The Role of the Prophets in the Old and New Testament

The Old Testament, also called the Hebrew Bible, is a collection of books beginning with the creation story of Genesis and ending with the book of the prophet Malachi. The Old Testament of The Holy Bible consists of five major prophets and twelve minor prophets. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a prophet is a ‘person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God’. The word ‘prophet’ itself originates from the Greek ‘prophētēs’ meaning ‘spokesman’. (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2019) The major prophets in the Old Testament are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. The minor prophets, often referred to as ‘the twelve’, are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Despite the suggestive nature of the term ‘major’, the major prophets are in no way superior to the minor prophets but are called so in relation to the length of their books. Throughout this essay I will be focusing on one major prophet, Isaiah, and briefly on two of the minor prophets, Amos and Hosea. These prophets are of the Assyrian age, a defining age in the development of God’s relationship with his people of the covenant.

Life at the time of the early prophets in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE was tumultuous with the division of the kingdom into a northern kingdom, Israel, and a southern kingdom, Judah. Many of the early prophecies of Isaiah, Amos, Hosea and Micah reflected the crises faced by both kingdoms in the lead up to the Assyrian destruction. (Flanagan, 1965) According to Carr and Conway “the Assyrian crisis was the starting point for the development of written prophecies in ancient Israel and Judah.” (Carr and Conway, 2010) Amos and Hosea addressed the the Northern Kingdom of Israel while Isaiah and Micah addressed the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

The Book of Isaiah is the first book of a major prophet in the Old Testament. Addressed to the people of Judah in the Southern Kingdom, Isaiah is often described as a “vision of hope for Jerusalem”, also known as Zion. (Carr and Conway, 2010) The role of Isaiah in the Old Testament was to assure the people of Judah that, from the destruction Yahweh would cause them for not trusting in Him after the Northern Kingdom was destroyed, He would also give cause for them to have hope in the restoration that would follow. In order to do this, Yahweh called on Isaiah, in what is known as the prophetic call narrative, to deliver his message to the people of the Southern Kingdom (Isaiah 6). Isaiah communicated this message of hope to the people of Judah through the symbolic image of a stump. In Isaiah 11:1, he tells the people “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2007) Through this passage God’s people are told that all hope is not lost after the impending Assyrian destruction. At the time this was written, the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem, which was descendant of Jesse, was to the people but a dead stump with no hope of growth nor revival. (Carr and Conway, 2010) However, Isaiah counteracts this belief and instils the idea that Zion will soon be a place of peace once the people reconnect with the one and only God in a new covenant. This message is clearly personified in Isaiah 11:9 which reads “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2007). The role of Isaiah in the Old Testament can be seen as a messenger of hope in the face of adversity. God wanted his people to know that, although they would be punished for their actions against Him, Yahweh would not turn his back on the people of the sacred covenant. However, the Book of Isaiah is not just relevant to the people of the time, many biblical scholars and indeed followers of Christianity have interpreted the “shoot” that springs from the “stump” in Isaiah 11:1 as reference to the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, the ideal Davidic king that the people longed for to judge justly and successfully defend them from their enemies. (Carr and Conway, 2010) The role of the prophet Isaiah can therefore be understood as an eternal mediator between God and his people in order for them to live as God intended and achieve salvation.

While it can be easy to focus on just the major prophets, in order to understand the complete role of prophets in the Old Testament we must also shift our gaze to minor prophets such as Amos and Hosea. Both these men wrote to the audience of the Northern Kingdom of Israel before it’s destruction by the Assyrians warning them of what was to come. While Amos is considered to have a strong tone of doom, Hosea’s prediction of hope on “the other side of painful judgement” is much different. (Carr and Conway, 2010)

Amos is known as the prophet of social justice who criticized the elite people of Israel for using their power in the city to exploit the poor and vulnerable. God called on Amos to alert his people that the covenant they made with Him through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would not protect them from the consequences of their unholy actions. In Amos 2:6-7 the Lord says “I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals”. (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2007) Amos warns the people of the Northern Kingdom that they will undoubtedly be rebuked and punished by God, in Amos 8:8 he warns of a terrible earthquake that shall “tremble” the land. (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2007) The role of Amos is to show the people of Israel the national consequences of their social actions. (Carr and Conway, 2010)

Hosea, also writing to the people of Israel, takes a different approach in his prophecy. He pleads with the people of Israel to change their ways and placed emphasis on God’s love for Israel and the devotion he wanted from his people. (Carr and Conway, 2010) Hosea compares the relationship between God and Israel as that of a broken marriage due to unfaithfulness of God’s bride, Israel. However, Hosea does not conclude with judgement but of hope of reconciliation between God and his people. Hosea preaches of God’s boundless love and compassion. The role of the prophet Hosea was to call on the Israelites to devote themselves to Yahweh and trust in his enduring love. (Carr and Conway, 2010)Throughout this essay I believe I have outlined the roles of the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Hosea in the Old Testament. The prophetic writings helped to nourish the faith of the succeeding religious communities. It is for this reason that they are still valid and applicable in modern life, their teachings have timeless value and God spoke clearly through them to ensure his message would be heard by all nations until the day of deliverance.