts on their bodies.
"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds between
thy hands? And he shall say, Those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends " (Zech. xiii. 6).
The cuts on the body are here on the same footing with
the hairy mantle. Clearly, the writer had no intention
of saying that either was a part of the regulation uni-
form of the prophets of Yahaweh.
Further, they cite the hairy mantle worn by Elijah
and inherited by Elisha, and in connection with this
they mention the hairy garment worn by John the
Baptist. But you will remember that when King
Ahaziah's messengers reported to him that the man
who had met them wore a hairy garment, he at once
knew that the man was Elijah (2 Ki. i. 8). Elijah's
mantle distinguished him from all other prophets, as
well as from citizens who were not prophets. This
clearly shows that the prophets in general did not;
wear the hairy mantle as a uniform.
70 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
They cite also the statement that Isaiah once upon a
time wore sackcloth, and put it off, going " naked and
barefoot" (xx. 2). But Isaiah's wearing sackcloth
exceptionally is no proof that all the prophets wore a
uniform regularly. No more can the same inference
be drawn from Samuel's being " covered with a robe"
when the witch of Endor called him up. The word
me'il is employed alike in describing the dress of kings
and priests and private citizens and boys and girls.
This is all the testimony that is cited for the exist-
ence of a distinctive prophetic costume. Evidently it
has very little weight. And there are strong considera-
tions on the other side. In the story that tells us how
Saul and his servant sought the asses and found a king-
dom (I Sam. ix), we are informed that they met Samuel
in the gate of the city, and asked him to tell them where
the seer's house was (ver. 18). It is evident that there
was nothing in his garb to indicate that he was himself
the seer. But he was at that moment on his way to a
public solemnity, and in those circumstances, if ever,
he would have been officially attired. We have an
account of a prophet who rebuked Ahab for suffering
Benhadad to escape (i Ki. xx. 38, 41). He disguised
himself by pulling his headband over his face. The
king knew him when he removed the headband. The
king knew him by his face, and not by his costume.
Similar statements would apply to the prophet who
anointed Jehu for king (2 Ki. ix. II). There is no
sacred uniform to tell Jehu and his friends who the
"mad fellow" is.
These are representative instances, and they seem to
be decisive. The cases cited to prove the existence of
a regulation prophetic costume are clearly exceptional,
and, therefore, prove the contrary, so far as they prove
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE 71
anything. No article of prophetic apparel is ever spoken
of as distinctive of the class. There is no trace of a
special costume by which prophets were distinguished
from men who were not prophets. Religious art has
given to the prophet a monkish robe and tonsure; so
far as the Old Testament accounts go, sober truth
should give him the usual dress of a citizen of his time
and nation. If we should picture him as wearing a sack
coat and a Derby hat in the forenoon and a dress suit
in the evening, our picture would be no more anachro-
nistic than that of current art, and would be far truer
in spirit.
Some one may rejoin that the Old Testament evidence
in the case is negative rather than positive, and that we
must still infer, from the analogy of other The fact sig-
religions, that the Israelitish prophets had a nificant, even
peculiar dress of their own. Medicine-men if negative
and fetich-men, the prophets of savage religions, trick
themselves out in grotesque dress. In higher civiliza-
tions the prophet makes himself impressive by the garb
that indicates his profession. Is it possible that the
prophets of Israel were an exception?
In reply to this, I should deny that the Old Testament
evidence is a mere argument from silence. It seems to
me positive and distinct. But if any one thinks other-
wise, I should not take the trouble to argue the case
with him. At all events, the biblical writers leave the
question of a prophetic dress in the background. They
describe in detail the costume of their priests, but not
that of their prophets. The writers of other peoples
make much of the garb of the men through whom they
consult the unseen world; not so the writers of Israel.
With them the man is everything, and his dress nothing.
The record is, therefore, unique at this point, whether
72 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
the fact recorded be unique or not. Why should we
not hold that both are unique? Israel as existing to-day
is unique. Jesus Christ, of the stock of Israel, is unique.
These are unique, whether we look at them from the
evangelical point of view or from the agnostic point of
view. Unique results probably had unique antecedents.
We should not be surprised if we find the uniqueness
extending to many matters of detail. The fact that
the biblical account of the prophets makes them in any
particular different from the prophets of other religions
is no argument against the truth of the account; for
we ought to expect to find that they were different.
Some of the books of reference affirm that the
prophets were addicted to habits of religious frenzy. Ian
Did the proof is given an alleged derivation of the
prophets word nabha, from nabha’, "to boil up." But
rave? the derivation is at the strongest merely a
conjecture; and it would not prove the point even if it
were known to be correct.
Worldly men are twice spoken of as calling the
prophets mad—that is, crazy. Shemaiah the Nehela-
mite wrote to the officials at Jerusalem, asking them
why they had not rebuked Jeremiah, under the provision
for putting "in the stocks and in shackles " "any man
that is crazed, and maketh himself a prophet" (Jer.
xxix. 26-27). This epithet, we learn from the context,
was not called forth by crazy conduct on the part of
Jeremiah, but by his writing a particularly sane letter to
the exiles in Babylonia. The prophet who came to
anoint Jehu, a quiet, secret errand, is called by Jehu"s
brother officers a "crazed fellow" (2 Ki. ix. 11). There
is no trace of raving in either case. Worldly men called
the prophets crazy, just as worldly men to-day call ear-
nest preachers crazy.
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE 73
In one place a prophet speaks of the prophets as
crazy. Hosea says: —
"The prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is crazed, for
the multitude of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great "
(ix. 7).
Here, clearly, he represents himself and other prophets
as distracted under the strain of current evil; but he
does not attribute frenzied utterance to himself or to
them.
In one instance it is said that the evil spirit came upon
King Saul, "and he prophesied" (I Sam. xviii. 10).
David played before him as usual, and he attempted to
kill David. Doubtless this was an attack of mania, but
it does not follow that Saul's raving is called prophesy-
ing. It is quite as easy to think that Saul talked on
religious subjects, and that this was a characteristic
symptom of his fits of insanity ; in other words, that
Saul's utterances are here called prophesying not
because they were crazy, but because they were re-
ligious.
In the account of Saul's pursuing David to Naioth in
Ramah (I Sam. xix. 18-24) we have a similar connec-
tion between religious utterance on the part of Saul and
the insane attacks to which he was subject. Excited
by his rage against David and the disobedience of his
messengers, and afterward by the prophesying as he
heard it, he himself prophesied, —
"And he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in
Ramah. And he also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophe-
sied before Samuel, and fell down naked all that day and all that
night."
Apparently Saul, in his prophesying, conducted himself
in an insane and indecorous manner. But it does not
appear that any one else did so; nor that Saul's conduct
is called prophesying because of the craziness of it.
We have an account (i Sam. x..5–13) of the company of
prophets that Saul met when he was first anointed king.
"A band of prophets coming down from the highplace, with
psaltery and timbrel and pipe and harp before them; and they shall
be prophesying ; and the spirit of Yahaweh will come mightily upon
thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into
another man."
We need not necessarily figure this as a company of
dancing dervishes. It may equally well be a band of
serious men, holding an outdoor religious meeting, with
a procession and music and public speeches.
In all the instances of this kind the alleged prophetic
frenzy is a matter of interpretation, and not of direct
statement. If one comes to the passages with the idea
that frenzied utterance lies at the root of the original
notion of prophesying, he may find in the passages the
outcropping of this underlying notion in the word; but
he will hardly find it without such assistance. This
being the case, the passages should certainly be inter-
preted in the light of the habitual sanity that marks the
conduct and the utterances of the prophets. The idea
that Saul's attacks of mania made him very religious in
his utterances is in accord with facts with which we are
familiar. The idea that the prophets preached in the open
air, attracting attention by means of a procession and a
band, has in it no element of absurdity. If one starts
by assuming that the prophet developed from a medi-
cine-man or a voudou-man or a fetich-man, or that the
prophet is of a piece with a Greek oracle priest, drunk
with vapor, one may be able to stretch these texts so
as to make them fit his assumption; but that is not
their natural meaning.
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE 75
In short, the inference that the prophets were character-
ized by frenzy is baseless. The statement that Jeremiah
was crazy is recorded as a slander, and not as a fact.
Religious talking was a symptom in Saul's periods of
insanity. The prophets held religious meetings under
the excitement of which Saul conducted himself strangely.
But there is no proof that the prophets acted like crazy
men.
In one personal peculiarity the prophets are repre-
sented to have been remarkable, — their longevity. As
a class, judging from the biographical notices The prophets
we have, they were unusually long-lived men. long-lived
To say nothing of the patriarchs, Moses died at the age
of one hundred and twenty years, being till then vigor-
ous (Deut. xxxi. 2, xxxiv. 7). This is not to be explained
by saying that the term of human life has diminished
since then. According to the priestly laws in Leviticus
(xxvii. 3, 7, etc.) the age of manly vigor was then from
twenty to sixty years. Caleb regarded it as exceptional
that he was still a warrior at eighty-five (Josh. xiv. Io–I 1 ;
cf. Ps. xc. 1o). Moses had his successors in longevity.
Joshua reached the age of one hundred and ten years.
(Josh. xxiv. 29 ; Jud. ii. 8). Jehoiada, the prophetically
gifted highpriest, lived to be one hundred and thirty
years old (2 Chron. xxiv. 15). The public career of Elisha
extended through not less than' sixty years, and that of
Isaiah was yet longer, and that of Daniel about seventy
years. The list might be extended. In a general way
art has good ground for its habit of picturing a prophet
as old and venerable ; though it happens that in many
particular instances art has given gray hairs to a
prophet who should have been pictured as a young
man.
So much for the prophets as they presented themselves
76 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
to the eyes of their contemporaries. Save in special
instances we are to think of their personal appearance
as simply that of respectable citizens.
II. Similar results await us as we turn to a second
topic, the arrangements for the communal organizations
of the prophets.
Of these we know but little, save what lies on the
surface of the biblical texts. It will help to a clear
understanding of what is said concerning these organi-
zations if we begin by fixing firmly in our minds the
fact that they are mentioned in connection with two
periods, — the time of Samuel and the time of Elijah
and Elisha. Nothing is said concerning them in the
history of the other periods, the mention of "a son of a
prophet" in Amos (vii. I4) being properly no exception
to this statement.
In the King James version the phrase "company of
prophets" occurs in two connections, suggesting that
Prophetic the prophets were organized and operated
organizations in companies. The verbal statement of this
under fact vanishes when we examine the Hebrew;
Samuel but the fact itself remains, based on inference. The
account of it is given mainly in two passages.
The first of the two passages is the one cited above,
in which we are told of Saul's meeting the prophets
after Samuel had anointed him (z Sam. x. 5-13). Saul
met what the old version calls a " company," and the
new version a "band" of prophets. "A string of
prophets " would be an exact rendering in vernacular
English, that is, a procession. They had a band of
music "before them," stringed instruments and drum
and fife. They were prophesying. After meeting them
Saul joined them in prophesying, the spirit of God com-
ing "mightily" upon him. The change in him was so
THE PROPHET. A CITIZEN WITH A MESSAGE 77
remarkable that people noticed it, and asked: " Is Saul
also among the prophets?"
I have already indicated the opinion that we have
here an account of outdoor religious services, differing,
of course, from anything that could occur in our time,
as that time differed from ours in everything, and yet
properly analogous to such services as might now be
held by a corps of the Salvation Army, or by the Young
Men's Christian Association. The remarks that are
represented to have been made by the people imply
that they were familiar with such services by the
prophets. They recognized the fact that Saul belonged
to a worldly-minded family, not given to participating
in evangelistic meetings. And whether you admit the
correctness of these analogies or not, at least such
movements as are here described must have had behind
them some form of organization, looser or more com-
pact.
The other passage in question has also been cited
above, the one that describes Saul's pursuit of David
to Naioth in Ramah (t Sam. xix. 18-24). It is said of
Saul's messengers that
"They saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and
Samuel standing as head over them."
The word here translated "company " occurs nowhere
else. Evidently, however, the prophets were together
in some sort of assembly, engaged in con- The Naioth
certed action of some sort, Samuel being gathering of
either the president or the conductor. The prophets
atmosphere was charged with religious excitement.
Saul's successive relays of messengers, as they came
under the influence of the scene, joined in the prophe-
sying, and so did even the king himself when he
78 THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL
at last followed his messengers. Saul and possibly
others divested themselves of part of their clothing.
Saul seems to have had a fit that lasted several
hours.
This incident, as well as the previous one, presupposes
organization of some sort. Concerning the forms and
the purposes of the organizing, we have little inEorma-
tion. We cannot escape the conclusion, however, that
an educational element was included. The instruments
of music in the one incident, and the concerted proph-
esying under the conduct of Samuel in the other,
suggest that training in orchestral and choral music
was made prominent. We