A trip through the Hebrew Bible, session 4, April 16, 2016.@ 9:30
am.
To understand the Hebrew religion, we need to have an
understanding of the role of the prophets, the Nevi’im. This role can
be traced back to the second and third millennium, as most of the tribes
of the Near East had prophets associated with their religious cults. The
Hebrew word is rooted in the word ‘nabi’ meaning a person called by
God. Prophets in the Hebrew Bible were not fortune – tellers. They
spoke the word of God. Their oracles were about past, present or the
very near future. They were not predicting for the 21st c.
Prophets are mentioned during the Patriarch period and again during the
exodus, but they become most evident during the period of the
monarchy and during the exile, from 1025 BCE to 586 BCE. Most of the
Classical Prophets fall into this time period.
The prophets are divided into two parts; the former prophets, those
found in the historical books of Joshua through 2 Kings; and the
Classical or Literary prophets. The literary prophets are those who
have books in the scripture named after them, usually written by some of
their followers.
The first of the former prophets was Samuel. He was also a Judge and
a priest, and is that transition person between the judges and the
monarchy. He reluctantly anointed Saul as the first king of Israel,
compelled by God to do so! Samuel is a fascinating figure in the Hebrew
Bible, especially as an advisor to Saul. This set the practice of each king
having his own prophets. Samuel also anointed David, the second king,
doing so while Saul was still alive! (A rather dangerous thing to do!)
Next we encounter Nathan the prophet to King David. It was Nathan
who took David to task for his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.
He predicted that their love-child would not survive. Yet he was also
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instrumental in having Bathsheba’s second son, Solomon succeed his
father David as the third king of Israel.
There is also evidence of groups of prophets roaming the country-side.
Saul for a time was associated with such an ecstatic group of prophets.
Next we see the appearance of Elijah and his student Elisha. They
are also described as Healers and miracle workers. They primarily
prophesied against King Ahab, in the north and his wife Jezebel, who
was a Canaanite and brought her Canaanite gods to Israel causing
many people to renounce the God Yahweh and worship false gods!
Elijah was considered the new Moses. He even had an encounter with
God on Mount Horeb, or Sinai as did Moses. Here he heard God’s voice
and received his commission to call the people of Israel back to the true
worship of Yahweh.
The most memorable story of Elijah was his battle with the prophets
of Baal, the chief god of the Canaanites, on Mount Carmel. You
probably remember the story. The people of Israel were in the midst of
an extreme drought, and Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal, the
Canaanite storm god, to a duel, to see which god would consume the
sacrifice and thus bring rain. They gathered on Mount Carmel. The
prophets of Baal tried in vain to get their god to consume the sacrifice.
They failed! Elijah doused the altar and the wood with water, and God
sent a fire to consume the sacrifice, the water and some of the prophets
of Baal. Rain soon followed. Now Baal was the god of storms, but he
could not bring a storm to water the land. Yahweh was successful and
won back the hearts of the Israelites.
On Mount Carmel today there stands a monastery with a small
chapel. During our visit to the Holy land many years ago, I was invited
to preach at the Eucharist on this holy mountain. What a thrill it was to
stand where Elijah had stood so many centuries before and offer this
story to the assembled group of students from Wycliffe College and
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other fellow travellers. I could actually visualize Elijah taunting the
prophets of Baal!
Today, Elijah is considered the forerunner to the Messiah. The
Christian Bible calls John the Baptist, Elijah. At every Passover meal
today, a cup of wine is poured out for Elijah and the door is left open to
allow him to come in! A chair is set aside at every circumcision so
Elijah may witness this holy event in the life of the Hebrew family!
The prophets were an important part of Hebrew history, especially
during the monarchy, usually calling kings and people to account for
their moral and religious lapses. Their effect upon the people of the exile
after 586 BCE was significant in leading the people into a renewed
religious belief.
Now let us move on to the Classical or Literary prophets. These are
the prophets whose words are written in scripture and credited to them.
They are divided into two sections, the Major Prophets and the Minor
Prophets. This distinction is simply the length of their oracles recorded
in the scripture. The Major Prophets would each take up a whole scroll,
the Minor Prophets together take up one scroll! The three major prophets
are Isaiah (no long ‘a’) Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The twelve Minor
Prophets were written on one scroll and in the Tanakh, they form one
book! They are from Hosea to Malachi. Notice the Book of Daniel is
placed in the Writings, the third section of the Tanakh. (The twelve
Minor Prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.)
These prophets’ writings cover a period of about three hundred and fifty
years. (750 BCE to 400 BCE). They can be grouped into four eras
during this period.
a:) the prophets of the Assyrian crisis;
b:) the prophets of the Babylonian crisis;
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c:) The prophets of the exiled;
d:) the prophets of the post exilic and the restoration period.
Let us recall this historical context. In the 8th c BCE. The Assyrian
armies were dominant and threatened both Israel and Judah. The
prophets Amos and Hosea were active in the northern kingdom (Israel)
and warned them of their impending doom. They had violated the
Mosaic covenant and the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722
BCE. The armies continued to threaten the southern kingdom and the
prophets Micah and first Isaiah, were the prophets who carried the
message to the people of Judah.
Before Judah (Jerusalem) is attacked, the Assyrian armies are called
home and in 612 BCE their capital Nineveh was conquered by the
Babylonians. The prophet Nahum celebrated this event. Judah becomes
a vassal state to Babylon, but plots with Egypt to revolt. The prophets
Habakkuk and Jeremiah prophesied in Judah during this
Babylonian crises. Jeremiah urged submission to Babylon because they
were Yahweh’s agents to punish Judah for their idolatry. Jeremiah
witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and was hustled off to Egypt
against his will where he spent his last days. Jerusalem and the temple of
Yahweh were destroyed. Imagine the shock of the people! They
thought they were invincible and yet the unthinkable happened!
As most of the inhabitants were led into exile, Ezekiel was the
prophet of the exile of Judah and into the post exilic period. . He
asserted that this was the justice of God’s punishment and offered
consolation and encouragement. He outlined a vision of a new temple
and a glowing future. By the end of the sixth century the first of the
exiles were allowed to return to their homeland where they faced
hardship and poverty. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah promised
they would eventually have a better future. In the fifth century, the
prophets Joel and Malachi offered them future hope.
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The other minor prophets not mentioned here, include; Obadiah, the
shortest book in the Hebrew Bible. It predicts the destruction of
Jerusalem and thus would be in the Babylonian crisis, before 586 BCE.
Jonah, our most familiar minor prophets, It is about Nineveh, the
capital of Assyria and would come into the Assyrian crisis. Although in
Jonah this city is saved, it was destroyed by the Babylonians in the early
seventh century BCE and never rebuilt.
Zephaniah described the destruction of Judah and has some harsh
words against the monarchy. It would come after the destruction of
Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
The prophets used many dramatic acts to get their message across.
(For example, Ezekiel described the valley of the dry bones, probably
describing a field of battle in which the bones of the Israelites fighters
were scattered.) The Prophets were often condemned and persecuted.
They chastised the people and especially the monarchy and were
generally unpopular. They accused the people of idolatry and ignoring
their social obligations. Especially the Israelites had ignored the poor,
and the most vulnerable in society. The occupy movement of a couple of
years ago, could find much support in the prophets of the Hebrew Bible!
Although they were persecuted by the authorities, their writing
greatly influenced later Judaism. Their words become enshrined in the
books of the Tanakh and their message helped change the political and
religious reality of these ancient people.
The prophets, together with the Deuteronomistic historians who
compiled the books of the former prophets, the priests who were the
compilers of the Pentateuch had basically convinced the Jews that their
God Yahweh, was all powerful and universal. He used other nations to
punish the Israelites. They had sinned by neglecting the poor and
worshipping other gods in their promised land thus breaking the
covenant with God and Moses and were justly punished. The Assyrians
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and the Babylonians, even though they did not believe in Yahweh, they
were his instruments in meting out this punishment. After the people
had been purged they would be restored; the temple rebuilt; and
Jerusalem inhabited once again. Unlike Israel, the ten northern tribes
who disappeared from history after 722 BCE, the southern kingdom of
Judah in and around Jerusalem would be restored. I think this may
have been God’s most important miracle!
The Tanakh was compiled prior to and during the exile. These
writings and teachings inherent in them helped to maintain the faith and
spirit of the Israelites and allowed them to return home and develop their
nation. This rebuilding would not be without its problems and will be
covered in a future lecture when we deal with the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah.
Before we leave the Literary Prophets, let us look especially at the
Book of Isaiah. (Note the pronunciation! There is no long à`` sound)
It is the longest of the three Major Prophets and the most quoted by
Christian from the earliest days of the church.
Isaiah can be divided into three parts, covering three distinct
periods and probably written by at least three different authors.
Chapters 1 to 39 are often referred to as First Isaiah: chapters 40 to 55 as
Second Isaiah; and chapters 56 to 66 as third Isaiah. First Isaiah deals
with the southern kingdom and was concerned with the Assyrian
crisis. The contemporaries of First Isaiah would include Amos, Micah
and Hosea. The Assyrians came to prominence during the eighth
century BCE and this Empire included the northern part of modern day
Iraq, and the south-east part of Turkey. They would eventually conquer
the northern kingdom, called Israel, and take most of the inhabitants
into exile where they disappeared from history. The southern
kingdom called Judah, barely survived this Assyrian crisis.
Second Isaiah (chapters 40 to 55) was written about the Babylonian
crisis. Babylon conquered Assyria and eventually conquered Jerusalem
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and the southern Kingdom, taking many into exile. During the
Babylonian exile, Persia became the dominant force in the Near East and
conquered Babylon.
Then Cyrus, the emperor of Persia did an amazing thing! He freed
the Judeans and allowed them to return to Judah and rebuilt their temple
and city walls. Throughout the exile the Jewish people kept their
identity.
Third Isaiah (chapters 56 to 66) records their return from exile and
the restoration period as Jerusalem and the temple are rebuilt.
The three parts of Isaiah each deal with the usual problems covered
by the prophets, the moral decay of the Hebrew People and the social
injustice prevalent throughout the land. The people were disobedient to
their God and thus God had to punish them. So the prophets saw the
Babylonians and the Assyrians as instruments of God in this
punishment. But God also promised through his prophets that a remnant
would survive and return home to establish true worship and obedience
to God and they would be redeemed.
There were several factors at work in the restoration of Judah. The
books of the Tanakh were finalized during the exilic period. The role of
the prophets became more prominent, prophets were not fortune-tellers.
They were men and a few women who were so in tune with God and
with society around them, that they were able to forth-tell God’s word
to his people, who realized that they proclaimed God’s truth. The
Hebrew people saw their enemies as instruments of God in punishing his
people and they responded by continuing to believe in their one God and
even in exile, they did not accept the gods of their conquerors. Thus
they maintained their faith and their identity as God’s people. Most
exiles accepted the gods of their conquerors, lost their personal identity
and were assimilated into the conquering nation. Not so with the
remnant of Hebrews from Judah. This may be God’s greatest miracle
in the Hebrew Bible.
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The overall theme of Isaiah is the eternal centrality of Jerusalem
and the social and economic injustices against the people. The
seventh and eighth centuries saw the rapid growth of the aristocratic
estates and the impoverishment of the common people.
Isaiah believed in the greatness of Yahweh and the writers of this
book believed all nations would come to recognize Yahweh’s allpowerful nature. Jerusalem was the eternal city and the House of
David was their eternal rulers. The remnant who survived would lead
to a purified Israel in anticipation of a new era. Eventually, all nations of
the ancient world would accept the one true God. The nations would be
satisfied with their land and thus war and growth of empire would be no
more. David’s descendants would continue to rule in Jerusalem with
perfect justice. From this concept developed the Messianic theology of
later Israel and the birth of the Messiah, Jesus.
Read Isaiah 6:1-12
In Isaiah 6 we see the vision of the throne room of God, and a divine
command for the prophet Isaiah. There is a change of direction in his
oracles from this point on. Isaiah no longer called the people to repent.
In verse 9, Isaiah reported that the people no longer understood the
message from Yahweh. ‘They see but do not grasp, they hear but do not
comprehend.’ Thus repentance was no longer an option!
Isaiah should be read in small sections and remember they are
talking to the people of their own day about circumstances that were
occurring at that time. It is a fascinating study and many of our Christian
beliefs came from these words.
During the Dead Sea scrolls excavations, a full scroll of Isaiah was
discovered, which had been copied during the second century BCE. Our
modern translations were remarkably accurate in comparison with this
scroll. Prior to this discovery, our earliest MSS were from the 4th and 5th
century CE.
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This completes our discussion about the nevi’im section of the
Tanakh. Any questions or concerns or discussion. Our next session will
begin the most interesting part of the Tanakh, the Kethuvim, the
writings. This was a catch all section all the writings that did not come
under the Law or the Prophets, were put into the writings. Here we find
the psalter, the Hymn book of the Temple, the restoration Jerusalem
and the temple under Ezra and Nehemiah, the five scrolls which are
read at the five major festivals in Jewish worship, the writings of
Daniel and the most important book in the Tanakh, the Book of Job.
We meet again Saturday May 14th at 9:30 am.
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