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...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Sage
2014
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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
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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. |
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ISSN: | 1745-5200 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Currents in biblical research
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/1476993X13480677 |