02.09 - The Prophet as Writer

(9) The Prophet as Writer The Hebrew prophet was not only a speaker and announcer, but also a writer of prophecy. Speaking, however, and not writing was his primal work; hence many of the Hebrew prophets wrote nothing, but fulfilled their ministry by means of the living voice, and all that we have of their prophetic utterances are mere notes or memoranda made by historians or annalists of the time. Written prophecy was undertaken by commandment of Jehovah, or by the express suggestion of the Spirit Who gave the message, and sometimes it was written without being spoken. The writing sometimes followed immediately upon the oral delivery; other instances at considerable intervals from it. Sometimes the prophet wrote what he uttered, at other times it was the work of a scribe or amanuensis written at dictation.

Sometimes the writing was from memory with the aid of notes or memoranda; at other times it was the elaboration of notes and memoranda previously taken. On some occasions we have a full report of the prophet’s discourse, in other cases we have only a condensed and incomplete statement. In some instances the writing is the record of a particular utterance spoken at one time, in others it is a combination of several discourses covering a period of months or years fused into one. In all cases the writing is owing either to the necessity of the case, the nature of the message, or the exigencies of the times; or it is executed by Divine command or by the suggestion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit moving the prophet to write.

Writing Divine messages and revelations, however, did not originate with the latter and literary prophets, as may be seen from the Decalogue, as also from the directions given to Moses and Joshua to write in a book certain transactions and instructions to Israel, to say nothing of the forms of torah and law books that existed, and were added to from the earliest times of Israel’s history. While the primary ground for writing prophecy may be in the Divine command to write, there were certain secondary reasons that rendered it necessary. The disturbed state of the times and country, constant wars and intrigues of kings and nations, the dangers arising from the presence of foreign soldiery and domestic spies, rendered it unwise and difficult for the prophets to pub licly utter their counsels and denunciations, and so they wrote them. Writing was also necessary that a record might be kept for a witness to the people for ever, while it was the chief means of judging of the truth and falsity of a prediction. Notunfrequently the prophet’s utterance had a wider significance and reference than belonged to the immediate present, and stood related to the broader purpose and revelation of God; and this required to be recorded that it might be preserved, known, and believed by the people, and was written for that purpose. Writing and elaborating in extenso prophetic utterances was also necessary to the formation of a sacred literature. Hence the impassioned discourses of prophets, spoken under the afflatus of divine inspiration, were composed into writings of symmetrical prose, and took the form of literature, as in the case of Jeremiah’s roll and its re-writing by Baruch the Scribe. 1 A consideration of the fate that attended the reading of Jeremiah’s roll before the king illustrates not only the dangers pertaining to public prophetic utterances, but also the risk to which a prophetic writing was exposed of being destroyed, and how a Divine Providence wrought for its preservation. We may learn further how that the prophets in the reproduction of their prophetic utterances did not think it necessary simply to repeat themselves, or to preserve the exact words and expressions: they pruned or expanded their discourses, annotated and amplified 1 Jeremiah 36:1-32. them with additions from their own utterances, or with quotations from other prophets, as necessity might arise or occasion might require. A still further fact is made apparent from the reading of Jeremiah’s roll by Baruch and Jehudi, and the way it was received by king, priests, and people, viz. that a prophetic utterance was regarded as much the word of the Lord, and as of equal authority when read by another as when spoken by the prophet himself implying that inspiration was not altogether with the speaker or writer, but in some way it passed over to the utterance and writing itself.