In Moses’ example, he was called by God through the burning bush, and was hesitant to listen to God’s call.

The first component is the call of the prophet.

There were 6 main components involved in the model prophet’s lifetime: Prophets were described in many ways, however sometimes misunderstood about what they actually did. Following sections of this web page explain specific prophets in depth and their relation to following Moses’ outline. As aforementioned, not all prophets lived a similar culture to Moses, but many did. Culture can mean many different things, however, when studying an overview of prophecy, the culture of the prophet can really be explained best by Moses’ story.

Moses, who was not a prophet, led the life that became the archetype for prophetic culture. The culture of the biblical prophets includes a set of general guidelines, although no two prophets were quite the same. This is shown through Moses and all other prophets throughout the Bible. The culture of the Hebrew prophets truly encompassed all aspects of life, and the prophets delivered their dire messages to the people instead of simply being assistants to the royal/higher classes.

There are many potential factors that contributed to the rise of prophecy and prophetic literature including, Baal worship, economic and social development in the Northern and Southern kingdoms, and political instability (Rennie 2017). It is important to understand some of the historical components to better gain insight into the culture of the biblical prophets.

Biblical writings of the prophets have explained that “a prophet may suffer for his beliefs.An almost stereotyped formula incorporated in the historical books and Jeremiah refers to the failure of the prophets and, implicitly, to their sufferings” (Fischel 1947) According to Matthews, “a prophet may not be identified as simply a fortune-teller, social activist, doomsayer, messenger, moralist, or even predictor of Jesus” (19). Prophecy began in the North due to the factor of the Northern wealth and the prophet’s role of speaking out against the culture of the Israelites. Biblical prophecy began after the split of the united kingdom of Israel under Davidic rule. They are not confined to only speaking of judgment and damnation, but also of encouragement, mercy, and a hopeful future (Osiek & Hoppe 2013). They focus on public morality, social justice, religious idolatry, and proper use of power. The Anslem Study Bible states that the prophet’s primary concern is with contemporary events within social and political contexts. Often, people associate prophecy with predicting the future.

Prophets timeline bible