Introduction to the Oracles of the Prophets

One of the most distinctive literary genres of the OT is the prophetic literature. Since prophecy concerns the communication of messages from God to man, it is easy to conclude that such activity can only occur with a God who is real, active and intent on revealing himself. Consequently, Christians today would be naturally inclined to think that Israel was the only nation to experience prophecy because Yahweh is the only God who fills those qualifications. Nevertheless, even the Bible shows us that such is not the case; e.g., Elijah has to oppose the prophets of Baal and Asherah during the reign of Ahab (1Ki 18).

Texts mostly from Mesopotamia also confirm that prophets were active in the rest of the ancient world. The largest corpus of material comes from the eighteenth-century BC kingdom of Mari. About 50 letters to the king from administrators of outlying districts report on prophetic messages that were delivered to them to send to the king. A smaller corpus is available from Assyria in the seventh century BC. But there are no collections of oracles of particular prophets such as those found in Isaiah. The prophets of Mari and Assyria are more like the prophets we read about in the books of Kings and Chronicles: they appear on the scene to deliver a message to the king concerning what he should do to please the deity.

There is no extra-Biblical parallel to the way that Israel’s classical prophets addressed the people about their behavior. Nor do we find most of the key prophetic themes addressed (e.g., impending exile, coming king, future kingdom). Despite these important differences, we can learn much from these texts about the way Israelite prophecy operated and how it was perceived by the contemporary audience. ◆