John Walton brings a fresh way of reading and studying the Prophet of the Bible

“The Lost World of the Prophets: Old Testament Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature in Ancient Context” by John H. Walton (IVP Academic)

 

When you read and study the Bible, context is absolutely critical. Otherwise you are “proof-texting”, finding a sentence that supports your opinion, whether or not that passage actually anything to do with your premise. That’s true in general, but especially important when we read the words of ancient prophets and try to understand them. The author warns, “When we neglect the message of the text in context, we miss out on God’s message for us. The problem is that people today often fail to understand the role of the prophet, the nature of prophetic literature, and the significance of prophecy. Ethical reading respects the author’s intentions. Only Scripture carries communal authority.

 

“To understand the message of the prophetic oracles and that of the compiler (when it is not the prophet), we depend on an analysis of context-literary, historical, theological, and cultural. The Old Testament is understood best in the context of its world, which is so different from ours.” What was it saying to the original hearers of the Word?

 

The author makes a number of propositions for more accurately understanding the prophets. Among them: 1.Prophecy is a subset of divination (that is, trying to hear what God had to say to the original hearers.” 2. Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East manifest similarities and differences when compared to Israel.(All agreed in the ancient world that the exercise of prophetic speech did not serve to tell the future but indicated how the gods (or in Israel’s case, God, was thinking and what they (of He) was doing.” In Israel’s case, it was always about The Covenant. 3. A prophet is a spokesperson for God, not a predictor of the future.(It is a communication from God about His pans and purposes, not a display of foreknowledge. 4. Prophecy in the Old Testament is not monolithic but developing.(Their primary goal was call the people to repent.) 5. The classical prophets are champions of the Covenant in Times of Crisis. 7. Recognition of those categories of prophetic message help us to be more informed readers. 8. Prophets were typically not authors (but their compilers were, and both were led by the same Spirit.) 9. The Implied audience of the Prophetic Books is not necessarily the audience of the Prophet. 10. Distinction between message and fulfillment provides clear understanding of prophetic literature. 11. When people change their course, projected fulfillment can be forestalled or eliminated. 12. The New Testament use of Old Testament prophecy focuses on fulfillment, not message. 13. Prophecy carries important implications for understanding God and the future, but our ability to forge a detailed eschatology with confidence is limited (indeed, Jesus Himself denies that one can build a definitive timeline of the future.) 14. Apocalyptic should be differentiated from Classical Prophecy. It does not foretell the future, but project a pattern. 15. Visions are not the message but the occasion for the Message. 16. NT Apocalytpic operates by the same principle as that of OT apocalyptic. In Christ’s list of woes to the Pharisees in Matt 23, the failure to recognize prophetic signs is NOT among them.

 

So stop trying to create the timeline of Last Days events. It wastes time and can reflect on the integrity of Christian teaching when it makes claims it cannot support. Instead, read the OT and NT through the eyes of those who heard it first and what it would have meant to them. Again, context is critical.

 

(The author has a wonderful series that analyzes how the ancient would have read and understood the words of Genesis One, the stories of Adam and Eve, the story of the Great Flood, and so forth.)