The terms imply nothing about their relative importance.251 It would perhaps be more appropriate to refer to them as the longer and shorter prophets. 13:9). Bible Studies - Knowing the Bible [34] The Aramaic word designated magicians but would have included all those claiming ability to understand mysteries. 185 Heber J. ed. Through the prophets, Judah became convinced that Gods judgment had been righteous and well deserved. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo and Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book 2005), 245265. Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel, Hebrew Yeezqel, (flourished 6th century bc), prophet-priest of ancient Israel and the subject and in part the author of an Old Testament book that bears his name. Isaiah quoted their prayer for restoration. David himself exulted that Jehovah hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire (2 Samuel 23:5). The prophets spoke for God to His people. The king again had a dream that Daniel interpreted. The Books of 1 and 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles provide the biblical context of the writing prophets leading up to the Babylonian exile. The prophets love, mirroring that of Jehovah for Judah, testified that God would gladly welcome back the penitent with full forgiveness. Jeremiah became a participant in the technique of Pedagogy in Biography when God commanded him to make a yoke for his neck and then to walk around wearing it (Jeremiah 27:2-3). By the year 531 B.C., Zerubbabel had risen to the position of cup bearer, second in command among the palace bureaucrats. Quite a number of Jews settled in Daphnae, a city in the Nile delta; others moved farther south. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. But it simply does not work that way most of the time. It is designed to stir the emotions and create vivid mental pictures, not feed the intellect. Though Daniel would not have been viewed as a magician, he would have been viewed as one with powers of God and therefore would have been caught in the kings net. The false dogma proved too intoxicating because of the acute sense of security it offered. Stalker, 2 Vols. Introduction to Joel | Bible.org If that is the case, his testimony would have reinforced the idea that God was with them and directing the affairs not only of Babylon but also of all nations through time. The Post-Exilic Prophets: The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology by Keith Mathison The exile was a major turning point in the history of Israel. However, when such . Exilic Prophets - Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel Post-exilic Prophets - Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi The dating of the prophets Jonah, Joel, and Obadiah are more questionable than the other prophets. Unfortunately, Apple's iOS doesn't support home screen shortcuts in the Chrome browser. Jeremiah even supplied the parameters of her stay, promising Judah that she would serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Among other things, he symbolized the coming fate of Jerusalem by drawing a picture of the city on a brick and then, while eating rationed foods, simulating a siege against it (see Ezekiel 4:115). PDF Biblical Theology Lecture 18, page 1 - The Gospel Coalition They are Gods mediators, or spokesmen, for the covenant. Because his record does not conclude until the reign of Cyrus the Persian, the book as we know it probably did not come into being until the Jews either had departed or were preparing to depart for the land of Judea. (2) Can it not be argued that the sins of Israel are sins in the New Testament too? (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1981), 343. 30 When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. This figure most likely represents only adult males, suggesting that the actual number was closer to twenty thousand. 270 For more examples of Pedagogy in Biography, see Jeremiah 19:1-11; 43:9; 51:63-64; Ezekiel 5:1-4; 21:6,7; and 24:1-24. It was in this period that enmity between the Jews, or Judaeans, as they came to be called, and the Samaritans, a term applied to the inhabitants of the former northern kingdom (Israel), was exacerbated. When He announces doom for the disobedient nation of Hoseas day, He does so according to one or more of the ten Ds. For example: destruction in Hosea 8:14 or deportation in Hosea 9:3. Ezra and Nehemiah are its narrators. Jeremiah: Obstinacy and Its Results . The prophets serve as constant reminders to us of Gods serious regard for His covenant. The curses are found in Leviticus 26:14-39, Deuteronomy 4:15-28, and Deuteronomy 28:15-32:42. God spoke through His prophets to people in a given time and place, and under given circumstances. Summary and Analysis The Post-Exilic Prophets. He stated in no uncertain terms that he had full authority to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. ), God is portrayed imaginatively as the plaintiff, prosecuting attorney, and judge in a court case against the defendant, Israel. To understand what I am driving at, let me ask a couple of questions: What was the goal of the prophetic ministry? Or, perhaps more appropriately, What was it the prophets were seeking in their ministry? You might say restoration, i.e., a restored covenant relationship with God. Zerubbabel, governor. [13] As chapters 42 through 44 of Jeremiah show, Egypt became very attractive for many of these. But to many of the Jews living at the time, it was anything but clear. We shall speak of them in this order. This form is allegorical, though not all woes are; cf. This was an effective way to prevent organized resistance in conquered lands. [37] The Book of Mormon suggests there were record keepers in charge of preserving prophecies among the people. The king, according to the revelation, would go mad for seven years, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will (Daniel 4:25). [14] James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. The most common types of parallelism are Synonymous, Antithetical, and Synthetic parallelism as illustrated below: Synonymous parallelism is where the second or subsequent line repeats or reinforces the sense of the first line, as in Isaiah 44:22:267. And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. [45] Martin North, uml-berlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien I (Halle, Germany: M. Niemeyer, 1943), argues that material had been written down from at least the tenth century and that more than one collection existed between 622 and 587. How many prophets are in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org Study by: Book Topic Author Verse Bible study tool. God raised up the Assyrians as the new superpower at that time and the instrument of judgment on Israel. Parallelism is the verse form in which virtually all biblical poetry is written.266 Hopefully, you have some knowledge of poetic parallelism in the Bible, but Ill touch on it just a bit anyway since it is so prevalent in the prophets. [26] Jeremiah 44:1519 and Ezekiel 20:32 show how acutely some Jews were tempted to leave the old faith (see also Bright, History of Israel, 347). The central emphasis here is upon agricultural abundance. [15] Ben-Sasson, History of the Jewish People, 16162; Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration, 2023. Pre-exilic Prophets and Kings 609- 608 B.C. [18] That is not very many Jews, certainly far fewer than those living in either Palestine, Syria, or Egypt. The Post-Exilic Prophets - Ligonier Ministries Things clear to them tend to be opaque to us. [35] The point Daniel may have been making with the king is that the prophets God overmastered the whole heaven, including the stars that the Babylonians worshipped as symbols of their gods. Further, it promised the Jews that even in Babylon, Jehovah could and did sustain and protect those who remained true to the faith. The prophecies of the Book of Joel are divided into two parts, comprising respectively (1) ch. The prophets sought repentance. See William W. Klein, et. Resources . He was apparently to do this over and over so the people would ask him what he was doing. See that study for sources and background material. This spiritual balm of Gilead, once applied, worked upon the captives and those living in Judah and elsewhere. Generally, these may be categorized as life, health, prosperity, agricultural abundance, respect, and safety. [18] See Ackroyd, Exile, 2023; Ezra Janssen, Judah in der Exilszeit, Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments (Gttengen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1956), 2539, for further discussion and source material. I am referring of course to the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and the Twelve Minor Prophets (the final twelve books of our Old Testament). But Egyptian favoritism did not act to stir into flame the coals of Judahs desire to return. Obviously this is allegiance of the people. Hence, Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea were contemporaries with overlapping ministries. Nebuchadnezzars dream emphasized the last point. But lets begin by considering the writings of the prophets in general, as we find them presented to us in the Old Testament. Nothing could have been further from the truth, but the attitude displayed by these two ruthless brothers was popular in Judah as well. Now that is a comment to which I can relate. Which three prophets are known as the post exilic prophets? WILLIAM A. IRWIN A NY DISCUSSION of the exilic prophets numbers of prophets and other self-ap- entails at the outset a critical prob- pointed guides who made their bid for the lem, for who were they? This was to illustrate Gods prophecy that Judah was to soon come under the yoke of Babylon. the Jewish people, beaten and scattered, were but an agglomeration of individual refugees living under foreign rule. It is hard to know from the text if Nebuchadnezzar moved from polytheism to henotheism or monotheism. Second, an overview will hopefully prepare us and encourage us to study them on our own, as we look forward to dealing with most, if not all of them, individually as our series continues. They each have their own unique features, their own unique structure, and their own unique contribution to the Old Testament, which are well worth our study. The Book of Mormon indicates that an extensive collection was kept by one of Jerusalems generals (see 1 Nephi 3:3; 5:10). The second misconception lay in the false belief that God would uphold the Davidic dynasty no matter what. An important task of the prophets was to assure Judah that, even in Babylon, Jehovah was with her. 7. Chapter 12: The Post-Exilic Books - Bible Study Tools He did retain a few strands, which he tied to the hem of his robe (see Ezekiel 5:15). Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah and Jeremiah wrote to warn Judah. Approximately one-third of the Old Testament consists of historical documents, including the Pentateuch, or what has often been called the five books of Moses, and the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. All three of these have are the subject of fair arguments for much later dates.255 I have shown them here at their earliest suggested dates for convenience. Judah could neither ignore nor forget what had happened. They quickly found that these inspired men had answered and continued to answer Judahs most pressing questions. The Bible has no word for the abstract idea of eschatology. After the exile, when the people were allowed to return to Jerusalem, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi announced Gods will for the rebuilding of the temple, the rebuilding of the nation, and the reinstitution of orthodoxy. He assured them that God took no pleasure in His peoples pain but that it was the only way He could get Judah to turn from her wicked ways (see Ezekiel 33:11). 256 Cited by Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, Trans. Gods Word came through the prophets to people in particular situations. His demand brought forth the excuse that there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh (Daniel 2:11). For the most part, the longer prophetic books are collections of spoken oracles, not always presented in their original chronological sequence, often without any indication as to where one oracle ends and another begins, and often without hints as to their historical setting. Thus, while the Jews were still in captivity, the voice of their former and present prophets provided the answers to Judahs questions and gave her hope and direction for the future. Their ministries can generally be divided between the pre-exilic and post-exilic periods, and range between the eras of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian dominance. The presentation of ideas in poetic forms such as this need not be confusing, as long as we read carefully and are aware of the unique features. [36] Then, as the record reports, at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation (Daniel 4:34). Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, asked his God, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? (Jeremiah 7:810). By the very nature of things, we will have a harder time understanding the words of the prophets than the Israelites who heard those same words in person. . (2) 3:2 implies that Israel has already been exiled. The oracle announces woe in verse 6. For discussion on the development of the kingship theology within Israel, see Hans J. Kraus, Worship in Israel: A Cultic History of the Old Testament (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1966); R. E. Clements, Abraham and David: Genesis XV and Its Meaning for Israelite Tradition (London: SCM Press, 1967), 496; and Bright, History, 22425, 28998. They called them back to a covenant relationship with God. Micah 2:1-5; Zeph. The full lawsuit form contains a summons, a charge, evidence, and a verdict, though these elements may sometimes be implied rather than being explicit. Study . He lived in the village of Anathoth, about three miles north of the Jerusalem temple. . The king confessed his belief that Daniels God could save him (see Daniel 6:16). That explains in part why he became one of Nebuchadnezzars many hostages, the Babylonians concentrating on children of the gentry, clergy, and aristocracy. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest (Micah 3:812). This is Jerusalem, he explained, and because she hath changed my [that is, Gods] judgments into wickedness more than the nations, God will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. The judgment would be horrible, for fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I [God] will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. Underscoring the reason for such severe judgment, the Lord chastised, Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity (Ezekiel 5:57, 911). Amos, beginning around 760, and Hosea, beginning around 755, announced the impending destruction. Best Answer Copy zephaniah nahum Wiki User 2012-08-26 02:10:09 This answer is: Study guides Old Testament 16 cards A very important value of the Bible is that it The Bible came primarily from. The destruction of the Jewish capital with its temple successfully demolished the Jewish state and ended its priestly activities. He was instructed to take a brick, lay it on the ground, and inscribe the word Jerusalem on it. Malachi.As Nehemiah was the last of the Old Testament historians, Malachi was the last of the prophets; and they co-operated with each other; for while Malachi, unlike Haggai and Zechariah, does not give the date of his message, the contents of it show clearly that he spoke after the temple had been completed and the regular service therein had been renewed. Never again would the old social and religious pattern be constructed in exactly the same way. Isaiah also assailed the nobles, judges, and priests for their unscrupulous willingness to rob from the poor and defenseless. Many hundreds of Jews continued to exist in Samaria and Galilee. [46] H. H. Rowley, The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays, rev. This false doctrine was based on two misconceptions. [27] See, for example, Ezekiel 18:2, 25; Lamentations 5:7. Does this not imply that there is a message in the prophets for the church today? The Minor Prophets, also referred to as "The Twelve," preached during a period spanning more than three centuries, from approximately 780 to 420 BC.

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