The Original Texts of Christianity 4: The OT's 17 Prophets, Book by Book

Thank you for visiting. This article is one installment in a series that explains the “original texts” of the world’s myths and religions — the fourth of eight articles dealing with the Christian Bible.

Last time (Article 3), I explained the “Poetry & Wisdom Literature,” which gazes at the human inner life. In this article I will explain the final section that closes out the Old Testament, the “Prophets,” 17 books. This is an important realm that bridges the Old Testament to the New — warnings to a people who turned from God, and the promise of a coming savior (Messiah).

For the explanation of the Poetry & Wisdom Literature, please see this article.

The Original Texts of Christianity 3: The OT's Poetry & Wisdomen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-ot2/

The Scope of This Article

First, let’s confirm which part of the Bible’s 66 books this article covers.

Now let’s enter the world of the Prophets.

Learn with Character Art! An Illustrated Guide to ChristianityView on Amazon → The World of the Bible Through 50 Masterpiece PaintingsView on Amazon →

What Are the “Prophets” (17 Books)?

The 17 books that adorn the end of the Old Testament are the “Prophets.”

A “prophet” here is not merely a foreteller of the future, but one who is entrusted with the word of God and speaks it to the people. Their main role was to warn a people who had turned from God to “repent,” and to announce the coming judgment and, beyond it, the salvation (the arrival of the Messiah).

The Prophets divide into the “Major Prophets (5 books)” and the “Minor Prophets (12 books),” but this “major”/“minor” is not about importance but simply about length (the size of the book).

Also, the eras in which the prophets were active are closely tied to the history of Israel (explained last time). Dividing them broadly into “before the fall,” “during the exile,” and “after the return” makes them easier to organize.

The Major Prophets (5 Books)

First, let’s look at the five longer books, the Major Prophets.

Book 23: Isaiah

The book of the prophet Isaiah, active in the southern Kingdom of Judah; its 66 chapters have a broad two-part structure: the first half (chs. 1–39), “warnings of judgment,” and the latter half (chs. 40–66), “the promise of comfort and restoration.”

Near the beginning, chapter 6 contains the famous vision of the “call of Isaiah.” Isaiah sees a vision of the Temple where the seraphim (angels) praise “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts,” and fearing his own uncleanness, he is purified with a burning coal and receives the prophet’s mission: “Here I am. Send me.”

Isaiah is also known for being especially rich in prophecies of the “savior (Messiah).” It speaks of the prophecy (ch. 7), “A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel (God is with us),” and of the coming of a king of peace (ch. 9): “For unto us a child is born; his name is ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’” Chapter 11 further prophesies the coming of a world without strife, where the wolf and the lamb dwell together.

The latter half (from ch. 40) begins with the words “Comfort, comfort my people,” announcing to a people suffering in the Babylonian exile the hope of liberation and restoration.

Most famous of all is the “Suffering Servant” of chapter 53. “He was despised and rejected… he bore our sicknesses and carried our pains… like a lamb led to the slaughter, he did not open his mouth… by his wounds we are healed” — it vividly depicts a savior who himself bears the sins of the people and suffers in their place. Christianity understands this as having prophesied, some 700 years beforehand, the later cross of Jesus Christ.

Book 24: Jeremiah

The book of the prophet Jeremiah, active just before Jerusalem’s fall. He kept calling the people to repentance but was not heeded, and because he lamented his homeland’s ruin he is called the “weeping prophet.”

Most important in this book is the prophecy of the “new covenant.” The scene in which God says, “I will write my law on people’s hearts,” became the very origin of the later term “New Testament (new covenant).”

Book 25: Lamentations

A short book consisting of five poems of mourning over Jerusalem, fallen and destroyed by Babylonia. It is woven with deep sorrow, personifying and grieving over the ruined city, yet within it words of hope are also interwoven: “The Lord’s mercies never come to an end.”

Book 26: Ezekiel

The book of the prophet Ezekiel, who was also a priest and was active in the land of the Babylonian exile. It is marked by many depictions of visions and by showing prophecy through symbolic acts.

At the opening, Ezekiel receives his call along with a grand vision of the “chariot of God,” surrounded by living creatures with four faces and wheels. At this time he is commanded to eat a “scroll” on which God’s words are written, and it is said to have been “sweet as honey.” It symbolizes taking in God’s word and becoming a “watchman” for the people.

Most famous is the vision of the “valley of dry bones.” When Ezekiel speaks God’s word to the countless dry bones scattered across the valley, the bones came together with a rattling sound, sinew and skin grew on them, breath was breathed into them, and they stood up as a vast living army. This is taken as a symbol of ruined and hopeless Israel coming back to life (being restored) as a nation again.

At the book’s end, a grand vision of a “new Temple,” with dimensions given down to the details, is described, and it closes with the city’s name announced as “The LORD Is There.”

Book 27: Daniel

It consists of two parts: the story (first half) of the young Daniel, who held to his faith even amid the Babylonian exile, and visions (latter half) concerning the end.

First Half — Stories of Holding to Faith

Daniel and three companions, who came to serve in the Babylonian palace as captives, first refuse the pagan king’s lavish food and live on only vegetables and water, yet become healthier than anyone. It is a tale showing faithfulness to God.

Then famous stories follow.

• The giant statue of the dream: Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue with a “head of gold, chest of silver, belly of bronze, feet of iron.” This represents four empires succeeding one another, and finally a single stone, not cut by human hands, smashes the statue = the kingdom of God replaces them all.
• The three in the fiery furnace: three young men who refuse to worship the king’s golden image are thrown into a furnace heated sevenfold. But a “fourth figure, thought to be a messenger of God,” appears in the furnace, and the three are saved without a single hair singed.
• The writing on the wall: during the feast of the next king, Belshazzar, a hand suddenly appears and writes on the wall, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” Daniel reads it as “the king’s reign is over,” and that night Babylon falls.
• The lions’ den: despite a decree forbidding prayer to the king, Daniel keeps praying to God and is thrown into the lions’ den. But an angel shuts the lions’ mouths, and Daniel is rescued unharmed.

Latter Half — Visions of the End

The latter half tells of visions Daniel saw. The rise and fall of four beasts emerging from the sea (symbols of the empires) and a vision in which, at the end of days, “one like a son of man comes with the clouds of heaven and receives everlasting dominion.”

This expression “son of man” was later used by Jesus of himself, and was inherited by the New Testament’s “Revelation,” which depicts the end. Thus Daniel became the forerunner of the later “apocalyptic literature.”

The Minor Prophets (12 Books)

Next are the 12 books that, though short, carry important messages — the Minor Prophets. Their contents are summarized below.

Though short, each carries its own important message. Let’s look at the 12 books one at a time.

Book 28: Hosea. The book of the prophet Hosea, active in the last days of the northern Kingdom of Israel. God commands Hosea to take as his wife Gomer, a woman who betrays her husband and runs to other men, and to forgive her and bring her back no matter how often she betrays him. Through the prophet’s own life, this shows the very figure of God, who keeps loving Israel even as it keeps running to other gods (idols), without abandoning it. Even amid warnings of judgment, God’s aching love runs through: “I cannot give you up.”

Book 29: Joel. It depicts the devastation of crops by a “locust swarm” that covers the whole land, as the herald of the coming day of God’s judgment, “the Day of the Lord.” Joel calls the people to fasting and repentance. In the latter half there is a scene where, as a blessing on the repentant people, God promises, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people” — an important prophecy later quoted in the New Testament’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).

Book 30: Amos. The book of Amos, a shepherd from southern Judah, active in the prospering northern Israel. He fiercely criticizes a society where, in the shadow of economic abundance, the rich trample the poor and bribery and corrupt judgment run rampant. Saying God takes no pleasure in heartless, merely formal rites, he pleaded, “Let justice roll on like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” He is known as a prophet who preached social justice.

Book 31: Obadiah. The shortest book in the Old Testament, consisting of just 1 chapter, 21 verses. It pronounces God’s judgment on neighboring “Edom” (the descendants of Esau, the brother of Israel’s ancestor Jacob), who, though kin, took part in the plunder when Jerusalem was attacked by Babylonia.

Book 32: Jonah. Whereas the other prophetic books gather “prophetic words,” this book is distinctive in being written as a single “story.” God commands the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh, capital of enemy Assyria, and preach repentance, but Jonah flees by ship in the opposite direction. Caught in a storm and thrown into the sea, he is swallowed by a “great fish” and spat out three days later. When he reluctantly preaches in Nineveh, the whole city repents and is spared destruction. To Jonah, angry that the enemy was saved, God asks, “Should I not pity this great city?” showing that “God’s mercy extends even to the enemy Gentiles.”

Book 33: Micah. Active around the same time as Amos, he sternly denounced the social injustice of rulers and the wealthy. At the same time it contains a famous prophecy of salvation. The line “Bethlehem, out of you will come one who will rule Israel” is held to foretell the birthplace of the later Jesus Christ. He is also known for words that pierce to the heart of faith: “What the Lord requires is to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Book 34: Nahum. A book prophesying the fall of “Nineveh,” capital of the Assyrian Empire. Because Nineveh, which had once repented at Jonah’s preaching, again filled with arrogance and cruelty, it announces the judgment of God to be poured out on that city.

Book 35: Habakkuk. An unusual book in dialogue form, in which the prophet throws frank questions at God. Habakkuk asks, “Why do you stay silent while evil runs rampant and the righteous suffer?” God answers, “The wicked great power Babylonia will surely be judged in time,” and gives the words “the righteous shall live by his faith (faithfulness).” This line later became a supremely important text quoted by the apostle Paul as the basis for the teaching of “being saved by faith.”

Book 36: Zephaniah. While announcing the stern judgment of the “Day of the Lord” to fall on all the earth, it prophesies that salvation and joy will come to the “remnant” who repent and take refuge in God. It is marked by depicting both sides — judgment and salvation.

Book 37: Haggai. Set after the return from the Babylonian exile. It rebukes the people for being absorbed in furnishing their own houses while leaving the all-important rebuilding of the Temple neglected, and encourages them, “Build the house of the Lord.” By this call of Haggai, the stalled construction of the Second Temple resumed.

Book 38: Zechariah. The book of a prophet who, in the same age as Haggai, encouraged the rebuilding of the Temple, but its contents are rich in symbolic, visionary depictions, beginning with eight visions. It has especially many prophecies about the savior (Messiah); the prophecy “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey” is held to have been fulfilled in Jesus’s later entry into Jerusalem riding a donkey.

Book 39: Malachi. The last book that closes the Old Testament. After the return, it rebukes worship that had again become merely formal (offering blemished animals, withholding gifts) and the rampant divorce. And God foretells, “See, I will send my messenger. Before the great day of the Lord comes, I will send the prophet Elijah,” and closes the book. This “coming messenger” is held to point to John the Baptist, who appears in the later New Testament — and so here the Old and New Testaments are bridged.

The “Messianic Prophecies” Scattered Through the Prophets

Running through the Poetry and the Prophets is another great theme: the prophecy announcing “the coming of the Messiah (savior).” Christianity has read all these prophecies as fulfilled in Jesus Christ, binding the Old and New Testaments into one. Let me list some representative ones.

Above all, the “Suffering Servant” of Isaiah 53 — the prophecy that one sinless himself is slaughtered bearing the people’s guilt, and that by his wounds the people are healed — has been most highly valued in Christianity as foretelling Jesus’s death on the cross centuries in advance. Seen from the Old Testament’s side it is a promise toward the future; seen from the New Testament’s side it is its fulfillment — this relationship of “promise and fulfillment” is the fundamental reason Christianity reads the Old and New Testaments as one inseparable book.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

What Exactly Is Christianity? (a beginner’s primer)View on Amazon → Christianity from Age 14, Explained with DiagramsView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained the Old Testament’s “Prophets,” 17 books, divided into the 5 Major and 12 Minor Prophets. How was it?

Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant,” Jeremiah’s “new covenant,” Ezekiel’s “valley of dry bones,” Daniel’s “lions’ den,” and Jonah’s “great fish” — I hope you could feel how the words of warning and hope spoken by the prophets converge toward the expectation of a coming savior (Messiah).

This completes the explanation of all 39 books of the Old Testament. From the next article (Article 5), we enter the world of the New Testament at last. First, the “Gospels,” which depict the life of the savior Jesus Christ.

The Original Texts of Christianity 5: The Gospels of Jesus Christen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-nt/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.