One who speaks the word of *God. The early prophets are described in the *Bible as ‘seers’ or ‘men of God’. Prominent among these preclassical prophets were *Samuel, *Nathan, *Elijah and *Elisha. Also mentioned are groups of prophets who dwelt together in bands.
These early prophets gave advice, were believed to be able to foretell future events and were involved at the highest level with the political life of their times. The classical prophets are those whose sayings are preserved in the Bible, namely the three major prophets (*Isaiah, *Jeremiah and *Ezekiel) and the twelve minor prophets (*Hosea, *Joel, *Amos, *Obadiah, *Jonah, *Micah, *Nahum, *Habakkuk, *Zephaniah, *Haggai, *Zechariah and *Malachi). The writing prophets shared many of the characteristics of the early prophets although they tended to emphasize the importance of loyalty to *God rather than correct ritual and foretelling the future. According to the Book of *Deuteronomy, the criterion of a real prophet was whether his words came true. It was generally agreed that prophecy ended after the Babylonian *exile and that one of the signs of the coming *messiah would be the return to earth of the prophet Elijah.
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