Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Documents of Prophecy

“Restructuring the Symbolic Universe”: Resilience through Literary and Ideological Reframing in Isaiah 2.2–4(5)

“… 1. Such observations concerning the scribe’s role in (re)interpreting reality coincides with Nissinen’s (2017:145-46) more general assertion that prophetic literature represents “the scribe’s idea of prophecy,” rather than an historical prophetic act. Consequently, the editing and ordering of prophetic literature was likely informed by a “scribal filter,” emphasizing the needs and concerns of (at least) the scribal community itself, of which wellness amidst yet another empire was certainly one.…”

“…For instance, according to Louis Stulman and Hyun Chul Paul Kim (2010:5–6), the literary codification of biblical prophecy may be characterized as a transformative process in which scribes reconfigured past images of horror, imbuing them with new meaning for survivors in an imperial age (see also Stulman, 1998:101). Similarly, Marti Nissinen (2017:152) posits that the scribal activity of the Second Temple period found its impetus in the need to “overcome socio-religious crises caused by changes in the public and ideological structure of society,” and one method for addressing these crises was “restructuring the symbolic universe…by reusing and interpreting older prophecies, and even creating new ones” (see also Stulman, 1998:119). Furthermore, Kathleen O’Connor (2011:x, 31–34, 135) notes in her work concerning Jeremiah that this restructuring of symbols and metaphors likely constituted for its readership a means of survival , expressing disaster-related anxieties while also providing a semblance of order to abstract memories (see also Stulman, 2014:7; Carr, 2014:6, 162, 244–45; Silverman, 2015:439).…”

Rûaḥ in the Hebrew Bible: A Survey of Past Scholarship

“…Such a criterion is simply too narrow when compared to ancient depictions of spirit ecstasy and to ethnographic work on contemporary cultures where spirit possession is practiced regularly (Carlson 2022: 72-73; cf. Nissinen 2017: 171-200; Grabbe 1995: 109-12; Michaelsen 1989: 33-37). Further, attending to rûaḥ language is a key criterion for identifying potential examples of spirit phenomena in the Hebrew Bible (Carlson 2018: 248-50).…”

‘Signs of the times’: Prophecy belief in contemporary Greek Orthodox contexts

“…Prophecy is not only a multifaceted historical phenomenon, but also a concept that has different meanings. It is a ‘social and intellectual construct’, in the words of an expert in Ancient prophecies (Nissinen, 2017: 4). The ‘prophet’ is a central category in Max Weber’s (1978: 439–468) sociology of religion.…”