Chapter V

THE INSTITUTION OF THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE.

=1. But a most remarkable feature= of the times of the kings, both of Judah and Israel, appeared in that religious body called the Prophets.

The name “prophet” was originally given by God to Abraham, Gen. 20:7, and seemed to imply a familiarity with God, or that the one to whom it was applied had divine authority to speak for God. The prophets, therefore, were not confined in their utterances to a mere foretelling of events, but, in addition, were made the messengers of God and uttered commands as well as advice by his appointment and in his stead.

=2. They received divine messages= in several ways: (1) by impulses, commanding and influencing their thoughts while awake, as in the case of Elisha, 2 Kings 3:15; (2) by audible sounds, as in the case of Samuel when a child, 1 Sam. 3:10, and when older and a prophet, as recorded in 1 Sam. 9:15 and in other passages; (3) and by visions, or dreams, as in the cases of Isaiah, Isa. 1:1, Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:17, and Daniel, Dan. 10:1, 7.

=3. There was a class= who were officially known as prophets, whose lives were chiefly devoted to this office, and these were distinguished by a term which has come down to the present time and is in use among the Arabs in the regions of Palestine and Syria. This is the term “Neby” used by the natives as a title of a sacred person and associated with tombs throughout these lands, and it is the same word used in the times of Abraham, Gen. 20:7.

=4. There was, however, another class= of prophets who seem to have been used for special occasions and who were commissioned for one prophetic act, after which they do not appear again in history, 2 Chron. 9:29; 1 Kings 16:1‒4; 2 Chron. 19:2; 15:1‒8, and elsewhere. These, however, may in some instances have been chosen from one of those collections, or schools, of the prophets which existed from the time of Samuel to a period several centuries later, 1 Sam. 19:18, 19. “Naioth” in this passage alludes to the “habitations” in Ramah, which appear to have been “colleges” of the prophets. There were such colleges or schools at Bethel and Jericho, 2 Kings 2:3, 5. In these schools the law was studied, and perhaps psalmody, as we find that in some passages references are made to the instrumental performances of the prophets, 1 Sam. 10:5.

=5. Of all the prophets= the utterances of only sixteen have come down to us in distinct books. Of these it is customary to speak of four as THE GREATER, or major, prophets, and of twelve as THE MINOR prophets, but these terms have reference only to the extent of their writings. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are included in the term major, and their prophecies, as written, are composed in the following order, only as to the number of verses in each prophecy as that prophecy appears in the English authorized version: Jeremiah (including Lamentations, which has 154 verses) 1,518 verses, Isaiah 1,292, Ezekiel 1,273, and Daniel 357.

=6. Of the minor prophets=, the order, in point of number of verses in each book, is as follows: Zechariah 211, Hosea 197, Amos 146, Micah 105, Joel 73, Habakkuk 56, Malachi 55, Zephaniah 53, Jonah 48, Nahum 47, Haggai 38, Obadiah 21.

The prophecy of Jeremiah, including Lamentations, ranks, in order of number of verses, next after Genesis, which contains 1,533 verses.

This analysis of the books of the major prophets shows not only their comparative importance, as to size, among the sixteen prophetical books, but also among all the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament; for Genesis, in point of number of verses, is second only to the book of Psalms, and Jeremiah’s writings are the third in this order.

=7. In point of time=, there seems to have been an entirely uninterrupted line of such prophets as we have described from the age of Samuel to the return from the captivity, an era of nearly 750 years (from B. C. 1141 to B. C. 397).

Some of even the greatest of the prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, never committed their prophecies to writing. In a very large degree, however, their words and acts are recorded in various histories, as the historian had need to make reference to them in explaining certain events he was narrating in the history of the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel.

Of those prophets whose prophecies are given in distinct books, Jonah was the first mentioned in point of time, and Malachi was the last, probably B. C. 397.

After the death of Malachi the prophetic institution, as an order, seems to have closed, and it was so understood by some of the ancient Jewish writers, as appears in the apocryphal books.[96]

PERIOD VI.

THE CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH TO THE CLOSE OF THE CANONICAL PERIOD.

B. C. 588‒397(?).