Prophecy and Diaspora

A diaspora view of prophecy uncovers an emerging authoritative tradition, equal to that of the Law, that presents a coherent message of divine purposes for humanity, revealed in historical events made possible by the refraction and redaction of oracular traditions and texts from the eighth century B.C.E. onward. This chapter shows how prophetic oracles transcend individual figures and historical circumstances to reveal an overarching divine plan applicable to each new generation. In so doing, it explores the collating and updating of inherited oracular traditions and texts as found in Amos, Hosea, the Deuteronomistic History, as well as through the focus on authoritative prophetic figures like Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the anonymous Second or Deutero-Isaiah, as well as in the linking of the Minor Prophets. The situation of ongoing diaspora also reverberates in the development of apocalyptic figures and themes as exemplified by attention to the books of Obadiah and Daniel.