The Prophets of the Bible

The history of the biblical prophets stretches far back to the ancient Orient and ancient Israel, to a time when prophetic oracles and the art of interpreting them had not yet been codified in writing. Reinhard Kratz uses biblical and non-biblical sources to describe how and why, under the influence of existential threats and foreign occupation, it was precisely in Israel and Juda that the prophetic books were written in a long process of updating and commentary – books that promulgate both calamity and salvation, warning and consoling. These writings, which have long been part of world literature, have lost nothing of their immense suggestive power and call on Jews and Christians to constantly transform themselves.