Prophecy

In Beyond Fundamentalism, author James Barr discusses prophecy quite a bit. I would like to sum up a few of the main points here:

1. 2 Peter 1:21 tells us that "no prophecy ever came by human will." This concept is often extended to the whole of scripture even though much of it does not claim to be prophetic.
2. Christians in the early church seem to have seen the whole of the OT as prophetic, but this does not necessarily have anything to do with the historical accuracy of the texts. This was probably not a question that came up.
3. It is interesting to note the way that New Testament writers give new meaning to older statements. An example of this is found in Matthew 2:15. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have fled to Egypt and Matthew says this fulfills Hosea 11:1. The original passage, however, clearly applies to the past, not to the future.
4. Many of the prophetic statements in the Old Testament were not absolute. Read Isaiah 38:1-6. The prophet says that Hezekiah will die, but God changes his mind when Hezekiah repents. Amos 7:8-9 and 8:2 says that Yahweh has given up on Israel and then Amos 9:14-15 tells how he will restore them.
5. Contrary to popular thought, much of prophecy was not predictive. Much of it had to do with moral or social issues.
6. Most of the predictive prophecies have to do with the near future if read in context.

From what little I've learned about prophecy, I have seen that it is a much more complicated and diverse subject than many people realize. Despite what we may or may not understand about the nature of prophecy, we cannot necessarily make direct correlations between prophecy and the rest of scripture anyway.

Let's hear your thoughts on this subject...

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Links to the rest of this series: Understanding Scripture, Jesus and the Old Testament, Prophecy, What Counts as Scripture?, Fuller's Statement of Beliefs, How Was Scripture Written?, The LXX, What If?, Conclusions 

Comments

[deborah]

Here are some of my thoughts on your points:
1. That passage seems to be one of the ones people use to create a generalization. I find it interesting how a lot of prophesy was not included in the Bible. A person could be called a prophet but no prophesy of theirs is recorded.

2. It isn't just the early Christians who saw the OT as prophetic. I know many people who still see it that way. I have been confused about how people say that all of Song of Solomon is specific prophesy about how Jesus will relate to the church. Sometimes an umbrella is just an umbrella and sometimes it um, isn't.

3. At lot of the events in the NT mirror events in the OT. It seems to me that what is being taught as fullfulment prophesy is a reflection of the past. Israel (Jesus) was called out of Egypt, The firstborn (Jesus) was killed in the 10th plague. Jesus was crucified at passover. Many of the miracles of Jesus happened at holy sites or at holidays from the OT. There is direct prophesy, and there is inferred prophesy - like a mirror. (Is it possible that the entire OT is like that? That would make all of the OT prophesy, which totally messes up my comments on point 2.)

4. In Isaiah, God changes his mind after Hezekiah prays. That almost happens with Lot with Sodom. Some prophesy seems to have a hidden "unless you..." at the end. I can't address the passages from Joel as my bible only has 3 chapters in it.

5. & 6. Just because a lot of the prophesy that was recorded in the Bible seems to deal with morality and short-term prediction doesn't mean that all prophesy does. In Matt 26:56 Jesus says that his arrest has to happen to fulfill prophesy. That would be a long term prophesy not dealing with morality (this quote is also recorded in Mark).

And you haven't even mentioned Revelation.

[Bill]

Whoops, that should have been Amos! I will make the appropriate changes.

[r]

On the topic of prophecy, the original Hebrew and Greek words for prophecy are many with many differant meanings, it would perhaps be beneficial to know what each author meant when using that word.
For instance sometimes the OT prophets were not always "foretelling" as they were "forthtelling", there is a differance.
Paul mentions the gift of prophecy, does he mean foretelling or is more of what Pastors do when they give us the word of God?

[Bill]

I don't think there were necessarily different words for prophecy, but you're right in pointing out that there are different nuances to the term "prophecy."

My Nelson's New Christian Dictionary says that prophecy is a "Message conveyed by a prophet acting on behalf of God in any given situation."

That seems like a good, basic definition to me.

[Laura]

In his book, Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach, John Sailhamer talks about Hosea 11:1 and many other OT passages quoted in the NT. It's a good one to check for another perspective on the relationship between OT and NT.

Good series, btw.