Albright: true prophets displease

Saturday, June 12, 2010
Meditation:
    They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”
    —Isaiah 30:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Elijah stood in the direct line of this tradition [of prophets]. The prophet of Yahweh was still an inspired seer, whose oracles followed the ecstatic model and were seldom remembered long; the time had not come for marvelous poetic sermons, composed in advance, delivered orally and written down later by enthralled listeners or recited from generation to generation until collected into anthologies by later scholars. Pious Israelites were not far wrong in distinguishing between true prophets and false prophets of Yahweh by the impact of their words on the privileged classes; if the latter were pleased the prophet was false; if they were displeased the prophet was true.
    ... William Foxwell Albright (1891-1971), The Biblical period from Abraham to Ezra, Harper & Row, 1963, p. 65 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, free us from slavery to our comforts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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