The Prophets: Introduction

These are notes from the introduction of C. Hassell Bullock's book on OT prophets.

Bullock asserts he will take a chronological/timeline approach to studying the prophets to better reveal the
"cultural, theological, and historical interrelationships." I'm a fan of this method--it's what I tend to do when teaching literature in general.

The prophets were not "silos" but viewed themselves as part of a larger prophetic community.  Some drew on each other more than others, although they do not reference each other directly.

The prophets emerged in times of crisis in clusters.  Three main clusters:

Neo-Assyrian Era

before the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC

Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah

Jonah peripherally connected---reluctantly witnessed God's mercy.

Neo-Babylonian Era

Fall of Southern Kingdom in 586 BC

Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Nahum, Ezekiel, Obadiah 

The prophets of the Northern Kingdom were viewed to be the main source of reform as opposed to the Northern kings. In the South, it was the opposite--the kings initiated reform--esp. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. 

The only literary prophets (those whose witness manifest itself primarily through written scripture) the author of the book of Kings acknowledges directly are Jonah & Isaisah