The Gift of Prophecy

Categorization of Prophets

The first individual explicitly mentioned as being a prophet in the Hebrew Bible is Abraham (called in Hebrew nābî’), and his role was to pray for Abimelech (Gen. 20:7). However, Enoch is the actual first prophet (except for God, who made the first soteriological prediction of Genesis 3:15), according to Jude 14, even though he is not called a prophet in the Old Testament: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone.’ ” GOP 15.3

In addition to this statement, Enoch named his son Methuselah, which is an unusual name and may have prophetic connotations. There are different possibilities of expressing its meaning, such as “he will send a man,” “at his death He will send,” “at his death it will be sent,” or “man’s arrow.” Alfred Jones translates it very pointedly: “When he is dead it shall be sent.” ¹¹ It is interesting that Methuselah lived 969 years; and on this basis, consider the following: Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born; Lamech was 182 when he had Noah; and Noah was 600 years old when the Flood came. When the fathers’ ages at the birth of their sons are all added together, the result is astounding (187 + 182 + 600 = 969). So Methuselah died exactly in the year of the Flood, and it was predicted in his name! GOP 15.4

One can state that the first biblical prophets are categorized as “honorary prophets”: Noah (God communicated with him and gave specific instructions to prepare people for the Flood, even though he is not explicitly called a prophet [Gen. 6-9] but a “preacher of righteousness” [2 Peter 2:5]); Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 20:7; Ps. 105:15); Moses (Deut. 18:15, 18); Samuel (1 Sam. 3:20); and David (Acts 2:29-30). One can classify prophets in other ways: (1) nonwriting prophets, such as Enoch, Abraham, Elijah, Elisha; and (2) classical writing prophets—four major and ¹² minor prophets (a total of 16). These writing prophets can be additionally divided into the following chronological groups Before the Christian Era (B.C.E.): ninth-century prophet (Joel); eighth-century prophets (Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah); preexilic, or seventh-century, prophets (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah); exilic prophets (Jeremiah, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Daniel); and postexilic prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). ¹³ GOP 15.5

Another special category of prophets are those who wrote their documents or books, but their writings were not included in the biblical canon—Jasher, Samuel, Nathan, Gad, Shemaiah, Oded, Ahijah, Jehu, and Iddo (for details, see Joshua 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18; 1 Chron. 29:29; 2 Chron. 9:29; 12:15; 15:8; 20:34). In addition, there were also female prophets in ancient Israel: Miriam (Ex. 15:20); Deborah (Judges 4:4); Hulda (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chron. 34:22); and Isaiah’s wife (Isa. 8:3). ¹⁴ GOP 16.1