The Phenomenon of Israelite Prophecy in Contemporary Scholarship

In the mid-twentieth century, the classic historical-critical approach to the Hebrew Bible’s prophetic books gave way to the study of Israelite prophecy as part of a social phenomenon known throughout the ancient Near East. Since the 1980s, research on the phenomenon of Israelite prophecy has been m...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kelle, Brad E. 1973- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2014
In: Currents in biblical research
Year: 2014, Volume: 12, Issue: 3, Pages: 275-320
Further subjects:B Ecstasy
B Scribes
B Psychology
B orator
B Anthropology
B Analogies for prophetic figures
B Neo-Assyrian Prophecy
B Mari
B Charismatics
B literati
B Divination
B Women Prophets
B models for prophetic figures
B Sociology
B Intermediaries
B lay prophets
B prophetic book
B postexilic prophecy
B Prophecy
B Book of the Twelve
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:In the mid-twentieth century, the classic historical-critical approach to the Hebrew Bible’s prophetic books gave way to the study of Israelite prophecy as part of a social phenomenon known throughout the ancient Near East. Since the 1980s, research on the phenomenon of Israelite prophecy has been marked by two main paradigms. The first extends the basic phenomenological approach and identifies Israelite prophecy as a socio-historical phenomenon shared across various ancient cultures. Prophecy was a form of intermediation between the divine and human, and a sub-type of the larger religious practice of (non-technical) divination. The second paradigm questions the usefulness of the biblical texts for reconstructing the ancient realities of prophecy and suggests that Israelite prophecy was a literary phenomenon that emerged among scribes in postexilic Yehud. Within these paradigms, present research offers new insights on lines of inquiry, such as the relationship between prophecy and psychology, prophets in the Second Temple period, and female prophets and prophecy. Overall, scholarship reflects a sharpening distinction between ‘ancient Hebrew prophecy’ as a socio-historical phenomenon and ‘biblical prophecy’ as a literary/scribal phenomenon, and generally approaches Israelite prophecy not as a single phenomenon but as a set of related phenomena.
ISSN:1745-5200
Contains:Enthalten in: Currents in biblical research
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/1476993X13480677