How successful were the prophets?

Answer 1

A:Weber defines a prophet as an individual bearer of charisma, who by virtue of his mission proclaims a religious doctrine or divine commandment. Weber sees two types of prophet: the first is the exemplary man who sets a personal example, represented by Buddha, and the second is one who claims to be the instrument for the proclamation of a god and his will. He says that the Hebrew prophets always fell into the second category. Robert P. Carroll says that ancient Israelite writers had no clear image of what a prophet was or should be.

1 Samuel 9:9 likens prophets to seers: "(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.)"

Ronald E. Clements says the prophetic books were clearly not written by prophets, but represent distilled collections of prophetic material, often from diverse ages. He says history writing also shows every sign of having been a complex work of composition, addition and reinterpretation. In other words, what has come down to us in The Bible often represents the outcomes for which prophecies were created after the event.

Even so, the reported success of the Old Testament prophets is mixed. The prophet Jeremiah was one of those who urged King Jehoiakim to surrender to Nebuchadrezzar, but was ignored.

In some cases, Christians have reinterpreted the prophetic writings for their own purposes. Sometimes these interpretations are spectacularly unsuccessful, even if still widely accepted, as for example the claim in Matthew's Gospel that Isaiah 7:14 was a prophecy that Jesus would be born of a virgin. Matthewrelies on the Septuagint, a flawed early Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Although not actually mentioning Jesus, the Septuagint does say: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." However, what the prophet Isaiah actually wrote in the original Hebrew was, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." The young woman in question did have a child just a few verses later in Isaiah's book.