A History of Prophecy in Israel

by Joseph Blenkinsopp

This revised and enlarged edition of a classic in Old Testament scholarship reflects the most up-to-date research on the prophetic books and offers substantially expanded discussions of important new insight on Isaiah and the other prophets.

Genres: History, Biblical Studies, Religion, Theology, Old Testament, Nonfiction, School

291 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joseph Blenkinsopp is an Old Testament scholar with an intriguing mix of specialties. His most famous works are possibly the first edition of A History of Prophecy in Israel and his Ezra-Nehemiah commentary, both with a decided focus on history as illuminated by literary criticism (more of the classic style than Alonso-Schokel’s “stylistics” or the so-called “rhetorical criticism”). Yet, his sensitivity to more modern approaches was reflected in his Prophecy and Canon which offers several possible approaches to the assembling, editing, interpreting, and preserving of the prophetic literature from a canonical perspective. The second edition of A History of Prophecy in Israel: Revised and Enlarged is not totally dismissive of canonical considerations, but canonical development (as speculative as our attempts to reconstruct it might be) is not the primary focus.

Perhaps, the most valuable aspect of Blenkinsopp’s history of prophecy is that he postulates intriguing reasons why prophecy might have changed from the schools of charismatic prophets such as Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha (and their “schools” or bands of followers) to the writing prophets and evolving into a more interpretive and apocalyptic style. Another service performed by this volume is to recognize, without surrendering the Israelite qualities of uniqueness as in the older History of Religions school, the influence of other Near Eastern seers on the way prophets operated and articulated their messages, as well as how and why their messages may have been preserved. “The compiling of oracular utterances in contemporary Assyria (admittedly of a rather different kind) also may have influenced practice within Israel and Judah.” (p. 66) Again, in discussing the “indictment-verdict” style of prophetic utterance, he observes: “…there are grounds for believing this indictment-verdict pattern is taken over from the language of international relations.” (p. 80)

Further, having observed immigrant communities up close and personal through my ministry, I found it quite insightful when he discussed the “Exile.” He described how the exiles seem to have accommodated themselves to whatever labor and craftsmanship was available to them and, “…were soon in a position to purchase property and send gifts back to the homeland.” (p. 152) That sounds amazingly like the Irish immigrants of the 19th and early 20th century, as well as the Chinese and Korean immigrants I have known in the U.S. This insight becomes even more helpful when he writes: “In spite of the favorable sociological structure provided by separate settlements, resistance to assimilation no doubt called for great vigilance, which will help explain why circumcision, sabbath observance, and dietary prescriptions achieved during that time the confessional status they have preserved ever since.” (p. 152) Again, this explains why the 1st generation immigrants of a previous diaspora may be a study in a culture frozen in time (immigrant communities often reflecting their home country of decades before).

I found Blenkinsopp’s even-handed discussion of the relationship of the classical prophets to the cult to be very helpful in explaining both their handling of cultic traditions and use of liturgical forms in their preaching, as well as their opposition to contamination/syncretism within the temple and shrine institutions themselves. Yet, I was most disappointed with his concurrence with “schools” of disciples for a given prophet for the most part with his dogmatic assertion that there is “absolutely no evidence” for an Isaianic school (p. 184). Being of the “absence of evidence is no evidence of absence” party myself, I can’t quite go there, particularly when Blenkinsopp himself perceives evidence of Isaianic expansions with the text itself (p. 235). Another disappointment is when Blenkinsopp follows the majority of traditional Old Testament scholarship in presuming that wherever there is an optimistic hope or salvation oracle that it must have been appended by later editors/interpreters. It just doesn’t defy my imagination that a prophetic doomsayer who contends that repentance is the only answer would hold up an idealized idea of a post-judgment salvation/utopia. The assumption with which Blenkinsopp seems to agree is one that has bothered me since I was first introduced to traditional biblical criticism.

Yet, I find many stimulating ideas in A history of Prophecy in Israel: Revised and Enlarged and many insights that are worth it -- more than the occasional annoying presupposition. I enjoyed: his observations on how the work of the Deuteronomist and Deuteronomistic History would have met the needs of the disoriented population in the Exile (p. 165), his recognition of how Ezekiel’s structure (divided between the poles of exile and return) would have fit with the role of the priesthood during the exile (p. 170), his suggestion that “musicians” had somewhat replaced the role of prophets within the tradition of the Chronicler (p. 225), and his mention of the possibility of Jonah as a sapiential (ie. “Wisdom School”) critique of classical prophecy (p. 242). Not only is this work a valuable resource as a summary of scholarly positions and interpretive considerations, but it is worth re-reading on occasion to consider ideas which may not be immediately obvious to the general reader.

[Robert Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some fascinating aspects to it regarding the historical developments within the prophetic corpus and the sociological backgrounds. As someone who is especially interested in exilic and exilic prophecy, those chapters were very fascinating.

However, I wish that he did delve into method a bit more. For instance, he never explains the assumptions for the many different redactional layers to each of the prophetic books. He shows that they are a literary unity, but seems to go in with assumptions as to what constitutes a different development from the original core of the book. It seems a bit over simplistic, which, ironically, potentially makes the prophetic books overly complicated.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin. A chronological study of Israel's prophets from their shadowy emergence in pre-Davidic Israel, through the great eighth century prophets and into exile and beyond. The centuries of editing, revising and interpreting have given us composite texts that both deny us access to much of the original material but also allows us to see how they have been polished and shaped through Israel's religious tradition. The question posed by the final editors - how can the words of our ancestors spoken so long ago and in such a different context still speak to us today - is of course one that anyone with a more than academic interest in the texts will continue to ask 2500 years later,

[Geof Sage · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty thorough, if dated, survey of exactly what it says in the title. A good foundation of the part of the Bible I always skip reading.

Sorry, Doug, I stopped doing the reading for REL201 around Halloween 2005. Probably why I became an Islamicist and not a Hebraicist.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great, standard survey of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, albeit written a bit on the clinical, dry side. My only quibble would be the exclusion of the book of Daniel most likely a choice reflecting 1) the fact that Daniel is listed among the Kethuvim (Writings) and not the Nevi'im (Prophets) in the Hebrew Canon 2) there is a long-held scholarly assumption that the period of "classical" prophecy ended early in the post-exilic period. Since Daniel comes fairly late it is usually treated among the beginnings of apocalyptic, an ostensibly different genre all together.

[Matt Siegman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history, extremely informative

The author did a lot of research to write this book. It is comprehensive, but focused. He doesn't unnecessarily veer into topics not related to the prophets. That said, this is definitely an academic work, so it is at times hard to keep reading: it is packed with information. Luckily, the text is very concise, so you are not reading a bunch of extra words to get at the meaning.

[Dennis Podryadchikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Critical history of the prophetical activity in Israel taken from the standpoint of textual criticism (Deuteronomistic theory, etc).