| ToC | Reading the Old Testament | . . . Part 2. Prophets | ToC |
2. Social Location of ProphecyProphets did not operate in a social vacuum but were shaped by their socio-historical situation. Each spoke out of his particular background, whether urban or agricultural, priestly or lay, wealthy or of moderate means. Each tended to be shaped by his region's theological traditions, whether northern or southern, Israelite or Judean. Readers of biblical prophecy must keep all of these factors and issues in mind in order to understand prophetic literature properly.
Much of the activity of the prophets pertained to politics, both domestic and international. Biblical and extrabiblical documents have enabled scholarship to reconstruct the national and international settings that equip us to make sense out of the prophetic books. Recent anthropological analysis of prophecy has added further sophistication by placing the prophets within the social- and class-matrices of ancient Israel (see Wilson 1980 and Gottwald 1985).
Mesopotamian Prophecy. Various forms of prophetic activity are attested in the ancient Middle East, some of them analogous to features of biblical prophecy. The royal archives of Mari are an especially rich source (Pritchard 1969: 623-632). These texts from northwestern Mesopotamia of the 18th century B.C.E. make reference to ecstatic oracles induced by trances, divination, omen reading, and divine messenger speeches. Even closer to Israel geographically is the inscription of Zakir of Hamath, 9th century B.C.E., who prayed to Baal Shamen and was answered through seers, the same term that applied to Israel's prophets (1 Samuel 9:9; see Pritchard 1969: 655-56).
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| ToC | Reading the Old Testament | . . . Part 2. Prophets | ToC |
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