072. I. The Characteristics Of Exilic And Post Exilic Prophecy

I THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EXILIC AND POST EXILIC PROPHECY The beginning of the Babylonian exile marks a turning point in both Hebrew prophecy and history. The changed conditions and the new point of view gradually developed a new type of prophet. Although the distinctions between the earlier or pre-exilic and the later or exilic and post-exilic prophets must be interpreted broadly, they are clearly defined. The aims of the two groups of teachers were the same, but the earlier spoke to a nation and dealt with the problems of an independent state, while the latter addressed the scattered, discouraged, often oppressed remnants of their race. For a time the Jews were a people with only a past and a future; and, during all the period represented by the later prophets, they were subject to foreign masters, so that they had little or no political life of their own. Hence the prophets ceased to be active statesmen who devoted much of their time and thought, as did Isaiah and Jeremiah, to political questions. Instead, they reviewed the past history of their race to learn the lessons which it taught, or else devoted themselves to drawing up, as did Ezekiel, the constitution of an ideal state. The practical problems of social life, also, were no longer as important and insistent as they had been before the exile, so that, although they are not ignored, they are only treated incidentally. In the writings of the later prophets—as Professor George Adam Smith has well said—“political and social righteousness largely gives way to divine righteousness.” A people with few or no responsibilities could not by them be taught of God. Consequently great social teachers like Amos and Micah found few successors in the later period. The prophets also began to study intently the writings of their predecessors and to draw from them most of their conceptions of Jehovah, so that they brought to their race no startlingly new theological ideas, as did Amos and Hosea.

If the later prophets were not great statesmen nor social teachers nor original theologians, they were true to the prophetic ideal, and devoted themselves to the vital questions of their age. In so doing they attained their real greatness, and performed for their race and mankind an inestimable service. When the Hebrew state fell in ruins, the prophets turned from the nation to the individual. Hitherto they had addressed him only as an integral part of the commonwealth; henceforth he possessed an importance in himself, apart from the community to which he belonged. Thus the very circumstances which limited the activity of the prophets opened to them an unlimited field, which only the great prophet of Nazareth fully occupied. The daily interests and achievements of the people whom they addressed were personal, not national. If they were to meet the practical needs of their contemporaries they were obliged to a certain extent to turn pastors, and to deal more with religious and ethical than with political and social questions. In so doing they touched the hearts of the masses more closely than did the earlier prophets. They were also more intimately acquainted with the interests and problems of the individual. Consequently, like the sages and psalmists, they speak more directly to the heart of mankind, and their messages have an obvious and perennial application independently of their historical setting.

Since the life of Judaism constantly centred more and more about the temple at Jerusalem and its ritual, the later prophets, instead of denouncing mere ceremonialism as meaningless, as did the earlier, held up the hands of the priests. They devoted much of their attention to emphasizing the importance of the temple and its service. In this they were doubtless influenced by the irresistible tendency of their age. They also recognized that conditions had radically changed since the days of Amos and Isaiah, and that a ritualistic type of religion was essential to the preservation of the integrity and faith of their race amid the terrible trials and temptations to which it was being subjected.

Sacerdotalism and legalism also supplied more and more the religious needs of the people, so that the demand for the work of the prophets became less and less. In the law the teachings and principles presented by the earlier prophets were preserved and enforced upon the minds of the people in a form which even the most obtuse could appreciate. Before the exile that process had begun, and at the great reformation of Josiah the Book of Deuteronomy was publicly adopted as the law book of the nation. This continued to be the constitution of the community in Palestine until Nehemiah and Ezra introduced at the great assembly a still more detailed and expanded code. Until that time, questions not settled by the Book of Deuteronomy were referred, in accordance with its injunctions, not to the prophets, but to the priests, for an authoritative decision (Haggai 2:11-13; Malachi 2:7).

Although the prophetic order continued to exist, and apparently to count a considerable number of prophets and prophetesses among its ranks (Ezra 5:1; Nehemiah 6:12; Nehemiah 6:14; Zechariah 7:3; Zechariah 13:4), it no longer enjoyed the prestige of earlier times. The prophets were ever conscious of the sceptical attitude of their hearers and recognized that their predictions would not be fully believed until they had been at least partially fulfilled (compare for example Zechariah 2:11 b; Zechariah 4:9 b; Zechariah 6:15 b). To the pernicious influence of the false prophets, who in the name of Jehovah had often misled the people, undoubtedly is largely due the destruction of the old popular confidence in the word of the man of God. No prophetic bishops appear, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, to have maintained for a long period over the community a growing influence. The personalities of the later prophets were also less prominent and distinct. The names of only five or six of them have been preserved. Of the private life of the prophets we know practically nothing. Ezekiel alone gives us a few details respecting himself. The date of a large part of the prophecies can be determined only by a study of the internal evidence. They represent bursts of prophetic eloquence evoked by great crises or problems. After their messages had been sent forth, the prophets quickly retired to the seclusion of private life. In all probability many of the prophecies were originally issued anonymously. A large proportion of them are clearly the product of study rather than the spontaneous expressions of the public orator. Haggai alone is an exception. The simple directness of his sermons is in striking contrast to the carefully developed, elaborate style of most of the later prophetic writings. The weird apocalyptic symbolism which in general characterized the exilic and post-exilic prophecies is evidence that their authors had ample time to develop the form as well as the content of their messages. The fact that they were anonymous undoubtedly explains why later editors appended them to older prophecies, in the language or thought of which they detected certain points of likeness. The same tendency that led them to associate the entire proverbial literature with the name of Solomon (Proverbs 1:1) influenced them to join many of these anonymous fragments to the original sermons of Isaiah, the prince of prophets. The task of assigning the different sections of such a book as that which bears the name of Isaiah to their original historical setting is difficult; but the resulting gain in vividness, clearness, and reality abundantly rewards the trouble. Then the historical allusions which the different prophecies contain contribute, not to the confusion, but to the lucid interpretation of their meaning. They also in turn throw much light upon the development of that life and thought which was the background of the New Testament. The writings of the later prophets group themselves about certain critical epochs in the history of their race, such as the beginning and the close of the Babylonian exile, the rebuilding of the temple, and the reforms of Nehemiah and Ezra, with long intervening periods of silence. Although the names of only five or six prophets are known, the work of at least twelve can be distinguished. The impartation of their divinely given message, not the enhancing their own fame, was their first and sole aim. The names of the earlier prophets were preserved because the performance of their mission brought them prominently into public life and their acts and words became a part of their nation’s history. The later prophets spoke more privately to their race. Fortunately men preserved the message long after the man who delivered it had been forgotten. The history of exilic and post-exilic prophecy emphasizes the great fact that it is acquaintance with the truth itself, not with the one who imparts it, that is essential. The later prophecies are more general and contain less local and nationalistic elements than do the earlier. The experiences of the exile also forced the prophets to recognize the existence of other nations as a part of Jehovah’s creation and as objects of his love. Gradually the missionary ideal found expression in their writings, and there rose before their enlightened vision the outlines of a universal kingdom in which all nations were to join in the worship of Jehovah. In the moments of their darkest distress this vision cheered and inspired them. The realization that their race was to be herald of that kingdom impelled them to spare no effort to prepare their countrymen for the exalted service.

Saddened and discouraged by the sins of mankind, they frequently proclaimed the necessity of a great world-judgment, in which the wicked would be condemned and the righteous vindicated. As they recognized the pitiable weakness and incapacity of the living representatives of the chosen people, they did not lose hope in the coming kingdom of God on earth; but they looked more and more for its realization through supernatural intervention. Thus the prophetic horizon was extended far beyond the boundaries of Palestine, of the ancient Semitic world, and of the earth itself. Dimly certain prophets also began to see the kingdom, not of flesh, but of spirit, which lay beyond the gates of death. By their broad outlook, by their regard for the individual, by their lofty ideal of service, by their universalism, and by their firm belief that Jehovah would surely establish his kingdom on earth, the later prophets completed the otherwise incomplete work of the earlier. Their messages are all the more precious and luminous because they come from the night of their nation’s humiliation and distress, and voice mankind’s inspired faith, not in the seen, but in the unseen.