ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on 'Prophets and Prophecy in Jeremiah and Kings' and to explore some of its implications. The eighth- and seventh-century figures are mostly hostile, and at best neutral, about 'prophetic' contemporaries. By contrast, post-exilic figures are readily titled 'prophet' and this title is extended in the writings associated with them to earlier individuals like Elijah and Isaiah. The Elisha stories portray their hero in some sort of association with the 'sons of the prophets'. John Barton has discussed canonical development relating to the 'prophets', and in particular Josephus' talk of the prophets after Moses writing the history of their times in thirteen books. He suggests this point to a bipartite canon of Law and Prophets–with 'prophets' implying a certain level of inspiration or authority. Prophets are also 'Writings', 'writings' that have been redefined as 'prophetic' at a quite advanced stage in the development of the earlier of them.
