Who, exactly, are prophets?
This week our fall season begins at Harbor! If only that meant pumpkin spice lattes were instantly available.
While we may have to wait on sweet heavenly PSLs [editor’s note: apparently the drink returns today, the same day this article goes live; miracles never cease], we do get to kick off our fall discussion series for our Thursday night gatherings. For the next couple months, we’ll be studying the Prophets, prophets in general, prophecy, etc. Given the past spiritual trauma of most folks at Harbor, and the overlap of some of that trauma with Pentecostal or charismatic churches, let me make a few caveats. We will not primarily be discussing prophecy as predictions of the future or revelation of secret knowledge. If you do want to wrestle with those topics or commiserate about harmful Pentecostal theology, you can schedule a Zoom call with me (or with our other pastors, Dawn L or Dottie O).
Instead, we’ll focus on what prophets and prophecy actually looked like in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in those books we call “the Prophets.”
The four scrolls of the Prophets
In the ancient manuscripts of Hebrew scripture, there were 4 scrolls of prophetic literature: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve. The writings found in the scroll of the Twelve are those we typically call “the minor prophets”: Joel, Micah, Amos, etc. A few conservative (mostly evangelical) scholars like to think that each of the 15 prophetic books in our Old Testament was written by exactly one person, the prophet whose name appears at the top of the corresponding pages.
But basically every single Bible scholar alive who is not part of that conservative bloc sees irrefutable evidence that each of these 4 scrolls was compiled over generations by “prophetic schools.” There may have been a visionary prophet named Isaiah, and he may indeed have started some of the writings that appear in the Book of Isaiah. But his followers, then their followers, and then their followers (etc.) kept adding to the text over the decades (or centuries). To top it off, the scribes who later compiled the various scrolls may have also made significant editorial revisions.
Each scroll—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve—is then a beautiful artifact of a tradition working out its theology over lifetimes. Each is very distinct from the others, and yet these four scrolls are always grouped together into one section of the Bible, “the Prophets.” There are several reasons for this. All fifteen entries have similar theological themes of God’s blessing or punishment upon Israel, Judah, and surrounding countries. They all use the same three literary forms: biography, autobiography, and poetic “oracles” that reveal God’s will or voice to the people.
And of course another tie that binds these scrolls to each other is their association with people called “prophets.” So to study this section of our Bible, we have to face the question of who exactly qualifies as a prophet.
Prophetic work, then and now
On the one hand you have the notion of prophets we have already dismissed without much thought—people who predict the future or reveal secret knowledge from God. On the other hand, among folks like us who don’t have much time for practices so ripe for manipulation and abuse, you commonly hear a very simple definition for prophets: those who speak truth to power.
And it’s a pretty cool little phrase. Prophets in the Bible certainly did this. Think about Nathan upbraiding King David or John the Baptizer criticizing Herod’s unethical marriage. And yet, if we are to extend the idea of prophetic ministry into our world today, speaking truth to power is only one facet—and a tricky one at that. As Walter Brueggemann explains,
There are deeply problematic things about the model of prophet as truth-speaking-to-power. In a postmodern world, both truth and power are complex and evasive. Besides, if we are casting to type, we cannot assume we are Moses or Nathan or Elijah or Daniel, no matter how endlessly we are tempted. It may be that we fit the part of the royally and sinfully acquisitive, rather than the truth-teller.
Ellen Davis has provided a more expansive model of prophets as interpreters:
This may help us think about the significance of a variety of leadership roles and modes of service performed in and for the church, including teaching, preaching, writing, artistic work, public speaking, community service, and political work.
In word and deed, people whom the Bible designates as prophets interpreted the faith for their time, and they interpreted the times for the faithful.
In other words, prophets take part in a two-fold interpretation. They reach back to ancient religious texts and help people see what they mean right here, right now. But they also take a look at what’s going on around them and provide theological insight or assessment—”this is how Jesus might have responded to such-and-such current event.” (Often in the Bible, this second type of interpretation was offered much more forcefully, e.g. “Thus saith the Lord…”. Statements like this should not be made lightly, especially if you live in Old Testament times when false prophets are killed.)
This is one of the lenses we will use as we study the books from the 4 scrolls of the Prophets. How did these leaders—and their generations of followers—reach back to the even older sacred writings and make sense of them for the people in crisis? How did they bring new understanding of the crises themselves in light of their own theological reflection?
Who knows? Perhaps we’ll even be inspired to engage in some of our own prophetic teaching, preaching, writing, art, service, and political work.
