{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "prophets", "name": "Prophets", "stream": "egyptian-hebrew", "epoch_reflected": "egypto-chaldean", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "prophetic literature", "tradition": "Jewish / Christian", "author": null, "year_approx": -700, "note": "Five major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah + Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel) and twelve minor (Hosea through Malachi). From Isaiah's vision of the Messiah to Malachi's announcement of the messenger before the Lord. ASV (1901).", "books_slug": null, "books_slugs": null, "has_project_translation": false, "steiner_loci": [ "GA 109: The Christ Impulse and the Development of Ego-Consciousness — Hebrew prophets", "GA 117: The Deeper Secrets of Human History — the prophetic line" ] }, "parents": [ { "slug": "old-testament", "name": "Old Testament", "url": "/sources/old-testament/" } ], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "isaiah", "title": "Isaiah", "words": 39427, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/isaiah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/isaiah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Isaiah — the eighth-century prophet and the second Isaiah of the exile", "blurb": "The longest of the prophets. Eighth-century Jerusalem prophet of judgment and consolation; the great call-vision (ch 6); the Immanuel prophecy (7:14); the wolf-and-the-lamb (ch 11). Chapters 40-55 (Second Isaiah) — the exilic prophet of consolation, the four Servant Songs, the *highway in the desert*. Chapters 56-66 (Trito-Isaiah) — the post-exilic restoration." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "jeremiah", "title": "Jeremiah", "words": 45138, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/jeremiah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/jeremiah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Jeremiah — the weeping prophet of the Fall of Jerusalem", "blurb": "The prophet of the last decades of Judah before the Babylonian destruction (586 BC). The reluctant call (*Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child*); the *confessions* in which Jeremiah complains to God of his vocation; the great new-covenant passage (31:31-34); the persecution and imprisonment of the prophet. Closes with the destruction of Jerusalem." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "lamentations", "title": "Lamentations", "words": 3743, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/lamentations/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/lamentations.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Lamentations — the dirge over destroyed Jerusalem", "blurb": "The five acrostic lamentations over the fallen city. Each chapter built on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet (the third doubled to sixty-six verses). The great central affirmation (3:22-23): *It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not; they are new every morning.*" }, { "num": 4, "slug": "ezekiel", "title": "Ezekiel", "words": 41994, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/ezekiel/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/ezekiel.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Ezekiel — the exile-priest's visions; the Merkavah", "blurb": "The prophet-priest exiled to Babylon. The great inaugural vision (ch 1) — the *Merkavah*, the divine throne-chariot, the four living creatures with the wheels-within-wheels. The valley of dry bones (ch 37); the vision of the new Temple (chs 40-48); the river flowing from under the Temple's threshold." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "daniel", "title": "Daniel", "words": 12442, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/daniel/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/daniel.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Daniel — the court tales; the four-empire apocalypse", "blurb": "Two-part book. **Court tales** (chs 1-6): Daniel and his three companions in the Babylonian and Persian courts — the lion's den, the fiery furnace, the writing on the wall, the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. **Apocalyptic visions** (chs 7-12): the four beasts, the Ancient of Days, the *one like a son of man*, the seventy weeks." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "hosea", "title": "Hosea", "words": 5621, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/hosea/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/hosea.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Hosea — Yahweh's marriage to faithless Israel", "blurb": "Eighth-century northern-kingdom prophet. The prophet's own marriage to Gomer the *woman of harlotry* read as enacted parable of Yahweh's relation to faithless Israel. *I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies* (2:19)." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "joel", "title": "Joel", "words": 2144, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/joel/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/joel.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Joel — the locust plague; the Day of the Lord; *I will pour out my Spirit*", "blurb": "The locust plague read as a prefiguration of the great Day of the Lord. The famous prophecy quoted by Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2): *I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.*" }, { "num": 8, "slug": "amos", "title": "Amos", "words": 4489, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/amos/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/amos.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Amos — the shepherd-prophet and social justice", "blurb": "Eighth-century prophet from Tekoa. The opening *for three transgressions and for four* oracles against the surrounding nations and finally Israel. The great social-justice prophecy: *let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream* (5:24). The earliest of the writing prophets." }, { "num": 9, "slug": "obadiah", "title": "Obadiah", "words": 699, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/obadiah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/obadiah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Obadiah — the doom of Edom", "blurb": "The shortest book in the Old Testament — twenty-one verses. The doom-oracle against Edom (the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob) for their part in the destruction of Jerusalem. *Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down* (v 4)." }, { "num": 10, "slug": "jonah", "title": "Jonah", "words": 1424, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/jonah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/jonah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Jonah — the reluctant prophet sent to Nineveh", "blurb": "The narrative-prophet book. Jonah fleeing the command to preach to Nineveh; swallowed by the great fish and cast back; preaching at last; Nineveh repenting; Jonah's anger that the city was spared. *Doest thou well to be angry?* — the great closing question, and the rebuke through the gourd-plant and the worm." }, { "num": 11, "slug": "micah", "title": "Micah", "words": 3354, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/micah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/micah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Micah — *what doth the Lord require of thee*", "blurb": "Eighth-century prophet contemporary with Isaiah. The famous social-ethical summary (6:8): *what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?* The prophecy of Bethlehem as the birth-place of the ruler in Israel (5:2) — quoted by Matthew of Jesus." }, { "num": 12, "slug": "nahum", "title": "Nahum", "words": 1342, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/nahum/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/nahum.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Nahum — the fall of Nineveh", "blurb": "The doom-oracle against Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. Written shortly before its fall to the Medo-Babylonians in 612 BC. *Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not.* The complement to Jonah: Nineveh that once repented is now ripe for judgment." }, { "num": 13, "slug": "habakkuk", "title": "Habakkuk", "words": 1570, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/habakkuk/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/habakkuk.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Habakkuk — *the just shall live by his faith*", "blurb": "The dialogue between prophet and God. Habakkuk's complaints about violence, God's answer that the Chaldeans are being raised up — and the great word (2:4): *the just shall live by his faith* — quoted three times by Paul (Romans, Galatians, Hebrews) as the foundation of New Testament soteriology." }, { "num": 14, "slug": "zephaniah", "title": "Zephaniah", "words": 1720, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/zephaniah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/zephaniah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Zephaniah — the great Day of the Lord; the remnant", "blurb": "Late seventh-century prophet of the reign of Josiah. The great Day of the Lord — *a day of wrath, of trouble and distress, of waste and desolation, of darkness and gloominess.* Closes with the consolation of the humble remnant who shall be left in the midst — *the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.*" }, { "num": 15, "slug": "haggai", "title": "Haggai", "words": 1180, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/haggai/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/haggai.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Haggai — rebuild the house of the Lord", "blurb": "Post-exilic prophet — 520 BC. Calls the returned exiles to leave off panelling their own houses and rebuild the Temple. The promise that the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former (2:9) — and the future shaking of the heavens and the earth, when the *desire of all nations* shall come." }, { "num": 16, "slug": "zechariah", "title": "Zechariah", "words": 6793, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/zechariah/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/zechariah.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Zechariah — the apocalyptic visions; the king on a donkey", "blurb": "Contemporary with Haggai. The eight night-visions (chs 1-6) — the man among the myrtle trees, the four horns, the man with the measuring line, the high priest Joshua, the golden lampstand, the flying scroll, the woman in the ephah, the four chariots. Then the prophecy of the king on a donkey (9:9) and the *I will pour out the spirit of grace* (12:10)." }, { "num": 17, "slug": "malachi", "title": "Malachi", "words": 1858, "url": "/sources/old-testament/prophets/malachi/", "api": "/api/sources/old-testament/prophets/malachi.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Malachi — the last prophet; Elijah before the Day", "blurb": "The closing book of the Old Testament. Series of disputations between the people and God. *I have loved Jacob and hated Esau* (1:2-3). The promise that the Lord shall suddenly come to his temple, that the *sun of righteousness* shall arise with healing in his wings (4:2), and that Elijah the prophet shall be sent before the great and terrible Day." } ] }