Prophet Amos: The Man, the Message, the Mission and the Motive - Research Paper Example

of … Prophet Amos: The Man, The Message, The Mission and the Motive Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Book of Amos – Date of Composition and Outline 5 Prophet Amos, the Man 9 Prophet Amos – the Message 11 Prophet Amos – the Mission 13 Bibliography 13 Introduction Hebrew prophecy, or prophetic movement, was born of the cult of Yahweh and became irrevocably embedded in the continuum of Israel’s history1. According to Bullock, as God entered into the historical process, making Israel both the end and means of His actions, the prophets became the witnesses of His vital concerns2. The Old Testament provides compelling evidence on the issue – “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets”3. Having addressed outstanding issues of religious, political and moral character, the Hebrew prophets generally spoke to the people and the elites of Israel in times of crisis4. Therefore, as Bullock writes, if no crisis had occurred – whether moral, spiritual or historical – there would have hardly been a need for prophets, who were basically spokesmen, “particularly in opposition to ‘deviating’ kings and alien cults”5, interpreting current historical events in the light of God’s will for Israel6. In their attempts to steer Israel “through the narrow straits of political uncertainty and moral inexactitude”7, more often than not, the Hebrew prophets not only opposed the then supreme power structures, i.e. priesthood and monarchy, but also guided the nation through the vicissitudes of history; thus being, or seeking to be at the very least, the stabilizers of Israelite national destiny8. There are four major forces running through the culture that both shaped the Hebrew prophets and had been shaped by them, namely the monarchy, idolatry, historical events and social oppression910. Thus, the circumstances that led to the end of the Northern Kingdom – the moral and religious decay – in 722 BC, along with its implications for Judah, had been addressed by Isaiah, Hosea, Amos and Micah, who are considered the first of the classical prophets11. Having foreseen the crisis of 722 BC through divine revelation, Amos announced the dreadful day when “In all the squares there shall be wailing; and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’”12, along with its unavoidable, grim consequences – “as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake”13. This paper is intended to highlight prophet Amos’s personality, his contribution to the moral, religious and social discourse characteristic of Hebrew prophetic movement, and the significance of his prophecies for Israelites… and his successors gives a detailed account of the prophetic times, including culture, moral, religious and social discourse, as well as political vicissitudes. Thus, the author throws light on the prophets’ role, not just as reflectors of an ancient theology, but with a creative insight, proclaiming the word of God The Book of Amos – Date of Composition and Outline The necessity to keep accurate and acceptable records of Hebrew prophets’ words is deemed to have mainly arisen from considerations related to their transmission down through time14. Another important consideration was to check prophesy against its fulfillment – a permanent record would be lasting witness to prophecies’ possible fulfillment while people’s memory would fade away over time, leaving no credible evidence, if any, of a prophet’s words15. Thus, whether this task had been carried out by a prophet himself or by others such as his disciples late in his life, or after his death, the act of writing down and gathering the prophet’s oracles and deeds in book format, i.e. scrolls, preserved them “both as witness against their future fulfillment and to refute any false claims” – in the case of Amos, the latter being sent to Samaria by Amaziah16. Using Thiele’s chronology, the ministry of Amos is believed to have taken place between 767 and 753 BC, within a span of sixteen years at the most1718. The superscription of the book of Amos provides some evidence on the issue – “which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake”19. Additional evidence from 2 Kings 14 suggests that the reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam overlapped each other; according to Thiele, Jeroboam reigned over Israel from 782 to 753 BC while Uzziah was the sole ruler in Judah between 767 and 740 BC2021. Bullock suggests that the “bloated self-confidence” of Israel, reflected by Amos, could well fit into any period of the reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam, especially if the territorial expansion of Israel, as predicted by Jonah22, had been completed by 767 BC23. There are indications, although not certain enough, of a date before the advent of Tiglath-Pileser III, i.e. 744 BC, which are grounded in the fact that Amos does not mention the Assyrians24. Amos may have predicted a solar eclipse – “On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight”25, which, according to Assyrian records, actually occurred in 763 BC; thus, Amos’s prophetic activity could be dated between 767 and 763 BC26. On the other hand, Amos may have merely employed metaphoric language, although, in the antiquity, natural catastrophes were considered the wrath of God27. Using a lower chronology than Thiele, Harper suggests a time span between 765 – 750 BC28; however, according to others, having undergone its constitutive formation during the exilic – early-postexilic periods, the book, in its present form, comes from the late postexilic period29. The better part of the book of Amos is composed of the oracles against nations30, the five visions31 and their appendixes; which has led some researchers to produce the idea that the book has two literary centers – the oracles and the visions – while the rest of the prophecy clustered around them32. Others, like Harper, divide the book into three parts – oracles, sermons and visions, with numerous secondary passages that had mot originated with Amos33. S. R. Driver’s observation about a thematic development through the book of Amos considers a much more coherent literary plan, with chapters 1 and 2 having introduced the theme of the book – judgment upon Israel – while chapters 3 to 6 argue against the Israelites’ delusive guarantee of safety, and chapters 7-9 reinforce the main theme of divine judgment which runs through the book3435. In turn, Bullock suggests that final plan of the book, first, details Amos’s oracles and visions already delivered in the north, second, recognizes their confirmation by the earthquake, and third, offers hope in anticipation of the impending devastation36. Prophet Amos, the Man Being a man of humble origin, Amos has used the word ‘boqer’ to denote his occupation3738. On the other hand, the word ‘noqedim’, which is used in the superscription of the book for describing “the shepherds of Tekoa”39, among whom was Amos, is only found one more time – in a singular form – in the Old Testament, namely in regard to King Mesha of Moab, who “was a sheep breeder”, and “used to deliver to the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs, and the wool of one hundred thousand rams” 40. While boqer and noqed are generally considered synonyms, as recognized by the Aramaic translation rendering both of them with one and the same term – ‘master of the flocks’, Kapelrud associates the latter word with the Mesopotamian temple officials responsible for the temple herds of cows and sheep, suggesting that Amos had been such an official41. Such a thesis is rather difficult to stick up for insofar as there is very little evidence, if any, in the book that Amos had been either a functionary or a prophet associated with the Jerusalem cult42. Therefore, as Bullock points out, the most one could confidently conclude from the biblical evidence is that Amos was first and foremost a sheepherder 43 – “I’m no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I’m a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock”44. As seen from above, Amos also referred to himself as a ‘dresser’ of sycamore figs; in fact, the term he employed is ‘boles’, which denotes part in the growing of those trees while the Septuagint rendered the Hebrew participle ‘knizon’ with the meaning of ‘nipping’ or ‘pricking’45. It’s known that the sweet fruit of the sycamore tree, which was smaller than the common fig, had to be either pinched or pierced some four days before being harvested, hence Amos had apparently performed these tasks46. Given the high elevation of Tekoa, which makes it unsuitable for sycamore trees, suggesting that Amos was not a native of Tekoa is quite a logical conclusion47. On the other hand, Judah was evidently considered to be the prophet’s homeland48 – “And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there”49. Lack of any mention of Amos’s ancestry is interpreted as a sign that his family was well known, hence there was no need of family names in the superscription50; while the prophet’s sympathy for the poor may well imply that he had originated from the poor class51. Insofar as the absence of family names is not a rare find, being also the case in the prophetic books of Micah and Malachi, one thing is undoubtedly clear – Amos’s authority to proclaim judgment upon Israel stemmed from the Almighty God himself – “the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel””52. Prophet Amos – the Message On the one hand, as Jeremias points out, no other book in the Old Testament begins with oracles against neighboring nations as does the book of Amos; as a rule, such oracles are found in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zephaniah, being inserted in the middle between the initial statement of judgment and the concluding words of salvation to Israel53. Thus positioned, the oracles against other nations are supposed to attest two important issues – first, that those nations are guilty before God and should expect His punishment, Israel alike, and second, that the judgment upon them prepares the salvation of the people of God54. Amos’s oracles, on the other hand, have been collected together and positioned with rather different intention, namely to imply that the people of God are “incomparably more guilty than the neighboring nations, and it’s anything but salvation that is provided for Israel55. According to Bullock, the oracles against nations had a cumulative effect, whose sum was the inescapable judgment on Israel56; or, as Driver writes, Israel will not escape the punishment for sins similar to, or greater than those of the other nations, and “will not be exempt from the same law of righteous government”57. Thus, while foreigners did not enjoy the covenant privileges and responsibilities, they still have had some knowledge of Yahweh’s ethical demands; which, in turn, made them accountable due to “natural revelation” – through nature and social convention58. Israel, by contrast, had a “distinctly unique relationship” with God, hearing His voice through the law and prophets; therefore, the foreign nations are more or less illustrations of God’s irrevocable judgment, but its sole purpose is Israel59. In other words, Amos entranced the Northern Kingdom with a message of judgment upon the people of Israel, who had abused the privileged relationship they had with God. Prophet Amos – the Mission Bibliography Bullock, C. Hassell. An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1986, 2007. Driver, S.R. An Introduction of the Literature of the Old Testament. Cleveland: World, 1963. Harper, William R. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Amos and Hosea. New York: Scribner’s, 1905. Jeremias, J. The Book of Amos: A Commentary. Translated by Douglas W. Stott, Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. Kapelrud, Arvid S. Central Ideas in Amos. Oslo: Oslo University, 1961. Kitchen, K.A. On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003. Thiele, Edwin R. A Chronology of the Hebrew Kings. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977. Read More