Prophets
About this date: A prophet's narrative setting, ministry dates, and the composition history of the book bearing a prophetic name are related but distinct.
Narrative prophets and the named prophetic books call rulers and communities to covenant fidelity, justice, repentance, and hope.
Historical context
Prophetic books and narratives address covenant infidelity, injustice, worship, imperial crisis, judgment, and restoration. A traditional book title does not establish authorship of every passage.
Key points
- Prophetic speech addresses particular crises of worship, injustice, war, exile, and restoration.
- Judgment and hope recur with different emphases and settings.
- A figure's ministry and a named book's final composition are distinct questions.
Scripture
- 1 Kings 17–19 — Elijah's confrontation with Ahab's court and Baal worship begins a major prophet cycle.
- Amos 1–9 — Amos denounces injustice and empty worship and closes with restoration imagery.
- Isaiah 1; 6–7 — Covenant indictment, Isaiah's call, and royal counsel appear in Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 1; 30–33 — Jeremiah's call and promises of restoration span judgment and hope.
- Ezekiel 1–3; 37 — Ezekiel's call in exile and the valley vision connect displacement with renewal.
Primary sources
Justin introduces the prophets by writing:
Justin provides a second-century Christian witness that Christians received Israel's prophecies as words spoken by Jewish prophets and preserved in books.
There were, then, among the Jews certain men who were prophets of God, through whom the prophetic Spirit published beforehand things that were to come to pass, ere ever they happened. And their prophecies, as they were spoken and when they were uttered, the kings who happened to be reigning among the Jews at the several times carefully preserved in their possession, when they had been arranged in books by the prophets themselves in their own Hebrew language.
Passage context and translation
Justin introduces Israel's prophets in an apologetic argument about prophecy and Christ. His following historical account of the Greek translation is an ancient report, not a modern reconstruction.
Before the excerpt
we will now offer proof, not trusting mere assertions
After the excerpt
And when Ptolemy king of Egypt formed a library, and endeavoured to collect the writings of all men
Sources and further reading
- USCCB introduction to 1 Kings
Literary and historical introduction; not independent verification of every narrated event. - USCCB introduction to Amos
Literary and historical introduction; not independent verification of every narrated event. - USCCB introduction to Ezekiel
Literary and historical introduction; not independent verification of every narrated event. - USCCB introduction to Isaiah
Literary and historical introduction; not independent verification of every narrated event. - USCCB introduction to Jeremiah
Literary and historical introduction; not independent verification of every narrated event.
Related records
- Elijah confronts Baal worship
- Amos: justice and judgment
- Isaiah's prophetic ministry
- Jeremiah begins prophetic ministry
- Ezekiel among the exiles
- Elijah
- Elisha
- Micaiah son of Imlah
- Gad the prophet
- Amos
- Hosea
- Isaiah
- Micah
- Jonah
- Nahum
- Zephaniah
- Habakkuk
- Jeremiah
- Baruch
- Obadiah
- Ezekiel
- Daniel
- Joel
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi