Includes bibliographical references and index.

When the agenda of an artistic composition is hidden: Jonah and intertextual dialogue with Isaiah 6, the 'confession of Jeremiah' and other texts / A.A. Abela -- From king to prophet in Samuel and Kings / A.G. Auld -- Prophets in the Book of Chronicles / P.C. Beentjes -- Personifications and prophetic voices of Zion in Isaiah and beyond / U. Berges -- A prophet in despaeration? the confessions of Jeremiah / C. Bultmann -- Threading as a stylistic feature of Amos / T.A. Collins -- 'I am neither a prophet nor a prophet's pupil' Amos 7:9-17 as the presentation of a prophet like Moses / M. Dijkstra -- Israelite prophecy: characteristics of the first protest movement / T.L. Fenton -- Jonah from the whale: exodus motifs in Jonah 2 / A.G. Hunter -- The Portrayal of Moses as Deuteronomic archetypal prophet in Exodus and its revisal / W. Johnstone -- Blowing the same shofar: an intertextual comparison of representations of the prophetic role in Jeremiah and Ezekiel / H. Leene -- Ezekiel as a priest in exile / A. Mein -- Person shift in prophetic texts: its function and its rendering in ancient and modern translations / L.J. de Regt -- Deborah, a prophetess: the meaning and background of Judges 4:4-5 / K. Spronk.

The Israelite prophets as historical persons, as literary characters and as anonymous artists. Whereas modern methods of literary analysis have brought the artistic qualities of the books of the Prophets increasingly into focus during the past century, various modes of deconstruction have made the historical prophets themselves an ever more elusive phenomenon. Passages in the Old Testament describing their work and experiences are not read as biography anymore, but as literary fiction intended to picture the prophets as heroes of faith. The real 'prophets' were the anonymous artists who were responsible for the final editing of the legacy of the historical prophets and who often used the authority of their predecessors to promulgate their own theological views. This volume brings together studies about this theme by members of the British and Dutch societies for Old Testament study. Attempts to recover some of the biographical data and authentic experiences of the prophets alternate with penetrating analyses of the theological depth and stylistic virtuosity of the prophetic books.The volume will be particularly useful to all those interested in the interpretation of the prophetic books of the Old Testament.

Description based on print version record.