Prophets and Prophecy
Those who spoke in God’s name to kings and people, from Moses, Elijah and Isaiah to John the Baptist, and later movements that claimed the same gift.
The prophets of Israel called rulers and people back to the covenant and announced judgment and restoration. Their books make up a large part of the Old Testament, and the New Testament quotes them on almost every page. The thread continues with John the Baptist, the Revelation to John, and later movements in the church that claimed new prophecy.
The thread from start to finish
- c. 1447 or c. 1261 BC, traditional dateThe Call of Moses
In Exodus Moses, born under Pharaoh’s order to kill Hebrew boys and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, flees to Midian. At Horeb a voice from a burning bush reveals the divine name and sends him back to bring Israel out of Egypt.
- about 1070 BC, traditional dateSamuel and the Loss of the Ark
Samuel is called as a boy at the shrine of Shiloh. The Philistines defeat Israel, capture the ark of the covenant and kill the sons of the priest Eli, then send the ark back after seven months. Samuel leads Israel as prophet and judge.
- about 995 BC, traditional dateDavid, Bathsheba and Nathan
Samuel tells how David takes Bathsheba, the wife of one of his warriors, and when she is pregnant has her husband Uriah killed in battle. The prophet Nathan confronts him. The child dies; a second son, Solomon, is born.
- about 860 BC, traditional dateElijah on Mount Carmel
During a long drought the prophet Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal, whom King Ahab and Queen Jezebel support, to a contest on Mount Carmel. Kings tells of fire from heaven, the people’s return to the Lord, and Elijah’s flight to Horeb.
- about 850 BC, traditional dateElisha Succeeds Elijah
Elijah and his disciple Elisha cross the Jordan near Jericho. Kings says that Elijah is carried up to heaven in a whirlwind and that Elisha, taking up his master’s cloak, returns as the prophet in his place.
- 841 BC, firm dateJehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria
The army commander Jehu, anointed at Elisha’s word, kills the kings of Israel and Judah, Jezebel and the house of Ahab, and destroys the temple of Baal in Samaria. In the same year Assyrian records show him paying tribute to Shalmaneser III.
- about 760 BC, traditional dateJonah Sent to Nineveh
The book of Jonah tells of a prophet of Israel who is sent to preach against Nineveh, flees by sea, is swallowed by a great fish and then sees the Assyrian city repent and be spared. Jesus later speaks of “the sign of Jonah”.
- about 755 BC, estimated dateAmos and Hosea Prophesy to Israel
In the prosperous years of Jeroboam II, Amos, a herdsman from Judah, denounces injustice and worship without righteousness at Bethel. Hosea makes his own marriage a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness and of a love that will not give it up.
- about 740 BC, estimated dateThe Call of Isaiah
In the year King Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple and is sent as a prophet to Judah. When Syria and Israel attack, he tells King Ahaz to trust God, gives the sign of Immanuel and speaks of a coming king from David’s line.
- 701 BC, firm dateHezekiah Withstands Sennacherib
Sennacherib of Assyria overruns Judah, takes Lachish and shuts Hezekiah up in Jerusalem. Hezekiah pays tribute, Isaiah promises that the city will not fall, and it is not taken. Assyrian annals and reliefs record the campaign from the other side.
- 627 BC, estimated dateThe Call of Jeremiah
In the thirteenth year of King Josiah, Jeremiah, of a priestly family at Anathoth, is called to be a prophet to the nations. For some forty years he warns Judah of disaster from the north, and he promises a new covenant written on the heart.
- 609 BC, firm dateJosiah Falls at Megiddo
Pharaoh Necho marches north to the Euphrates in support of Assyria. King Josiah of Judah goes out against him at Megiddo and is killed. Three months later Necho deposes Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and makes Jehoiakim king as Egypt’s vassal.
- about 605 BC to 536 BC, traditional dateDaniel at the Babylonian Court
The book of Daniel tells of a young Judean taken to Babylon who serves its kings and stays loyal to his God through the furnace and the lions’ den, and who sees “one like a son of man” receive an everlasting kingdom.
- 593 BC to 571 BC, estimated dateEzekiel’s Visions among the Exiles
Among the deported Judeans in Babylonia the priest Ezekiel sees the glory of God, announces the fall of Jerusalem and then its restoration, in the visions of the dry bones and of a new temple.
- about 550 BC to 539 BC, estimated dateThe Prophecy of Comfort and the Suffering Servant
Isaiah 40–55 tells the exiles that their punishment is over, names Cyrus as the Lord’s anointed who will send them home, and speaks of a servant who suffers for the sins of many.
- March 515 BC, estimated dateThe Second Temple Is Completed
After years of delay the returned exiles, urged on by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah and backed by a decree of Darius, finish rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. It is dedicated in the spring of 515 BC.
- about 435 BC, estimated dateMalachi and the Close of the Prophets
The last book of the Twelve Prophets rebukes the priests and people of rebuilt Jerusalem and promises a messenger who will prepare the Lord’s way, and the return of Elijah. The Gospels apply both to John the Baptist.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJohn the Baptist Preaches at the Jordan
Luke dates to the fifteenth year of Tiberius the preaching of John, who calls Israel to repentance in the wilderness and baptises crowds in the Jordan. All four Gospels and the Jewish historian Josephus describe him.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee
Mark and Matthew tell how, after John’s arrest, Jesus returns to Galilee, announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, calls four fishermen and makes Capernaum, on the lake, the centre of his teaching and healing.
- c. AD 28–32, estimated dateThe Execution of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, has John the Baptist put to death. The Gospels tell of a beheading in prison and connect it with John’s rebuke of the tetrarch’s marriage to Herodias; Josephus places the death at Machaerus and gives a political motive.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated dateThe Transfiguration
Mark, Matthew and Luke tell how three disciples on a high mountain see Jesus changed in appearance, his clothes shining white, with Moses and Elijah beside him, and hear a voice from a cloud call him “my beloved Son”. The Gospels do not name the mountain.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateJesus Drives the Traders from the Temple
Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple courts and drives out those buying and selling, calling the place a house of prayer made into a den of robbers. Three Gospels set this in his last week, John at the start of his ministry.
- about AD 95, estimated dateJohn’s Revelation on Patmos
A Christian prophet named John, on the island of Patmos, writes down visions addressed to seven churches of Asia. They show Christ in glory, the fall of the city the book calls Babylon and a new Jerusalem, and become the last book of the New Testament.
- c. AD 157–172, estimated dateThe New Prophecy of Montanus
In Phrygia a convert named Montanus and two women, Priscilla and Maximilla, begin to prophesy in ecstasy and announce a new outpouring of the Spirit. The bishops of Asia reject the movement, which spreads none the less as far as Rome and Africa.