Prophetical Stories

The Narratives about the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible

INTRODUCTION

Jewish prophecy imprinted in biblical literature mainly in two forms: in the statements of the prophets , contained primarily in the books bearing their names , as well as in the accounts of the prophets , collected mainly in the Book of Kings, and in the prose parts of the Book of Jeremiah ( gl.25 -45 ) , and small fragments of other books. Naturally, the sayings of the prophets have always attracted the most interest , as they directly convey the message of the prophets point to the sources of their inspiration and express their own individuality. However, the narrative is extremely valuable for understanding the history of the faith of Israel. They contain information about the prophecy of the pre-classic period of the impression that the prophets made ​​by contemporaries of those around them students and admirers , and that they thought of their teachers. In addition - as these stories describe the public activities of the prophets - they contain many details of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah , as well as their relations with the neighboring states. Thus , these stories are an important source for the political history of Israel Kingdoms era .
However, before using the information of the narrative , it is necessary to clarify the exact nature and timing of each story , to reveal its author ( or authors) , as well as the original - verbal or written - the material of the work. Also, you need to ask a question about his literary genre : it's the story , a legend , a parable , or some other genre . It is also important to set a date version of the story, to find out whether it was created during or after the events described , but if later , how much . This last question is often neglected by readers who do not attach importance to the fundamental distance between story and storyteller.
These issues , along with others, are discussed in my book , which is primarily a historical study of literary genres of stories about the prophets and their development and evolution. The dating of texts I rely mostly on their linguistic features : vocabulary , morphology and syntax. The dating together with the establishment of a literary genre allows you to use these texts as sources for political and religious history of Israel. On the other hand, no historical analysis can not be considered complete if there is no assessment of the literary achievements of this era. So I sometimes dwell on some aspects of literary short stories, for example , in their characterization of the plot or characters. I found it important to the chapters dealing with some of the stories of the Elisha ( Ch. 2 and 4), which show considerable depth and a high artistic value as compared to short stories, discussed in the first chapter. However, throughout the book, the first thing I wanted to understand the meaning of these stories , their ulterior motives and explicit goals in light of the historical context. Essentially, only after clarification and can correctly estimate expressive means website . In turn, this phase of the study allows a deeper understanding of the meaning of the story.

content

Preface to the Russian edition
introduction

PART ONE. From legend to life story

 Chapter One . legend
1.Kratkaya legend
2.Legenda and relics
 Chapter Two . Development of a legend
1.Literaturnaya development
2.Iskazheniya at epigones
 Chapter Three . biography
1.Opredelenie genre and the calling of Elisha
the prophetic ministry
2.Organizatsiya stories about Elisha

PART TWO. Legend , historiography , biography

 Chapter Four . A legend in the political life
1.Elisha and Joash
2.SPECIFICATIONS political legend
3.Elisha in Dothan
4.Elisha and the siege of Samaria
5.Datirovka of Elisha
6.Elisha and the seizure of power Hazaelem

 Chapter Five . The prophetic historiography
1.Istoriografiya and prophetic historiography
2.Myatezh Jehu and the destruction of the cult of Baal
3.Nashestvie Sennacherib
4.Posolstvo Merodach - baladan
5.Redaktsiya Book of Kings

 Chapter Six . Biography of the Prophet
1.Biografiya and narrative of the Book of Jeremiah
2.Struktura , composition and history of the biographical chapters in the book of Jeremiah
3.Faktory that gave rise to the biography of the Prophet as a genre

PART THREE. From legend to martirotologii

 Chapter Seven . ethical legend
1.Legenda and ethical legend
2.Elisha , Naaman and Gehazi
3.Eliyya in Zarfati
4.Moshe at the waters of Meribah
5.Isayya and healing Hezekiah

 Chapter Eight . Exemplum and the parable
1 The definition of literary genres
2.Istoriya of Micah , the son of Imly
Jonah 3.Kniga
4.Bozhy people in Bethel

 Chapter Nine . epos
Fight with God Baal

 Chapter Ten . The emergence of martyrology
1.Harakteristika history and literary genre
2.Ieremiya and Nabuzaradan

app
Vineyard Naboth . The origin and meaning of the story .