The Prophetic Books
The prophets were chosen by God to speak in his name to the chosen people, rebuking and threatening them when they moved away from the Lord and encouraging them with visions of a happy future when they were being tried.
The Bible speaks of prophets as early as the time of Samuel (11th century B.C.). But the prophets who were most influential as spiritual leaders of the people were those who lived between the ninth and the fifth centuries B.C. No writing has come down to us from some of these men, for example, Elijah and Elisha. There are, however, sixteen whose oracles and prophecies have been preserved. Among these sixteen, four are known as “major prophets”: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The other twelve are called “minor,” only because of the shortness of the Books bearing their names: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Old Testament Prophetism
The word “prophet” is derived from the Greek proph
From its beginnings Israel knew persons endowed with the prophetic spirit. One such was the great Moses, to whom God spoke “mouth to mouth” (Num 12:8). The prophetic period in the full and proper sense begins, however, with Samuel. For almost six centuries (ca. 1050–540 B.C.) prophets succeed one another with striking frequency. We are now in the period of the monarchy, which Samuel inaugurated against his will and judgment (1 Sam 8f). At David’s side was Nathan, a kind of court prophet, who had the courage to make the king admit his sin (2 Sam 12) and who, above all, had for his mission to foretell the future of David’s dynasty, in a passage which the believing people would repeatedly reread (2 Sam 7). At this time the monarchy was regarded as a gift from God.
At the death of Solomon (ca. 931 B.C.), when the northern kingdom went into schism, we meet Ahijah of Shiloh (1 Ki 11:29; 14:1f), who predicts the division of the people and even dares curse, in God’s name, the king whom he himself had acknowledged a few years before. But no one can be compared with the great figure of Elijah, the prophet of God who accepts no compromises and whose motto is: “By the life of the Lord, in whose presence I stand.” His protest against the mingling of the various pagan religions has unparalleled power: it rouses the people, it demands that the people really choose and live out the covenant. Elijah confronts the mighty, but he also knows discouragement. He experiences a mystical meeting with God, the Absolute, who calls for justice, brotherhood, righteousness, and respect (1 Ki 17; 2 Ki 2).
Of no less importance in the development of Israel was Elijah’s successor, Elisha, who is regarded as a teacher and father by the group of inspired persons to which he seems to belong (see 2 Ki 2:12; 4:8-38; 6:1f, 12, 21). This man of God, whom the people visited and consulted (2 Ki 4:22), left behind him an exceptional reputation as a miracle worker. He also played a dominant role in the political development of the northern kingdom.
The Prophetic Books
Around 750 B.C., a new period began that saw writing prophets, the men who authored the prophetic books of the Bible. The first testimonies to this phenomenon go back to the period of Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah, a generation of prophets who lived a hundred years after Elisha. Not only the record of their activities, but above all, their message is contained in collections of oracles.
The oracles are transmitted in the form of poetry that is rich in images and fine rhythms; the stories about the life and activities of the prophets are in prose. Initially there may have been, on the one hand, collections of oracles and, on the other, collections of stories, which editors gradually combined to form books. We have, then, and this is the important thing, both word and witness.
They communicated their message through preaching (see Jer 7:1-15) or through symbolic actions (see Isa 20; Jer 13; 19; Ezek 4–5). Sometimes the message was immediately written down (see Jer 36). The poetic form helped people remember it; perhaps it was sung.
A prophet was someone called. He did not choose but was chosen (Am 7:10-17). The prophets were seized by God and his message, and they sacrificed themselves to their word, their faith, their inspiration. Jeremiah, a solitary, carried his calling like a terrible weight (Jer 15:17; 20:7). We have the impression that the hearts of these men were shaken by what they saw and understood: the perverseness of human beings, the greatness and love of God.
We do not have their message in verbatim form; it has reached us as interpreted by disciples and through the patchwork of later editors. Prophecy continued after the great representatives of it; the word entrusted to them is always a word to be studied and assimilated, a word to be interpreted for the present time.
Historical Outline
Prophecy is a widespread phenomenon in the history of Israel, and we shall never know the names of all those who spoke in God’s name. The prophetism shown in the biblical books can, however, be located within four phases.
a) Assyrian domination. Toward the middle of the eighth century, Judah and Israel thought themselves secure and looked to their political and economic future with assurance. But internal decadence was undermining the people. Then, suddenly, the Assyrian conqueror appeared. The northern kingdom went under. Samaria fell in 721 B.C., and the enemy besieged Jerusalem, while imposing its domination on the kingdom of Judah. Amos and Hosea, Micah and Isaiah rose up to denounce false securities, the deceptiveness of policies based on human alliances, and the idolatry and injustice that were hiding behind the law and tradition. Amos called for justice; Hosea defended God’s love; Micah demanded righteousness; Isaiah proclaimed faith. The covenant consisted primarily in being true to these essential things.
b) Babylonian threat. The pressure from Assyria lessened in the second half of the seventh century, and in the land of Judah, King Josiah was able to undertake a reform that was perhaps initiated by the prophet Zephaniah. Then a new power arose: Babylon, which annihilated the Assyrians and demolished the city of Carchemish in 605 B.C. Liberation seemed to have come to the Middle East, an expectation reflected in the song of Nahum. But the new overlord soon imposed his own law on the many small states. Habakkuk felt all the injustice of this, even though he knew that his people deserved punishment.
The most fascinating prophet of this period is Jeremiah, who attacked a religion from which the heart was absent. He raised the alarm and endured the great suffering to which his “confessions” bear witness, but, like a living prefiguration of Christ, he also announced a new covenant based not on institutions but on the hearts of people. A contemporary of Jeremiah but living in exile, Ezekiel suffered because of his people’s sins and lamented them. Other voices, those of Obadiah and the Lamentations, also preserve the memory of that season of bitterness and of hope.
c) Exile. This was a time for meditation, purification, and deeper understanding. The prophetic writings circulated among scattered groups and gradually became books. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel asked the reasons for the destruction but also offered motives for renewed hope.
Other prophets spoke to the scattered communities; these men were perhaps less brilliant, but what faith we see in the author of the second part of Isaiah! What hope in the singer of the return from Exile! God’s plan remained unchanged despite all the failures! In addition, another prophet would come, a mysterious servant, who is humble and suffers, but as a victim of love.
d) Return from Exile. The little groups of survivors who returned to Jerusalem, lacking everything and having no political pretensions, would not be helped by issuing loud denunciations of their enemies. The important thing was to help find the daily courage to believe, to understand the law more fully, and to recreate the institutions essential to a living religion. The third part of Isaiah sings of the new temple; Haggai and Zechariah instill courage for building the future; Joel urges a collective conversion; Malachi criticizes mediocrity and inertia; Jonah proclaims the freedom of God, who wants all human beings to be saved.
After this, prophecy ceases, and the silence is felt as a source of suffering. For two centuries the little community in Judah lives in quiet seclusion. It is at this time that the collection of prophetic books took on its definitive form. Followers of the prophets added supplements; later writings were brought together under the name of Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary. Soon, however, believers found both their lives and their faith threatened. The Maccabees revolted (1 Mac—2 Mac) and circulated stories of hope (Tobit, Judith, Esther). The resistance of minds and hearts found expression in the impassioned Book of Daniel.
The Prophets and Christ
Above all else, the prophets asserted monotheism against tendencies to idolatry. They fought against moral corruption and social injustices and defended the weak, the poor, and the oppressed. They foretold divine punishments, but they also proclaimed a radiant hope. The sublime figure of a descendant of David would bring the fulfillment of the greatest promises. The Savior of Israel, and even of all humanity, would come—and his presence is already described. The prophets give him various names: Immanuel, Servant of Yahweh, Shoot of David, Messiah.
In the prophets, then, the Old Testament becomes, in the fullest sense, an announcement of and preparation for the New. John the Baptist is a prophet like the ancient prophets of Israelite history, and he displays all the characteristic marks. But he is also a living symbol, a guarantee that the awaited Messiah has finally come and is present (Lk 7:24-27; Jn 1:19-27, 35-36). The Old Testament has come to an end. Jesus of Nazareth is the one whom the prophets foretold; in him their prophecies of hope and expectation are fulfilled, but so are their prophecies of suffering and martyrdom. Jesus will say to the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “Everything written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Lk 24:44).
“The Law and the Prophets”: the inseparable pair that stand for the entire Old Testament in its expectation of Jesus, the Son of God, the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14; see 2 Mac 15:9; Mt 11:13; Lk 24:27).
The Book of Isaiah
Faith and Events
Born into the Jerusalem nobility, Isaiah received God’s call in the very temple of the Lord, at the end of the reign of Uzziah, that is, around 740 B.C.
His Book has preserved for us a moving account of this call (ch. 6). The prophet then immediately proclaims his message with its strikingly fresh and incisive tone, its noble poetic expression, and its brilliant images.
Isaiah exercised his prophetic ministry for about fifty years. A sad period! He saw the growing threat from the Assyrians, as well as the fall of Samaria and the northern kingdom in 721 B.C. He would go down in history as the man who kept up the hopes of the people during the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. These were the difficult years in which Judah lost its temporary prosperity, and the independence of the nation was diminished day by day.
Amid all these events Isaiah proclaimed what was, for him, a dazzling certainty: the greatness and holiness of God. Even while involved in the feverish labors of human beings, he returned continually to his practical conviction that God alone matters. That is faith! It, and it alone, suffices. Strengthened by this assurance, Isaiah confronted the mighty, since they were primarily responsible for the political and religious disintegration.
This man of faith saw only too clearly that Judah could not find its salvation in alliances that were made and canceled at the whim of circumstance. It was in themselves and in their faith and fidelity that the people had to find the moral strength to face the impending dangers; nothing could be counted on except the Covenant of the Lord when put into practice.
As an ardent patriot, Isaiah believed in the perpetuity of Jerusalem and in the dynastic line established by David. Whatever might happen, the posterity of David and the people could not perish for good. The Covenant remained, and a “remnant” would survive to carry the promise of the Lord to all the nations. Inspired by this conviction, Isaiah became the singer of the Messiah, who would be God’s authentic representative and on whom the Spirit would rest.
Threats and promises sum up the conflictual relationship of a people with its own age. Those pronounced by Isaiah were collected by his disciples and form the basic theme of the first part of the Book (chs. 1–39). Indeed, not everything in these thirty-nine chapters is from the prophet himself, but it is impossible to be deceived in some passages; Isaiah can be recognized by the torrent of language, the new and expressive images, and the tone that both provokes the readers and wins them over. Due to his way of reproaching and convincing and to his farsighted announcement of the Messiah, he is the greatest of the prophets. His message continued after him in Judah.
For several decades his disciples repeated his message and adapted it to new situations, while also accepting the influence of other prophets such as Jeremiah and while themselves in their turn being tested by what history was teaching them. The mysterious prophet of the Exile, who is known as “Second Isaiah,” is faithful to the ideas of his distant predecessor and, over a century later, sings of the radiant and triumphal reign of God (chs. 40–55, part II). He is not full of terrifying threats, but his tone is more melancholy. He speaks words of consolation in a time of despair. In these chapters, known as the “Book of Consolation,” his oracles, exhortations, and hymns are gathered together, but not in any particular order. At the climax of a testing that gives no sign of ending, he, or one of his successors, will discover the unforgettable face of the suffering just man, the authentic servant of God who takes upon himself the failures and sins of humanity, to the point of being crushed by them. No one can any longer ignore the passages known as the “Servant Songs,” which seem at times like anticipations of the Gospel.
Chapters 56–66 (part III) bring together scattered fragments. The setting which they suggest is post-Exilic. We feel the disappointment of the repatriates as they clash with the people who had remained behind and who have been contaminated by pagan cults. The repatriates manage with difficulty to regain their place, thanks to the concern of a foreign protector. The anonymous prophets who speak in these chapters address the repatriates, encouraging the more fervent and struggling against the religious negligence of the others; they proclaim the demands of interior religion and describe the glories of the new Jerusalem that is being prepared.
The Jewish tradition (see Sir 48:23f) and later, the Christian, have always considered Isaiah to form a single whole.
The Book of Isaiah may be divided as follows:
A: The Book of Judgment (1:1—39:8)
I: Indictment of Israel and Judah (1:1—5:30)
II: The Book of Immanuel (6:1—12:6)
III: Oracles among the Pagan Nations (13:1—23:18)
IV: Apocalypse of Isaiah (24:1—27:13)
V: The Lord Saves Israel and Judah (28:1—33:24)
VI: The Lord, Zion’s Defender (34:1—35:10)
VII: Historical Appendix (36:1—39:8)
B: The Book of Consolation (40:1—66:24)
I: The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation (40:1—48:22)
II: Expiation of Sin, Redemption of Israel (49:1—55:13)
III: Return of the First Captives (56:1—66:24)