Torah for Christians: The Hebrew Prophets
TORAH FOR CHRISTIANS
SEASON FIVE EPISODE EIGHT
THE PROPHETS
When the Israelites misbehaved, who set them straight? The Prophets, of course! Today on Torah for Christians, we are going to look at the unique role that Prophets and prophecy played in the development of Judaism. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr. Let’s get started.
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Welcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.
The first thing to know about the Hebrew Prophets is that they preceded the finalization of the Torah. In other words, the Prophets were the first texts that described the Israelites prior, during and after the Babylonian Exile. We must remember that the earliest sacred texts might have been written around the time of Ezra the Scribe. For a Christian parallel, consider that the Book of Acts and Paul’s letters preceded the writing of the Gospels.
The history of prophecy can be divided into several phases. The first phase was what scholars call the “Guilded Prophets.” These were men and also women who traveled together to prophesy. We don’t know their names, nor did they write anything. We know of them because they are mentioned in the Books of Judges and Samuel. The best example of the Guilded Prophets is found in I Samuel, Chapter 15, when King Saul goes to see the Witches of Ein-dor (Endor) so that he can divine God’s word by summoning the ghost of Samuel.
Samuel, who was rather angry at Saul for this séance, reminded the king that God had taken the kingdom from him and that he and his sons would die in the coming battle with the Philistines. And they did die the following day.
The next phase of prophecy included named prophets who did not leave books of their own. We now find Prophets such as Nathan, who admonished King David for seducing Bathsheba, and also the Prophetess Hulda, another named Prophet during David’s reign.
Just as important, we also meet Elijah and his disciple Elisha. Both were miracle workers who challenged king and countrymen to follow the Word of God. Elijah is best known for confronting the Priests of Baal on Mount Carmel when he brought God’s wrath upon those pagan priests. Afterwards, he fled to Mount Sinai, the only known Israelite besides Moses who did so, for his safety and to speak directly with God. Finally, Elijah did not die; he rode into heaven on a fiery chariot. Later Jewish thought established Elijah as the herald of the Messiah, the figure that later Christians would emulate through the life of John the Baptizer.
Elisha was a true miracle worker. He was the first person known to use CPR, when he revived the son of the Shunammite woman. While he died the way of all humans, he too was a great, non-writing Prophet.
Next, we encounter the Writing Prophets, those who have books named after them. These were all men, of course, and we read from them regularly.
We can further divide the Writing Prophets into several sub-groups. The first group of Writing Prophets are the pre-Exilic Prophets, who in turn were either prophesying in the southern Kingdom of Judah, such as Amos and Jeremiah, or in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Prophets such as Isaiah and Hosea. Northern and Southern Prophets had different agendas; the Northern Prophets, by definition, had to be critics of their kings and Priests, as they had seceded in both political and religious ways from the southern kingdom, whose religious and political leadership was based in Jerusalem, the true center of the faith.
The second group of Writing Prophets are the Exilic Prophets, those who spoke the Word of God during the Babylonian Exile. The most famous of these prophets is, of course, Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s primary message was that in the near future, God would return the Israelites to Jerusalem. The prophecy of the Valley of the Dry Bones, for example, is not at all about a future Messianic time but rather, the imminent return to Zion. Misunderstanding this only reminds us of the cardinal rule of prophecy: The Prophets spoke to their people in their time, not ours. Any thought that Ezekiel, or anyone other Prophet, presaged Jesus is just a false assumption.
Finally, we have the post-Exilic Prophets, such as Zechariah, the second half of Isaiah and Malachi, the last of the Prophets. Here, we have a change in emphasis. The Jews have returned from Exile. Now, prophecy was not concerned with prying the people away from Baal. Rather, the focus of prophecy shifted towards an acceptance of the Book of Deuteronomy and yes, the nascent idea of a Messiah. The final words of Malachi, for example, testify to the return of Elijah, who will herald the great and terrible day of the Lord.
In a moment, we will attempt to answer two questions: 1) Why did prophecy begin and 2) why did it end? I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.
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Welcome back to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr. If you are enjoying this podcast, I encourage you to go to our website, www.torahforchristians.net, where you can find previous episodes, which cover a variety of topics. You can also access them on various podcast websites, such as iTunes, Spotify and Google.
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Why then did Prophecy begin? This brings us to another question which we are just now beginning to confront: When did the Israelites become Jews? In other words, when did Judaism begin?
We like to think that Judaism begins with Abraham and then Moses brought the Torah to the Jewish people and that the Israelites followed every law in the Torah, from Sinai onward. This could not be farther from the truth. The growing consensus is that most Israelites had little to no awareness of Torah Judaism. Or, if they did, they practiced some sort of syncretism, whereby they were a little bit Yahwist, a little bit Elohist and even a little bit believers in Baal, the Canaanite god.
The Prophets were Yahwist and Elohist zealots; they exhorted the people to put away their idols and worship this newer god who demanded exclusive worship. And at some point, the Elohist god merged with the Yahwist god to become the one, singular God that Jews, Christians and Muslims alike revere and worship.
But most important is the fact that there was no completed Torah at this time. Time and again, we read that people did as they wanted. The word Torah means Instruction but there was no Jewish instruction manual until at least the reign of King Josiah. In the time of Elijah and Amos, the Prophets led the people towards the One, True God. And truth be told, they were not very successful, although they seemed to do better as the Southern Kingdom came closer to destruction.
However, once the Exiles return to the Land of Israel, a tiny Persian satrapy centered around Jerusalem, there was a text. We know from the Book of Nehemiah that Ezra read the Law to the people in Jerusalem on Rosh HaShanah. We certainly don’t know what that Law was. But we can assume that this text, whatever it was, formed the basis for religious worship for the newly returned Exiles and the foundation for the Torah as we know it today.
This then answers our second question: Why did Prophecy end? In a world where there was no written law, the Prophets brought the people God’s Word. Once God’s Word was accessible and written down, there was no need for a Prophet. To take a modern example, if the people did not know what God demanded from them, they could look it up. They did not have to consult a Prophet.
And so, prophecy died as the Torah began to live. The Prophets played a unique and vital role in the development of Jewish theology. We cannot imagine Judaism without its Prophets, nor should we. Giants in their time, the Prophets continue to be giants in our time. They serve both as guides and resources for Jewish belief today. We revere them, learn from them, and try to emulate them in our thoughts and our deeds. They may not be with us in body, but they are certainly with us in spirit.
I want to thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. Please like and review this and all of my podcasts on our website, www.torahforchristians.net or on iTunes. You can also subscribe to my Substack column, Bible Stories They (Never) Taught You in Religious School, on the website or directly on Substack.
Next week, we will talk about sacrifices in ancient Israel and how prayer replaced sacrifice, even before the destruction of the Second Temple. It promises to be illuminating.
Again, thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and I wish you a wonderful week. Hinei Mah Tov… L’hitraot, till we meet again. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this has been Torah for Christians.
