The Prophet as Persona

Taking the discussion of persona in literary theory as its point of departure, the chapter examines first the presentation of prophets in twentieth-century historical-critical scholarship. Here, the interest was moving from the early focus on the prophet as an historical person (e.g. Duhm, Skinner, Rudolph) to the historical background and development of the prophetic book (e.g. Zimmerli, Holladay, Carroll). Second, the genre of prophetic books is discussed in the light of ancient biography, suggesting a general cognitive demand for personal authentication of messages as being met by (the image of) the prophet. The third part of the chapter presents literary readings of the prophets as literary personae , i.e. as representations of the message of the prophetic books, with an emphasis on Hosea, Amos, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The quest for the literary persona thus leads toward synchronic approaches to the theology of the books.

Art · Humanities · Persona · Families in Therapy and Culture · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Islamic Studies and History