Prophets Exam Unit 1 - Introduction

Front 1

Is the office of the prophet a permanent office?

Back 1

No it is an occasional one, and not the ordinary office of ministry to God's people.

Front 2

What is Collin's basic text for Prophetism in the OT and ANE and it's outline?

Back 2

Deut 18.9-22
9-13 Rejected practices - attempts to secure some kind of success (not that they don't work... just that they are abominable)

14-19 God's Appointed Agency are his prophets - a spokesman for God

20-22 Criteria for distinguishing true from false. Wrong to take these criteria as rules to be applied rigidly every time a prophet opened his mouth. When a prophet announced God’s coming judgment and called for repentance, it would clearly be pointless to wait first to see if the judgment actually came to pass, and then to repent (too late!). Rather the criteria represent the means by which a prophet gained his reputation as a true prophet and spokesman of the Lord.

Front 3

What Passage does Collins point to as the prophet's doctrinal test?

Back 3

Deut 13.1-6 & Jer 23.9ff

Front 4

Fairbairn's 3 characteristics of the prophet

Back 4

1) direct personal communication from God.
2) the message concerns the things of God, and his kingdom (in terms of the corporate entity and its mission to the world)
3. he faithfully recorded or uttered the revelation he received.

Front 5

Stuart's four affirmations about OT prophets

Back 5

1. considered themselves servants of God, vehicles through whom God spoke
2. considered the content of their message unoriginal
3. considered themselves to occupy a divinely appointed societal office, correcting illegal beliefs and practices
4. They understood what they preached.

Front 6

Writing Prophets are also called the

Back 6

later prophets... as opposed to the former prophets (Josh-Kings, a prophetic interpretation of some of Israel's history)

Front 7

Bullock's structural questions when dealing with the writing prophets

Back 7

1. is the particular book a sermon collection?
2. What are the occasions of the the individual addresses (and do they matter to interpretation)
3. Single composition or edited to produce unity? (unless specifically told in text, Collins says it is unrecoverable and uninteresting) Only the text we have has objective existence and is the proper object of exegesis.

Front 8

What is form criticism?

Back 8

Form criticism is
mostly about isolating the individual pieces, figuring out what’s early and late,
and identifying the “original,” usually oral, setting of the earliest bits.

Front 9

How is Canonicity apparent in the proph

Back 9

Canonicity is inherent in the idea of true and false prophets, and in God’s own
seal of authority in Deut 18.19

(19) "And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him."

Front 10

When was the division of Israelite kingdom?

Back 10

930 BC

Front 11

Neo-Assyrian Empire as it relates to Northern & Southern Kingdoms

Back 11

1) Spanned 288 years - 900-612 BC

2) Jehu offered tribute to Shalmaneser III 841

3) especially influential on Israel after Tiglath Pileser, 745 (due to TP's westward expansion)

A) Northern Kingdom Jonah, Amos, Hosea – leading up to the destruction of Samaria, 722/721

B)Southern Kingdom Micah, Isaiah – living in the shadow of the Assyrians, down to about 680 BC

C) Southern Kingdom Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk – as the Assyrians are on the wane

Front 12

Neo-Babylonian Empire in light of the Southern Kingdom

Back 12

Spanned 87 years from 626 (Nabopolassar defeated Assyrians and founded dynasty) to 539 (Babylon captured by Persian-led coalition)

Southern Kingdom: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Daniel – leading up to and just after destruction of Jerusalem, 586 BC

Front 13

Persian period

Back 13

Pertaining to Judah during the 6th to 5th century. The Persian Period continued until the invasion of Alexander the Great in 334 BCE, and the start of the Hellenistic Period

Judah restored but only partially chastened: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Joel - prophets of the restoration of Judah

Front 14

Fairbairn's description of two misguided views of prophecy and prediction

Back 14

1) Joseph Butler - "nothing but the history of events before they come to pass" Leaves out the moral element of prophecy
2) predictive element as absent or unimportant(playing up forth-telling over fore-telling)

Front 15

Interpretive principles of prophecy

Back 15

1) understand prophecy and prediction

2) poetic elevation (because to a Hebrew this was the right way to express “high” things)

3) figurative representation - prophets describe the appearance of Messiah's kingdom in terms of past and preparatory ages.

4) Relative (not total) disregard of time periods. "fore-shortening"

Front 16

Key recurring interpretive issues in prophetical books

Back 16

Looking for them will make you..... C J.E.M.S

1) Conditional / Unconditional

2) Judgment and salvation – how can a book, e.g. Amos, which is so heavily judgment, still contain promises of blessing? (Does that reflect a later editor’s views?) Further, what were the judgments and salvations promised – earthly, heavenly, or what?

3) Eschatology "later days" / "day of the Lord"

4) Messiah

5) Sacrifice - abuse of, or hypocritical adherence condemned

Front 17

Key Questions for theological exposition of a passage in a prophetical book.

Back 17

1/ Historical circumstances of this prophet and his work? Specific circumstances of pericope.

2/ Assumed form in which covenant institutions (e.g. kingship; worship; etc.) are administered, and how is this drawn upon and enriched?

3/ Literary relation of this text to its larger context, and & literary structure of the pericope itself?

4/ What imagery does the prophet use?

5/ What would constitute fulfillment of predictive elements?

6/ What elements are conditional and unconditional?

7/ How did the people respond to the message (if we can tell)?

8/ How does this passage speak about the people of God – their current condition, their role in the story, and God’s future for the people?