Welcome to Bible Fiber. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before I switch modes entirely, I am doing a mini lecture series, a Prophets 101 class. Previously, I discussed the institution of the prophetic office in the Bible, and last week I explored the Jewish understanding for why prophecy ceased after Malachi. Today, I want to investigate the Christian understanding of prophecy today. The best place to start is the introduction to the book of Hebrews.
The author of Hebrews is hyperaware that in the Second Temple period, the Mosaic law and Hebrew scriptures are understood to be the ultimate divine revelation to the Jewish people. He writes, “the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming” (Heb. 10:1). He explains how divine revelation came first in the form of the prophets and holy scriptures, but it reached its zenith in the incarnation:
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Heb. 1:1-3)
The language of all Hebrews offers a rich Christology, as Christ is both the one who God sent and the one who God will send again. However, the book is also firmly rooted in the message of the prophets, quoting and alluding to Isaiah (Heb. 2:13), Jeremiah (Heb. 10:16-17), Habakkuk (Heb. 10:37-38) and Haggai (Heb. 12:26).
When Hebrews uses the expression “long ago,” the author may be giving a side-glance to the hundreds of years that have passed since the time of Malachi. He is also connecting the new beliefs of the followers of Jesus to the ancient faith of Judaism. What the prophets of the past preached pave the way for the revelation of the Gospel. As a result, nothing of the Hebrew scriptures is invalidated by the new movement of Jesus followers. Faith in Jesus is a continuation, a fulfillment of all the biblical instruction that preceded Jesus. The same God who moved in the history of their ancestors and spoke through the prophets revealed himself through his Son.
Scholar Michael Bird in his book, Evangelical Theology, says incarnation means God sent “not a messenger from God to humans but the one mediator who is both God and human.” The word of God being made flesh was a theology still in its embryo stage at the time Hebrews was written, but the understanding of Christ’s divinity rapidly advanced as the gospel spread, capturing hearts and changing lives (John 1:14).
Following the doctrinal statement of Hebrews 1:1, the writer compiles a medley of prophetic quotations, mostly from the Psalms, that have the angels worshiping Jesus as the ultimate divine revelation, superior to them in every way. Jesus, “appointed heir of all things” since the time of creation both preceded the prophets on a metaphysical level and fulfilled the prophets on an earthly level. Jesus existed outside of history and at a marked moment in history. Paul summarizes these difficult concepts as a mystery “revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God” (Rom. 16:25). The size and scope of the gospel message exists on a cosmological and supernatural scale, while also being firmly planted in the religious traditions of Judaism.
Hebrews also means to contrast Christ’s supremacy with the previous forms of special revelation which were powerful but not in the same orbit as the revelation of the Son. Ramm, comparing the first covenant to New Covenant revelation, says “Jesus Christ is the supreme Word of God above all other forms of the word of God.” The prophets, though wonderful and timeless, only stood as mediators between God and humanity. Jesus was not a mediator. Jesus was and is “one with the Father” (John 10:30). For this reason, Jesus exceeds all other modes of revelation. He was “not God in human word but God with a human face.”
The author of Hebrews emphasizes God’s self-revelation through “speaking” when referencing the type of revelation given through the prophets and through the Son (Heb. 1:1-2). God “spoke to our ancestors” and “has spoken to us by a Son.” The one true God, the creator of the universe and the covenant maker with Israel, may be unseen but he was never unheard.
Jesus as Prophet
Establishing that the incarnation is on another level of special revelation from the prophetic office, it is important to note too that Jesus, during his ministry on earth, was most consistently called a prophet. Initially lacking a category for the person of Jesus, the prophets were a prototype that Jesus’s followers could understand. Prophet was their conceptual framework, even if he surpassed every previous notion of a prophet.
During Jesus’s earthly ministry, he had “the public persona of a prophet.” Like Elijah the prophet, he was a healer. Like Moses, he was a rescuer. Like Jeremiah, he was condemned for truth telling. Like Amos, he shed light on the plight of the marginalized.
Prophets called the people to return to the covenant. Jesus launched a new covenant. Prophets defended the poor and vulnerable. Jesus brought the kingdom into their homes. Prophets condemned empty religious ritual and inadequate Temple sacrifice. Jesus defended the sanctity of the Temple which he called “my house” (Matt. 21:13). The prophets narrated their symbolic visions. Jesus taught in parables. Prophets warned of physical exile. The saving work of Jesus ended spiritual exile.
According to N.T. Wright, “while the evangelists hint at various typologies that are applied to Jesus, ranging from new Moses to new David, there is characteristic emphasis on Jesus as a prophetic figure.” At least twice, Jesus referred to himself as a prophet (Matt. 13:57; Luke 13:33). Yet, what became clear with time was that Jesus was not only a prophet, but he was the prophet, promised to Moses long before (Deut. 18:18). The church of Acts held Jesus up as the prophet long foretold (Acts 3:22). As the fullness of the resurrection came to be understood, his “followers came to regard him as far more than a prophet” but “they never saw him as less.”
In Judaism, when the prophetic office ended with Malachi, the baton was passed from prophet to Torah scholar, as exemplified in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. In Christianity, Jesus was the ultimate prophet and the fulfillment of all prophetic revelation.
I want to avoid one pitfall in this discussion so my interpretation of the Christian understanding of prophecy today will not look anything like replacement theology. Teaching about fulfillment of the prophets and the law in Jesus is like walking a tightrope over the dangerous waters of Supersessionism. I do not intend to take Israel and the Jewish prophets out of their own story. God disclosed himself to Abraham and his descendants, trying to reconcile himself first to one people and then to the world.
Language is important in this context; the language of promise and fulfillment better serves the fidelity of God than the rhetoric of replacement or supersession. The prophetic purpose of human agents sent as divine mediators was fulfilled in Christ. However, the message of the prophets was also catered to their own contemporaries, specific to their unique struggles in their own place and time. Yet, the sacrifice of Hosea, the tenderness of Micah, and the indignation of Amos inspire all who fear God. Their calls to meet God’s standard of justice and morality apply just as much to Christians today as ancient Israel. Heschel explains, “what begins—theoretically—as faith in the prophets moves and grows to be faith with the prophets,” an experience that bears out for every believer in every generation who engages with the prophetic writings. That is why Christians love the prophets on their own terms, not only for insights about Jesus.
When the righteous Simeon saw infant Jesus in the Temple courts, he proclaimed him “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). The most edifying theological discussions around the topic of prophecy today stay within the parameters laid out by Simeon: Christ provided revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Israel.
Thank you for listening and please continue to participate in this Bible Reading Challenge. Next week is our last Prophets 101 session. We are going to talk about the product of revelation, the Bible, and the democratization of revelation at Pentecost. For all of the Biblical references each week, please see the show transcript on our blog or by signing up for our emails at www.thejerusalemconnection.us/
I don’t say all the references in the podcast but they are all in the transcript.
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Shabbat Shalom
Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology: A Biblical and Systematic Introduction, Second (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2013), 223.
Ramm, Special Revelation and the Word of God, 59.
Bird, Evangelical Theology: A Biblical and Systematic Introduction, 264.
Ramm, Special Revelation and the Word of God, 53.
Wright and Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, 220.
Wright and Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, 193.
Wright and Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, 193.
Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, Reprint Edition (United Kingdom: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976).