No Prophets? Recent Developments in Biblical Prophetic Research and Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy

Abstract

Recently, scholars like Auld and Carroll have advocated the view that we can learn little or nothing about ancient Israelite prophecy from the so-called prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible, and that the biblical prophets are not really 'prophets', but 'poets'. Taking its starting point from the recent discussion of biblical prophecy, the present article argues for the necessity of a phenomenological, rather than a narrowly historical, approach, and for the necessity of taking other ancient Near Eastern prophetic texts into consideration. Following this approach, the author seeks to demonstrate that we can actually learn a great deal about ancient Israelite prophecy from the biblical books.