Genre: Prophets | How to Read Your Bible

Each genre (type of literature) in the Bible is written in a distinguished style. While you can just read the Bible, some of the styles are easier to understand once you have learned a few key tools for that particular genre.

If you think about it, there are probably genres in the Bible that you find easier to read and understand than others. Since childhood, most of us have been familiar with narrative-style stories, so often the Old and New Testament narratives and Gospels are easier to read and understand.

Some are familiar enough, but if we set out to read poetry like it is narrative, it soon becomes confusing or shockingly violent. (Been traipsing through an imprecatory Psalm lately?) Other genres are totally foreign to us, like prophecy and apocalyptic genres.

So there's a crib sheet in the button below, but also a basic fly-by of the genre of prophecy to follow:

Get Crib Sheet

What is prophecy?

Prophecy is “a message from God” and often was a restating/rewording of the law and consequences of the law.

Sometimes, for greater comprehension, we have to ask the same question in a different way. The prophets re-presented the law and the consequences of lawbreaking most of the time.

Less than a total of 10% of Old Testament Prophecy forecasts the future to come, but still this is what most people think all prophets do.

What you should know about prophecy:

• Prophecy is not letters, but are collections of spoken oracles

• Prophecy is not always chronological

  • (This can be very frustrating and confusing, so before you read, maybe determine if a passage is or is not chronological)

• Prophecy is often presented without historical context - research because context provides clarity

• Are God’s words (sometimes reworded) and not the prophet’s own. They didn’t invent blessings or curses.

• Each prophet has their own unique style, vocabulary, emphases, idioms, and concerns.

  • If something doesn't make sense, use a Bible commentary to see if there is more to be understood. Time-bound Jewish idioms are particularly tricky without the cultural context.

• God raised up the prophets to gain the attention of the people to whom they were sent.

  • So yes, often prophets are not winning popularity contests. They are often provocative, inflammatory, and can be quite loud. Think of Jesus flipping over tables in the Gentile court of the Temple while proclaiming, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." Profiteering off of worshippers, especially those from other countries who have likely sacrificed more to be in Jerusalem, was despicable to Jesus, so much so that he premeditatively made a whip to take with him to the Temple.

When were the Old Testament prophetic books written?

The chart below shows the books of prophecy on a timeline, but also has at the top Elijah and Elisha, which are not books in your Bible. I have included them because they were significant prophets in the early ages of ages of Israel and also as a reminder that not all prophets wrote books of prophecy.

Some prophets go unnamed in the scriptures, others are named but still do not have books they wrote, and prophets can come from anywhere; they often operate outside of the ruling/political/religious structures.

These include Elijah and Elisha (1 & 2 Kings), Nathan (2 Samuel 12), Gad, David's personal seer (1 Samuel 22, 2 Samuel 24, and 1 Chronicles 21), Huldah (2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34), and there are unnamed mentions, Isaiah 8:3, and still more in the New Testament Acts 21:8-14.

So when you look at this list, just know that it is "the big ones" that fall from 900-500 BC.