- 50-
- Comp. Hasse, Gesch. des a. Bundes, apud Bahr, u.s. p. 370. Generally we refer here
also to the remarks of Bahr on the whole subject under consideration.
Two points here specially present themselves to our minds. The first is, that with this
period commences the era of written prophecy. Before this time the prophets had spoken;
now they wrote, or - to speak more precisely - gathered their prophetic utterances and
visions into permanent records. And, as connected with this new phase of prophetism, we
mark that it is rather by vision and prediction than by signs and miracles that the prophets
now manifested their activity. But the importance of written records of prophecy is self-
evident. Without them, alike the manifestation and establishment of the Messianic
kingdom in Israel and its spread into the Gentile world would, humanly speaking, have
been impossible. Christianity could not have appealed to Messianic prediction as its
spring, nor yet could the prophetic word of God have traveled to the Gentiles. With this
yet a second fact of utmost interest seems intimately connected. On the boundary-line of
the two stages of prophetism stand two figures in Jewish history: one looking backwards,
Elijah; the other looking forwards, Jonah, the son of Amittai (2 Kings 14:25). Both are
distinguished by their ministry to the Gentiles. Elijah, by his stay and ministry at Sarepta,
to which might, perhaps, be added the ministry of Elisha to Naaman; Jonah, by that call
to repentance in Nineveh* which forms the burden of the prophetic book connected with
his name while, on the other hand, his contemporary message to Jeroboam is apparently
not recorded.** Thus the great unfolding of prophecy in its outlook on the inbringing of
the Gentiles was marked by symbolic events.
- This, whatever view may be taken of his mission, or of the time when the prophetic
book of Jonah was published (see note at the end of this chapter). If the Book of Jonah be
regarded as a grand allegory of the message of God's grace to the Gentiles, reluctantly
borne to them by Israel: this will only increase the significance of the fact referred to in
the text.
** There seems no reason to suppose that this prophecy is preserved in Isaiah 15, 16.
Without attempting any detailed account, the prophets of that period, and the contents of
their writings, may here be briefly referred to. The earliest* of them was probably Joel,
"Jehovah is God" - a Judaean whose sphere of labor was also in his native country.
- Unless we are to regard Joel 2:32 as pointing to a still earlier prophet.
His "prophecy" consists of two utterances (1:2-2; 18; 2:19-3:21), couched in language as
pure and beautiful as the sentiments are elevated. From the allusions to contemporary
events (3:4-8, 19), as well as from the absence of any mention of Assyria, we infer that
his ministry was in the time of Joash, king of Judah, and of the high-priest Jehoiada, -
with which agree his temple-references, which indicate a time of religious revival. But
here also we mark the wider Messianic references in chapters 2 and 3. The prophecies of
(^)