“A theological explanation of the existence of the prophetic
books may put it this way: God had called a people into a special relationship with
himself, giving them a land of their own, addressing them in their cultic
ceremonies with the assurance that he had made a covenant with them, and
defining their character as his people in terms of a law. He had given them
priests to instruct them, kings to maintain justice, sages to guide them, and
prophets to warn and exhort them when they forgot who they were. It had not
worked. neither Israel’s worship nor daily life was truly distinct from their neighbors.
They were no true witness to the nations concerning the character of their God,
and the fate of widow, orphan, immigrant, and the poor in their midst was no
better than in other countries. With the rise of the great empire builders in
the Middle East – Assyria, followed by Babylon and Persia – God determined to
do a new thing, in effect to start over. The little kingdoms of Israel and
Judah would lose their political existence forever, but out of the death of
Judah, God would raise up a new people, who would understand about God what
most of their preexilic ancestors had never been able to comprehend, and who
would commit themselves to obeying his will to an extent their ancestors had
never done. The first step in making that happen was to raise up a series of
prophets, messengers of God, whose responsibility was straightforward. They
were no reformers; it was too late for that. They were to announce what was
about to happen, to insist that it would not happen because God could not
protect them from their enemies, but that God intended to use the disaster for
his own purposes. They were also preachers of the law; the standards of behaviour
which, if obeyed, would produce a community of peace and harmony in which all
would benefit. The standards had failed, so far, but when the disaster came,
and all was lost, the words of the prophets were remembered. Other prophets
begun to explain that God had a future in mind for a renewed people, and the
combined message of judgment and promise was finally be taken with the utmost seriousness
by the exiles in Babylonia. If there was to be a future for them as the people
of Yahweh, they had better pay attention, and they did, for out of the exile experience
did come a new people. Once the new community, Judaism, had begun to be formed
there was no more need for divine messengers of that kind. , and eventually the
Jews recognized they were no longer being addressed in that way. The more normal
attributes of religion – organized worship and instruction in faith and ethics –
were working with this transformed people as they had not worked with Israel
prior to the exile. The kind of prophet represented in the canonical books is
thus the one who appears when God determines that a radical change in human
history must come about."
Donald E. Gowan, Theology of the Prophetic Books: The
Death and Resurrection of Israel (Louisville: WJKP, 1998), pp. 9-10, offering in effect a synopsis of his book.
