Northern prophets Hosea 8th C and Amos 8th C coming fall of northern kingdom variously called Israel, Ephraim, Samaria
Early prophets 8th C Isaiah, Amos, Hosea and Micah
Pre-exilic prophets who prophesied before and during the fall of Jerusalem Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Nahum, Habbakuk and Zephaniah
Exilic prophets Daniel, Jeremiah though he didn't go to Babylon, Deutero-Isaiah
Post exilic prophets Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Obadiah, Trito-Isaiah Re-read Ezra and Nehemiah as additional context for these prophets and re-read 2 Kings for a refresher on Elijah
Prophets who prophesied about the fall of Assyria (Nineveh) in 612 B.C. Jonah
Obadiah might be considered post-exilic and Joel lacks sufficient information to be placed
Assyrian power 800s B.C.
Fall of Samaria at hands of the Assyrians 722 B.C.
Assyria falls, Nineveh 612 B.C.
Babylonions 700s B.C.
Rise of Babylonians 600s B.C.
Fall of Jerusalem 597 B.C.
Final Sacking of Jerusalem 587 B.C.
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Hosea
Book Written:
Time Period/Setting: The northern Kingdom of Israel, called Ephraim in this book, during the reign of Jeroboam II, 786 BC-746 BC. Hosea was active toward the end of Jeroboam's reign and, according to HC, continued to prophesy until the reign of King Hoshea right before the fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria in 722 BC.
Title: The prophet's name, a shortened form of Hoshaiah meaning 'Yahweh has saved' in Hebrew. Hosea is one of the four 8th century BC prophets along with Isaiah, Amos and Micah.
Hosea marries (is told by the Lord to marry) Gomer who turns out to be an adulteress or a "whoring bride." He rejects her, but then takes her back. Baker sees the marriage motif as key to understanding this book. He explains it this way: .." under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he [Hosea] sees that his experience with Gomer is a symbol or replica of the relationship between Israel (Gomer) and the Lord God (Hosea)." Using marriage to explain Israel's/bride's relation to the Lord/bridegroom is introduced by Hosea and then employed by other prophets (Ezekiel) and also by St. Paul in the NT.
During Hosea's time, Israel has two main sinful flaws. One is turning to foreign powers for help in fending off the ravages of Assyria and the other is worshipping foreign gods, Baal most notably.
Hosea and Amos are contemporaries, both prophets of doom.
Time Period/Setting: The northern Kingdom of Israel, called Ephraim in this book, during the reign of Jeroboam II, 786 BC-746 BC. Hosea was active toward the end of Jeroboam's reign and, according to HC, continued to prophesy until the reign of King Hoshea right before the fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria in 722 BC.
Title: The prophet's name, a shortened form of Hoshaiah meaning 'Yahweh has saved' in Hebrew. Hosea is one of the four 8th century BC prophets along with Isaiah, Amos and Micah.
Hosea marries (is told by the Lord to marry) Gomer who turns out to be an adulteress or a "whoring bride." He rejects her, but then takes her back. Baker sees the marriage motif as key to understanding this book. He explains it this way: .." under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he [Hosea] sees that his experience with Gomer is a symbol or replica of the relationship between Israel (Gomer) and the Lord God (Hosea)." Using marriage to explain Israel's/bride's relation to the Lord/bridegroom is introduced by Hosea and then employed by other prophets (Ezekiel) and also by St. Paul in the NT.
During Hosea's time, Israel has two main sinful flaws. One is turning to foreign powers for help in fending off the ravages of Assyria and the other is worshipping foreign gods, Baal most notably.
Hosea and Amos are contemporaries, both prophets of doom.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Daniel
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| Job, Daniel, Noah Three Righteous Men Poor Man's Bible 13th C Sonia Halliday Photo |
Title: The use of the name Daniel both for the title of book and its protagonist is probably the same reason the name Solomon was used in the Wisdom of Solomon and the Song of Solomon. That is to say that a certain Daniel (not even an Israelite?), along with Noah and Job, were "figures known widely in the ancient Near East" and were seen as exceedingly righteous men (Collins). These three are depicted in the stained glass window to the right. The name Daniel may refer to the Danel or Daniel mentioned in Ezekiel Chapter 14 or it may refer to a judge Danel/Daniel from an Ugarit 14th century BC legend.
So, first question, was there really a Jewish exile who interpreted Nebuchednezzar's dream and the handwriting on the wall? And did this exile have friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, renamed in exile respectively as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Did they endure some sort of torture, whether a fiery furnace or other, and emerge unscathed? Did Daniel survive a torture, a lion's den or other?
Regardless of the answers to these (perhaps naive) questions, Baker says that the book of Daniel was written for the purpose of inspiring Jews experiencing the domination if not persecution of a foreign power, the Seleucids. Daniel is an example of a wise (e.g. his Solomonic role in determining the fate of poor Susanna) and a godly man who shows undying faith in the one God of Israel. Daniel's God is more powerful than the pagan's idols and Daniel's faith gives him the wisdom to be clearly smarter than the Chaldean sorcerers and priests (e.g. Daniel can interpret the dreams where they are unable).
As noted earlier, Daniel is deemed the only book in the OT which is truly apocalyptic, though I fail to see why certain chapters of Ezekiel wouldn't qualify.
Chapter 12 of Daniel alludes to the resurrection of the body and both Baker and Eerdmans say, respectively, this is the only (?) such reference in the OT and the earliest reference. However, what about the Wisdom of Solomon, the first five chapters and also the writings in the Books of the Maccabees?
Ezekiel
Book Written: About 550 B.C. (by Ezekiel's disciples?).
Time Period/Setting: The Babylonian exile, specifically the years 593-571 B.C. when Ezekiel was prophesying. Ezekiel prophesies from Babylon to the exiled community there with him as well as to Jerusalem.
Title: The prophet's name.
Ezekiel is prophet, priest and contemporary of Jeremiah. Garrison cautions against applying Ezekiel's prophesies to current events as a modern-day "fire-breathing evangelist" might do. Could he mean someone like this? Garrison says such interpretations miss the point of the book by focusing on doomsday predictions about modern times, rather than Ezekiel's universal message about God's unmatchable power, personal conversion and the suffering caused by sin. See below on apocalyptic literature.
Garrison advises skimming this book, but it was near impossible to skim the first three chapters describing Ezekiel's call to prophesy and his vision of the four-faced, winged and wheeled creatures. Fantastical and bizarre images! The song hardly does the Biblical text justice.
Equally unskimmable was Chapter 16 where Israel is depicted with unrelenting insistence as the "whoring" bride of the Lord. It was also hard to skim Chapter 37, 'dem dry bones. Do you not remember the song? The image of Ezekiel prophesying to some bones in a Mesopotamian valley as the bones rattle, join together, take on sinew, flesh, skin and finally life when Ezekiel breathes on 'dem--the toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the---well, take a look and listen here . Who wouldn't squirm and sweat? It is, in a word, unbelievable. Isn't it a prefiguring, albeit a crude one, of the resurrection that will follow once the Messiah has come into the world? Collins doesn't make much of it in his notes.
The excruciating details concerning Ezekiel's vision of the new temple in Chapter 40 compel one to read every word rather than skim. Just the circumstances of the vision preclude skimming the final chapters 40 to 48. Ezekiel is carried to a high mountain by the Lord and is then ushered through the new temple by a man whose "appearance shone like bronze." And, the man measures every nook and cranny with his measuring reed as he takes Ezekiel around! Why, I don't know. These few examples, plus simply the length of the book make Ezekiel a text to be reckoned with.
Lastly there's the matter of apocalyptic literature, a genre of writing particular to Judaism between 250 BC and 250 AD, but having its roots in Near East mythology. Baker says that its origins are to be found in Ezekiel, but there is also evidence of it in the OT books of Haggai, Zechariah, Joel and Malachi. Eerdmans says the only "true" example of apocalyptic writing is in the book of Daniel, Ch 7-12. The word itself is from the Greek and means revelation or disclosure. Eerdmans:
Time Period/Setting: The Babylonian exile, specifically the years 593-571 B.C. when Ezekiel was prophesying. Ezekiel prophesies from Babylon to the exiled community there with him as well as to Jerusalem.
Title: The prophet's name.
Ezekiel is prophet, priest and contemporary of Jeremiah. Garrison cautions against applying Ezekiel's prophesies to current events as a modern-day "fire-breathing evangelist" might do. Could he mean someone like this? Garrison says such interpretations miss the point of the book by focusing on doomsday predictions about modern times, rather than Ezekiel's universal message about God's unmatchable power, personal conversion and the suffering caused by sin. See below on apocalyptic literature.
Garrison advises skimming this book, but it was near impossible to skim the first three chapters describing Ezekiel's call to prophesy and his vision of the four-faced, winged and wheeled creatures. Fantastical and bizarre images! The song hardly does the Biblical text justice.
Equally unskimmable was Chapter 16 where Israel is depicted with unrelenting insistence as the "whoring" bride of the Lord. It was also hard to skim Chapter 37, 'dem dry bones. Do you not remember the song? The image of Ezekiel prophesying to some bones in a Mesopotamian valley as the bones rattle, join together, take on sinew, flesh, skin and finally life when Ezekiel breathes on 'dem--the toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the---well, take a look and listen here . Who wouldn't squirm and sweat? It is, in a word, unbelievable. Isn't it a prefiguring, albeit a crude one, of the resurrection that will follow once the Messiah has come into the world? Collins doesn't make much of it in his notes.
The excruciating details concerning Ezekiel's vision of the new temple in Chapter 40 compel one to read every word rather than skim. Just the circumstances of the vision preclude skimming the final chapters 40 to 48. Ezekiel is carried to a high mountain by the Lord and is then ushered through the new temple by a man whose "appearance shone like bronze." And, the man measures every nook and cranny with his measuring reed as he takes Ezekiel around! Why, I don't know. These few examples, plus simply the length of the book make Ezekiel a text to be reckoned with.
Lastly there's the matter of apocalyptic literature, a genre of writing particular to Judaism between 250 BC and 250 AD, but having its roots in Near East mythology. Baker says that its origins are to be found in Ezekiel, but there is also evidence of it in the OT books of Haggai, Zechariah, Joel and Malachi. Eerdmans says the only "true" example of apocalyptic writing is in the book of Daniel, Ch 7-12. The word itself is from the Greek and means revelation or disclosure. Eerdmans:
"Apocalypses are characterized by the presence of vision, symbolism, a human seer and an other-worldly mediator, an otherworldly journey, an emphasis on events in the cosmic rather than human realm, an increased interest in angels and demons, the notion of transcendence of God, and pseudonymity." p. 72Eerdmans gives three characteristics of the apocalyptic genre:
1) it is a first person narrative. .. "with revelatory visions often mediated to the author by a supernatural being" 2) the content communicated is eschatological in nature and achieved through a variety of devices, both literary and visual such that 3) those hearing the message will behave in "conformity with the transcendent perspectives." p. 1124-1125There is much more of course, but time to move on to the Book of Daniel.
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