One can control for error by testing more than one sample from a manuscript. Several tests on a Koranic manuscript called "Sanaa 1" including a new test that Mohsen Goudarzi and I will publish soon have dated it to the first half of the 7th Century. Researchers continue to test more and more manuscripts, many of them datable to the first century of Islam.
All of this presents a pleasing prospect for Koranic scholarship. Why depicting the Prophet Muhammad causes offence. Image source, AFP. What may be the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was confronted by the Angel Gabriel while in a cave on Mount Hira, outside Mecca, and commanded to recite what became the earliest revealed words of the Koran.
Nonetheless, some words and phrases were different. The process of gathering all the revelations, from both written and oral sources, took some time.
To begin with, the Koran was passed on orally by the Prophet's followers. Today, millions of Muslim children still learn it by heart. Different readings. The variant readings of the Koran do not change its basic ideas. New insights. Related Topics. Archaeology University of Birmingham Islam. Verses concern the revelation that the Lord showed to Amos and Amos's prayer to God to have mercy on the people of Israel, whilst verses were concerned with the judgement upon the house of Jacob, without any pleading from Amos.
Klingbeil and Klingbeil reveal that:. The two protagonists of this narrative involve Amos himself and Amaziah, the priest of Bethel who sends a message to Jeroboam II, king of Israel, complaining about the prophetic ministry of Amos in that particular location. From Amos 8, the visions which God revealed to Amos in verse 7 of Chapter 7 continued with the revelation of a basket full of summer fruit signifying the destruction and end of Israel. Closing reading of the text.
God's judgement upon Israel through Amos. The first part vv. It also condemns the house of Jeroboam. According to the vision, God will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel. It is in the imperfect because of that fact that the judgement of God is in the pipeline and the approach of Israel to this judgement may or may not circumvent the upcoming desolation. It may be to show how radical and complete in the destruction that Yahweh will be on Israel.
Amaziah's false prophecies. The second part vv. Amaziah prophesied against the prophecies of Amos in verse 9. Tucker analysed the periscope as follows: 'it provides direct insight into how the prophets were perceived by their followers and their opponents and indirect insight into how the prophets perceived themselves'. In this context, Amos was accused by Amaziah of conspiring through prophecy to overthrow Jeroboam. Constable revealed that Amaziah refuted Amo's prophecy because previously internal revolts against a king had sometimes followed a prophet's pronouncements cf.
Unfortunately, Amaziah takes advantage of his godliness, and governed by the hopes of wealth and preferment, is ready to think these as the most powerful motives with others also Henry Williamson revealed that curse units can also be delineated: the king's vv.
Williamson observed that the death of the respective character is mentioned at the end of each curse unit vv. Amos was able to confront and deliver the oracle of the Lord, hook line and sinker - just as he was instructed. Amaziah speaks about it as a conspiracy against the kingdom of his benefactor. Amaziah was able to exert much pressure on the Israelite society because the king sees him as Yahweh's representative and mouthpiece.
Amaziah also has a sugar coated tongue which he uses to convince and confuse Jeroboam II. The implications of the false prophecy of Amaziah. The third part vv. Amaziah questioned Amos's stay in Israel and requested that he should leave Israel with his prophecy of doom v. This part shows the punishment of Amaziah's family for his sin of trying to silence the prophet. Amaziah was using his prophecies for financial gain, and he saw Amos as a threat to his profession.
There is nowhere in the pericope where we were told that the king authorised Amaziah to expel Amos from Israel. Amaziah challenged Amos directly with a command as if he was both a cult prophet and the King of Israel and Amos, in his nascent style, responded first directly and then with a prophetic speech Tucker In verses , Amaziah had been blindfolded by the king's material benefits. Amaziah was pursuing Amos to go out of Israel so that he can continue to enjoy the political and economic benefits of his position as the priest of Bethel.
Amaziah knew that if Amos is allowed to stay, the king would know the lies which he had told against Amos's oracles. According to Williamson , in verse 14, by calling Amos a seer, Amaziah attacks his legitimacy, declaring Amos as a professional prophet, going to the north to sell his prophetic services.
Amaziah's report was false. Firstly, the prophecy did not say that Jeroboam would be killed. Secondly, it falsely attributed the prophecy to Amos instead of to God.
Thirdly, he failed to mention the remote and immediate cause of Amos's prophecy, which is the sins of Israel. In verses , a curse was laid on Amaziah for wrongly instructing the king, for attacking Amos and for compromising in his oracles as a prophet.
Amos told Amaziah that now his wife would metamorphose into a harlot. Furthermore, his children would be killed. Not only that, the prophecy that Israel was going into captivity would come through, but would not be witnessed by him. This is why Giere explained that Amaziah's meddling attempt to stop Amos' prophecy returns as a judgement upon his wife and children, his land, himself and all of Israel.
The result for Amaziah the priest is destruction, desolation and impurity, and for Israel, it is an exile. In fact, Blenkinsopp revealed that the prediction against Amaziah, of a violent end by Amos, was the occasion for the confrontation in the first place. Furthermore, the illegitimacy of the northern priesthood is highlighted by Amaziah's owning land. Representing that office, he is dedicated to the wealth provided by the kingdom and not truly to YHWH.
Campos stated that in the deuteronomic priestly rule, the priests and Levites do not own land and accumulate wealth from it Dt d, Nm , etc.
Prophecy in the ancient near east. Prophecy was not peculiar to the ancient Israel, but the ancient Near East has a form of prophecy in their parlance. Mesopotamia city of Mari and the state of Egypt provide clues to the existence of prophecy in the ANE. The Mesopotamian, Egyptian and biblical prophetic texts alike depict close relationships between prophecy and kingship Couey Firstly, according to Redditt , the 28 letters found at Mari, a city in the middle Euphrates valley from the mid-third millennium to its destruction in BCE, mention prophetic figures, male and female, called apilu.
According Redditt, these prophets claimed to have received message from their gods Adad or Dagon and frequently quote what the gods said. Prophecy in Mari 'appears ready to recognise God at work in Mari prophecy to the extent that it calls on man to deny his power struggle and give himself for human need' Walters Secondly, in Egypt, the prophets divined by manipulating various objects and interpreting dreams or signs and also occasionally predicted the future Redditt Redditt further adds that:.
It relates to the trip of an official of the temple of the Egyptian god Amon at Karnak to Byblos on the coast of Phoenicia to purchase lumber for a ceremonial barge for the god. He narrates an incident that occurred while an official from Byblos was offering sacrifices to his gods.
During the ceremony, a god seized one of the attendants, as evidenced by his ecstatic, frenzied behavior. In this frenzy, he directed the Prince of Byblos to conduct business with Wen-Amon. Such frenzied behavior was also attested in eleventh-century Israel by the prophetic group surrounding Samuel and influencing Saul as well I Sm ; I Sm The Neferti is summoned to the court so that he can entertain the king with prophecies; and he is asked to speak about the future rather than the past, the sage prophesies the downfall of the Egyptian nation by civil war, leading to the eventual atonement of the nation through the rise of a great king Wiki Furthermore, Couey lucidly captures the fact that these rulers depended upon their officials for continuing assessment of prophetic activity in their kingdoms, as evident in reports from such officials to their respective rulers.
It would be wise to say at this juncture that Israel prophetic style did not emerge from a vacuum. This is because of the fact that the people of the ANE were able to engage in ecstasy and frenzy in order to know the will of their gods and relate it to their people. Prophecy and political leadership in Nigeria. Just as the time of Amos had the flourishing of prophets who prophesied for personal gains, the Nigerian context in recent times has been besieged by prophets who prophesied for personal gains.
These are the professional prophets. Professional prophets are those prophets who are engaged in prophesying for personal financial gains.
Their prophecies are not inspiration or communication from God. According to Irekamba and Adebumiti , professional prophets prophesy for their stomach. They do that for financial gains, in the bid to make a living. Political leadership in Nigeria is embedded in rigid corruption and conspiracy by the priestly class.
There is a form of corruption which is 'chop and I chop' syndrome. Beginning from the federal to the state level down to the local government level of leadership, politicians are stealing millions of naira from the national coffers for their personal use.
As the leader is stealing part of the national money, those under him are also stealing. Unfortunately, no priests or prophet who is close to these politicians has seen the necessity to reprimand or warned them, as in the case of Amos.
This is the job of the priests and prophets as God's agents Abioje Prophecy in Nigeria is a trade making venture. Politicians now visit religious centres, donate thousands of naira and the prophet gives prophecies of safety and protection for the corrupt politicians.
For instance, a Nigerian priest was quoted as saying that any politician who wants to win election must see him or else he will fail elections. Quoting the Nigerian priest Rev. Mbaka, Tobi said that the priest once told to an aspiring politician named Peter Obi the following:. Former governor, listen, so that we won't be deceiving God.
As you are standing in the presence of these children of God, tell God what you will do for Him … It means you don't want to do anything for God. Let me believe in fear, but this is a political statement. God hates stinginess. What I am saying is not for your pleasure. I am saying what will save your life, otherwise, you and Atiku will fail.
The way you and Atiku are moving will end in shame. This shows that a Nigerian leader is declared morally upright, if he has settled with the priests financially.
The priests pronounced God's blessings on him notwithstanding the leader's corrupt practices. This is a foremost activity of the professional prophets in Nigeria. The residence of political service holders in Nigeria usually has religious chapels, which in the context of this article is a church.
These chapels are run by priests and other members of the clergy. The political leader, if a Christian, attends these chapels on some days of church services, especially on Sundays. Messages are taught by the presiding priests, who intermittently issue messages of prosperity and peace, and prophesy of better future and well-being of the politician and his cronies, instead of reprimanding and warning the politician about the anger of God with regard to the corrupt practices he has engaged himself in.
It is important to note at this juncture that prophecy is not concerned merely with enthroning political leaders. It also monitors the spiritual and moral rectitude of those enthroned as well as the conduct of the entire populace Abioje It could be recalled that the then Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, repeatedly warned political office holders on the need to manage efficiently the resources of the country.
However, her advice was taken with a pinch of salt. Nigeria entered into critical economic recession in August The researcher begins to wonder how Nigerian priests, with intimidating numbers as the sand of the sea, could not prophesy concerning the looming recession that was steering the country on the face.
At least it would have helped in the aspect of pre-emptive measures. Instead, they were busy prophesying about how great Nigeria would be and how successful the government of the newly elected president would be, just because of the yearning for financial and sexual inducement and financial gains from those in political power. Also worrisome is the attitude of priests from the Pentecostal churches in Nigeria.
Most of the Pentecostal priests rarely prophesy against the evils perpetrated by those in political leadership. Their interests are only on the binding of demons, and the casting of witchcraft bad luck, forgetting the fact that a morally sanitised society could reduce their prayer points, thereby reducing their stress. In the words of Beyer , Pentecostal churches in Nigeria show apathy to reprimanding political leaders or involving themselves on anything related to the government.
Lending further claims, Abioje stated that although some Christian prophets engage in divination in one form or another, it has not been applied to political leadership in Africa by Christians.
It is highly obscene that in the midst of all the social evils committed by political office holders, the so-called priests and prophets are silent about religiosity.
Prophecy in Nigeria is a mind-blowing phenomenon because members of the political class besiege churches to hear from God notwithstanding their corrupt practices. Politicians are eager to know if they would win elections coming up or not. They are eager to hear about the good things or bad things that would befall their political enemies. It is on this premise that ministers in Nigeria capitalise on the growing desire for a prophetic declaration by the low and the mighty to explore and exploit prophetic oracles from God or mammon, or from intuition.
This is why different prophecies, false and contradictory in nature and approach, are glowing and blossoming amongst ministers in Nigeria. The enthronement and dethronement of leaders are prophesied. The priests prophesy more when they see more offerings are dropped at the altar when they were prophesying. Unfortunately, members of the political class failed to understand that most of these priests and prophets based their prophecy on intuition, psychology and body language.
This they do to gain political and economic support and relevance. The besieging of worship centres by politicians means much money for them for false prophets. Hence, they must prophesy something to politicians, which most often are against the politicians' political or economic enemies.
Gbenga observed that many of the prophecies were based on what catches their fancy and on the spur of the moment and also based on intuition or pressure from society. Amos in the Nigerian context. Amos presents an Israelite society that is highly religious in ritual activities but deficient in social and moral ethics. Although there was a great outward show of religious observance, including sacrifices and offerings, the priesthood and their prophecies had been defiled New World Encyclopaedia, n.
The only conduct that priest and prophets had in common was their divine calling to reveal the will of Yahweh and thus influence their society. From the argument above, it can be deduced that the sharp distinction between inductive and non-inductive divination is no longer tenable De Jong ; De Villiers ; Nissinen Presently, scholars prefer to focus on the common goal of both forms of divination, namely to reveal and preach the will of Yahweh or deity and by doing so to influence society around them.
This common goal in all forms of divinations or prophetism is the basis for a broader approach to defining 'prophecy'.
Through prophetism - whether inductive or non-inductive - the invisible God becomes audible Waltke Hill and Walton divide the ministry and function of OT prophets into three main periods:. A few questions arise from this division: Why did Yahweh use the prophets? To reveal his will?
But, why use people outside of the established cult? Why use cultic-uneducated non-priests? From what was stated thus far in the article and in coherence with the OT narrative , one can make the following assumption: Generally, prophets were not needed to speak on behalf of God within Israelite society. It can be derived from the evidence in the OT that the priests were the actual chosen office to conduct prophetism in Israel.
Certainly it is possible that much of the textual material in the Pentateuch and in the whole of the Hebrew Bible were compiled, edited and added later. It could even be argued that it was the priests who did all this editing and compiling of the texts De Bruyn and that the texts thus reflect a point of view that favours the priests at the cost of the prophets.
Then again it can be asked: Why would the editor-priests leave so much evidence in the texts of the Hebrew Bible which can be used, do indicate that it was their incapability as priests that contributed to the fall of Judah and Northern Israel?
It also can be argued that the editing and compiling of texts are also acts of inductive divination De Bruyn It is therefore possible that the priests, who later compiled and edited texts, again took up their prophetic responsibility as it originally should have been and that they acknowledged their failure as prophets in the First Temple Period.
The possibility that it were priests who edited the Hebrew Bible also does not explain why fewer and fewer people from outside of the cult acted as prophets during the Second Temple Period. All this makes it necessary to take a fresh look at the role of priests and prophets in Israel. Before the time of Moses.
The first evidence of the office of priests in Israel is to be found in Exodus. Naturally Israel was then only a fledgling nation. Thus, one may argue that cult-priests did not operate before the exodus from Egypt.
Before this time - that is before Yahweh had established a religious cult in Israel through Moses - the relationship between Yahweh and the believers was more intimate and direct. No mediators were necessary. Gn God personally told Noah to build a ship Gen He himself called Terah and Abraham cf.
Gen Later again, God himself revealed his will and instructions to Isaac and Jacob. This is also the case in the narrative of Joseph cf. God talked directly to Joseph. If there were prophets during this period, as it is hinted in Genesis , they would have been part of a bigger ANE culture and not part of the patriarchal religion.
Moses establishes the cult. For the purpose of this article, Moses is an interesting figure to investigate. In Deuteronomy , Moses is called a prophet. He spoke on behalf of Yahweh. He taught the Israelites the law of the Lord and instructed them in accordance with the will of God cf. Ex However, Moses did not attempt to influence the decisions within his society like an ordinary prophet would do.
He went much further by altering the way in which Israel practiced their religion and conducted themselves as a nation. Moses established the cult with all its offerings, priests, the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle later the temple.
At this stage, the cult was the medium and the priests were the mediators between Yahweh and his people. However, as stated earlier, the narrative does not once provide information about the establishment of the office of prophets. It was the task of the priests to teach, preach and reveal the will of Yahweh through divination.
It is important to emphasise the fact that, during this time of political and cult change, Moses acted as Yahweh's independent mouthpiece. Although Moses established the cult and sometimes preformed ceremonies himself, he remained independent from the cult as such. Deuteronomy 13 is an interesting text. It can be argued that the office of prophet is assumed in this text.
Indeed, an historical approach as to the compiling and editing of the texts can be used to argue that the text is a later compilation. However, reading the text in itself indicates false prophets that naturally should not have been part of the 'true' cult of Yahweh. Furthermore, this text does not erase the possibility that the priests were originally the ones who had to act as prophets in Israel.
Conquering Canaan - times of turmoil. The Book of Judges often states that Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord cf. Jdg Mostly this was because everyone did 'what was right in his or her own eyes' Ex There was no king, and it seems that the priests at the time failed to keep the Israelites committed to the law and covenant of Yahweh cf.
Jdg ; 1 Sm During this time of turmoil and political instability, Yahweh sent prophets to confront his people cf. Jdg ; ; 1 Sm Maybe the best-known prophet from this period is Samuel. He was sent by Yahweh, not only to reveal God's will or to deliver the message of Yahweh s punishment on Eli and his sons cf. Just as God used Moses as an independent agent to oversee the exodus and to establish the cult, he used Samuel as a prophet who did not form part of the established cult to establish the monarchy.
Samuel anointed Saul and David as kings of Israel cf. During the time of kings. When David established his kingdom, the priests and the royal house became closely integrated. Not only did David reorganise the priests 1 Chr , but his sons became priests 2 Sm This would have made it extremely difficult for the priests to criticise the king.
Narratives relating the history of Israel seldom recount incidents where priests prophesised against or criticised the king. The fate of Abiathar is an example of what may befall a priest who is not loyal to the king cf. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why Yahweh commissioned people who were not part of the established priests to prophesy against the kings and the cult.
Instead of revealing God's will and preaching the law, the priests sometimes became corrupt themselves cf. Often the priests felt more obliged to support the king than to direct their preaching against his reign. Already in the time of David, God sent Nathan, who was not a priest, to criticise the king 2 Sm An exception to this was Jeremiah, who was a priest, but did not hesitate to fulfil his prophetic duty Jr as it should have been since he was a priest.
However, more important for this article is the narrative about queen Athaliah and the revolt against her rule as it is described in 2 Kings cf. In this narrative, no mention is made of a prophet, and yet, it would be contended that someone did take on a prophetic role in that instance. The narrative states that when Athaliah was in her seventh year of reign over Judah, Jehoiada the high- priest took the lead in a revolt against the queen's rule.
As priest, Jehoiada proclaimed Joash, son of Ahaziah, king of Judah. Jehoiada anointed and crowned Joash as king and provided him with a copy of the law. Jehoiada also renewed the covenant between Yahweh and the people and took measures to reform the cult. Thus, parallels can be drawn between the actions of Moses, Samuel and Jehoiada. Unfortunately, Jehoiada's influence only lasted until his death cf.
Afterwards, the king started to 'do what was wrong in the eyes of the Lord'. Again, a priest stepped forward - Zechariah son of Jehoiada. He prophesied against the king and ultimately died. Thereafter, the narrative recounts how the Lord sent other people who prophesied against the succession of kings. From this narrative we can infer that as long as the established priests did their duty by performing the work of God, preaching and teaching the law and thus influencing society through their prophetic role, prophets from outside of the established cult were not required.
To clarify further: when the priests actually did what God originally expected of them, namely to prophesy, there was no need at the time for someone from outside of the cult to fulfil such a prophetic role. Another narrative that needs to be emphasised is the one about king Uzziah, also known as Azariah cf. As long as a man called Zechariah was alive 2 Chr , Uzziah 'did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh.
Later Uzziah became arrogant and sinned against God by conducting an offering in the temple that was forbidden for him as king, seeing that he was not the high priest cf. It is known from research that proto- Isaiah fulfilled the role of prophet during the reign of Uzziah cf. Is ; Redditt Yet, it was significant that neither Isaiah nor another prophet criticised the king - it was the priests themselves who did it cf.
Whatever the reasons may be, from then onwards we are never again in the OT narratives informed about priests who had the strength to oppose the wrong-doings of the kings or of the priests themselves. No other prophet is mentioned, except Jeremiah of course.
The fact that king Ahaz closed down the temple of Yahweh indicates that the priests did not have the moral courage to prophesy against the kings 2 Chr Repeatedly it became necessary for Yahweh to utilise agents from outside of the established cult to preach the Word of God. Many of these prophets did not only criticise the king and reveal the social injustice in Israel; they also blamed the priests for being corrupt and for not seeking the Lord's guidance cf.
Jr ; Ezk 8. From this depiction of the history of Israel, it becomes clear that Yahweh employed prophets from outside the priestly orders in times of emergency when the priests failed in their prophetic task. The question may be asked: What about the 'call narratives' of Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 1 and Ezekiel ? Do these narratives not sanction the role of a prophetic office?
Firstly, this article does not claim that there were no prophetic office, but rather that the priests should have been the prophets in Israel. A separate prophetic office became necessary, because the priests failed in their prophetic duty. Secondly, these narratives only indicate the calling of certain individuals to prophesy on behalf of Yahweh. They do not specifically indicate a permanent office of prophets separate from the priests. These narratives rather show how Yahweh called individuals to preach his words at times when the priests failed in their prophetic calling.
God's voice in exile. During this time, God used Ezekiel as a prophet to preach God's word to the exiles in Babylonia and to prophesy against those Israelites who still resided in Jerusalem. Although in exile, God used the priest Ezekiel as a prophet to reveal and preach the will of Yahweh and, by doing so, to influence society. Another prophet used by God in the exilic period was Second Isaiah Redditt With the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and most of the priests in exile, God used people from outside the temple cult to preach his word.
New beginnings - reforming the cult. When the exiles began to return in BC, their situation showed distinct similarities with the time of the exodus from Egypt.
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