GENESIS
XXV
the Hebrew prophets
1And no one either knew or loved the Jews more than SUPERMAMA. 2For she knew each one of them. And she was well acquainted with her prophets. 3And the Hebrew Scriptures included fifteen writing prophets named in addition to those the historians wrote about in the books of Kings and other histories beginning with Genesis.
prophets before the flood
4And these are the records of the prophets lauded by the Hebrews beginning with Adam. 5Following Adam was Abel, who offered an acceptable sacrifice to God. 6And after Abel was Seth, who replaced Abel after he was killed, a type of resurrection and sign of hope for the future. And after Seth Enoch, who foreshadowed ascensions into heaven. 7And many writings were later offered in his name. 8And some were supposed to have been faithfully carried through oral tradition through Noah. 9And Noah would have learned the wisdom of Enoch through Methuseleh, who was born before Enoch ascended and according to the Masoretic Torah did not die until the year of the flood.
conflicting overlap
10After Noah, some Hebrews extolled Eber, the great grandson of Shem as one who refused to help build the Tower of Babel. 11As such he was credited with preserving the Hebrew language unconfused. 12And the word Eber meant “cross over” which was the same word from which came the name Hapiru, or Hebrew. 13And according to the Masoretes, Eber was 464 years old when he died. 14And Jacob was 79 at that time. 15Thus was the wisdom of Noah transferred to Jacob in the original language of Adam. 16And the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures had a conflicting record that did not include such an overlap.
laughter over conflict
17And before Jacob, his grandfather Abram heard from God, as well as Isaac, Jacob’s father, and Abram’s nephew Lot and Sarai, Abram’s wife, who was according to the Talmud, Iscah, the daughter of Haran, but according to Genesis, the daughter of Terah. 18And Rashi reconciled the discrepancy according to Sanhedrin and Yevamos, so she was the daughter of Haran and the niece as well as sister of Abram, and his wife without violation of the Halakha. 19And Sarai means noble princess. 20And she was lauded as a prophetess in Genesis Rabbah. 21And her son’s name Isaac meant laughter. 22And the Hebrew book of Genesis recorded that she laughed when she heard the angel of the Lord say she would bear a son in her old age.
from the water
23And according to the Hebrew tradition, of the twelve sons of Jacob, who was named Israel, Joseph heard from the Lord with many dreams. 24And then Moses, which means from the water, was said to have delivered Israel from Egypt, having been released into the waters of the Nile before all of Israel followed him through the sea to safety. 25And his sister Miriam prophesied in song and his brother Aaron by Urim and Thummim. 26And in this the Christians saw the foreshadowing of the waters of baptism and salvation and the raising of the dead.
27And according to the Midrash Exodus Rabbah, Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, heard from the Lord and took Moses into Pharoah’s court when all the children of Israel were being exterminated by the Egyptians. 28And Bithiah means daughter of the Lord. 29And the historian Josephus identified the princess who drew him from the water as Thermusis. 30And Bithiah, the Midrash said, was the mother of the righteous Caleb, a companion of Joshua, who did not see the people of the land as giants when he was sent to spy on them.
lineage of Caleb
31And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Caleb was the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, of the tribe of Judah. 32And the Kenizzites lived in the land of Canaan but were not of the children of Abraham. 33And the name Caleb meant dog and the Canaanites were associated with a race of dog-like human beings. 34And the Hebrews viewed the Canaanites as inferior and unfavored by God. 35Therefore some observed that the choice of Caleb as the chosen leader from the tribes of Judah spoke of the importance of faith as the proper measure of divine inheritance, foreshadowing the teaching of Paul.
typology of Joshua
36And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Caleb was accompanied by Joshua the son of Nun into the promised land and conquered some portions of it and performed signs and wonders as Moses had. 37And Joshua served as a type of prophet that was to come. 38And some Christians noted the similarity of the name Joshua and Jeshua, which was the Hebrew rendering of the name Jesus. 39For there were no vowels in Hebrew writing. 40And they saw in this a foreshadowing of Jesus of Nazareth. 41And the Muslims thought the same prophecy concerning the prophet who was to follow and be like Moses referred to Muhammed.
violent zeal
42And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron was rewarded for his zeal after throwing a javelin through the stomach of a foreign woman and her mate while in their tent. 43And God was so pleased by this that he ended a great plague against Israel. 44For the foreign wives had enticed the Israelite men to worship Baal Peor. 45Was this story added to the priestly text by a deuteronomist in the days of Ezra?
prophets to the heathen
46And according to the Talmud in Baba Bathra seven prophets prophesied to the heathen: Balaam and his father, Job, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite. 47And these were the companions of Job. 48Was the book of Job written very early in the days of Moses? 49Or was it added to the Hebrew Scriptures as a response to the theory of the deuteronomists? 50And was not Obadiah also a prophet to Edom?
51And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Balaam, son of Beor was hired to prophecy against the wandering children of Israel. 52But the angel of the Lord prevented him. 53And even his donkey spoke the word of the Lord.
judges as prophets
54And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, prophets arose in every age. 55Were not their judges among the prophets? 56In those days were Deborah, a woman like Judith whom God raised up in the absence of men of faith to defeat the Canaanites, and Gideon of Manasseh who defeated the Midianites, and Sampson, who showed both strength and weakness. 57And the fall of Sampson the Nazarite and the fall of many great kings was on account of their love of foreign women.
prophets before kingdoms
58And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Eli the priest of Shiloh received Samuel, whose mother and father Hannah and Elkanah offered to God to fulfill their vow, having been unable to conceive. 59And Samuel, like Sampson, took the Nazarite vow to drink no wine. 60And all of these heard from the Lord so they were regarded as prophets.
61And when the children of Israel asked for a king, Samuel warned them saying God did not want them to have a king like other nations but they insisted. 62For God said they rejected Him from being king over them. 63And he anointed Saul as king over them. 64And King Saul also prophesied so that the people asked, is Saul also among the prophets?
kings as prophets
65And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, more righteous than Saul was King David, a Psalmist who was rebuked by the prophet Nathan for killing Uriah the Hittite, the devoted soldier and husband of Bathsheba, whom he seduced. 66And David had multiple wives, including Abigail, who foretold of David’s favor with God and showed generosity toward his men when her unrighteous husband Nabal had failed to do so.
67And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Bathsheba lost her first child as punishment for David’s sin but her second child was Solomon, who was credited with writing the Proverbs and was renowned for his divine and prophetic wisdom.
prophets to kings
68And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, it was the way of kings to often receive messages from prophets. 69Thus in addition to Nathan, the prophet Gad also advised King David at least three times, first when he told him it was safe to return from his refuge among the Moabites, second to rebuke him for taking a census, giving him a choice of punishments, and third to tell him to build an altar on the threshing floor of Arauna the Jebusite, where the ark of the covenant had been brought by oxen after the Philistines had been plagued by it.
70And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Iddo prophesied in the days of Solomon and wrote the lost histories of the kings of Rehoboam and Abijah, Solomon’s successors in Judah. 71And Rehoboam taxed the children of Israel so they rebelled against Judah and formed their own nation according to the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite.
72And was Iddo blessed with a long life with his progeny? 73For according to the Hebrew Scriptures, Zechariah was his grandson, prophesying even concerning Zerubbabel and Joshua when Judah was taken captive. 74And the Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud indicated Iddo was the prophet whose tomb was honored by Josiah. 75And Rashi affirmed it. 76For when Jeroboam built an altar in Bethel and the man of God prophesied that the altar would be split in half, Jeroboam attempted to seize him but his arm dried up when he pointed at him. 76And only when the prophet prayed for him could he draw it back to himself.
77And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophets were instructed at times not to receive hospitality and strict obedience was required of both prophets and priests. 78And to whom much was given much would be required. 79And when the king offered to share bread with the man of God in gratitude for restoring his arm, he accordingly refused and went out by another way. 80But on his way home another prophet took him in and for his disobedience a lion killed him. 81Nevertheless, centuries later King Josiah honored his grave when he burned the altar down with the bones of its priests. 82And this grave which he spared was thought to be the tomb of Iddo.
prophets to the north and south
83And according to the Hebrew Scriptures, prophets came from both north and south. 84And to the kings of the north were sent Shemaiah, Hanani, Jehu, Idu, Micaiah, Elijah and Elisha. 85And behold, some put their prophecies in writing for posterity to consider: Isaiah, Amos and Hosea. 86And Jonah preached even to Nineveh.
87And to the south were sent Jahaziel the Levite, Eliezer son of Dodovah, Huldah, Azariah and Oded. 88And King Hezekiah heard the word of the Lord and repented extending mercy to Judah. 89But Neriah, Seraiah and the prophets whose writings were preserved, Nahum, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Baruch, Zephaniah and Ezekiel came afterwards prophesying exile and defeat under Babylon. 90And Ezekiel dug a hole through the wall and packed his bags. 91And he cooked his meals on human dung. 92First he cooked and ate on his left side – one day for each year of Israel’s sin and then on his right, one day for each year of the sins of Judah. 93And the sins of Ephraim were greater than the sins of Judah but both were exiled.
prophets in exile
94And Job with his companions Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite and Elihu the Buzite were thought by academics to be fictional characters invented during the exile to deeply consider divine justice in the mystery of their exile. 95And Hebrew prophecy continued after the exile. 96And the stories of Daniel and his companions were set in the time of the exile and started an apocalyptic trend which told of battles and signs and cataclysmic events and the hope of Israel’s restoration. 97And since some of the prophecies accurately described the Ptolemaic wars, the academics believed the book of Daniel was not written until the second century BCE. 98For they did not believe in predictive prophecy.
prophets after the exile
99And the story of Esther contained no reference to God at all. 100Nevertheless, Queen Esther and her Uncle Mordecai were considered prophets in the days when the Persians ruled them after the exile. 101And in those days Ezra and Nehemiah had sought to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and its temple but there were many who were opposed to the new occupation by the Babylonian Jews. 102And it was in those days that the word Jew first came into existence. 103And the book of Ruth was an early history, but the academics supposed it also was written after the exile as a response to the reforms of Ezra concerning marriage to foreign women. 104And from the second temple period also were preserved the writings of the prophets Joel, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi.
gap theory
105And Malachi predicted the coming of Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord. 106And many Christians supposed that there was a gap in prophecy from the time of Malachi to the time of John the Baptist, who was thought to be Elijah, despite the fact that the books of Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit, Judith, Baruch and the two books of Maccabees were written during that period. 107And these books were rejected as canonical by the Jewish Sanhedrin because they were not written in Hebrew. 108And some Christian bishops excluded them from the canon because the Jews had rejected them. 109And others later, those of the Christian Reformation period in the second half of the second Millennium CE rejected them because some of the passages in the books of Maccabees did not agree with their doctrines.
110And indeed, the first book of Maccabees repeated three times that there was no prophet at that time. 111First, when Judas needed a prophet to consult with regarding what to do with the stones of the defiled altar of the recovered temple in Jerusalem. 112Second, when he had been slain by the army of Bacchides and the Jews were left without a leader and a great tribulation followed that was compared to a tribulation not known since the last prophets. 113Third, Simon was made high priest after the death of his brother Jonathan, and he was called a high priest forever until a trustworthy prophet arises. 114Thus clearly they were waiting on a prophet.
115And it was supposed from this that no prophets had been in the land from the time of Malachi. 116But others believed that God spoke not just through prophets but through events, especially as they related to the fate of Israel and the status of its temple. 117And for this reason historical narratives were incorporated into the Hebrew Scriptures and the records of the Maccabees were of interest. 118Moreover, they did count other prophets besides the one they expected. 119For before John, the prophecies of Zechariah and Elizabeth and of Anna and Symeon were recorded in what the Christians came to regard as Scripture.
120And the book of Wisdom was written in the period between Malachi and John. 121Did not Matthew allude to it? 122For Matthew said
123“And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself!”’ 124’If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 125In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, ‘He saved others; He cannot save Himself.’ 126’He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe in Him.’ 127’He trusts in God; Let God rescue Him now if He delights in Him.’ 128’For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
129And behold: this is what was written in the book of Wisdom,
130“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions. 131He reproaches us for sins against the law and accuses us of sins against our training. 132He professes to have knowledge of God and calls himself a child of the Lord. 133He became to us a reproof of our thoughts. 134The very sight of him is a burden to us because his manner of life is unlike that of others. 135And his ways are strange. 136We are considered by him as something base. 137And he avoids our ways as unclean. 138He calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. 139Let us see if his words are true. 140And let us test what will happen at the end of his life. 141For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. 142Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. 143Let us condemn him to a shameful death. 144For according to what he says, he will be protected.”
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