When The Prophets was first published in 1962, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of biblical scholarship.The Prophets provides a unique opportunity for readers of the Old Testament, both Christian and Jewish, to gain fresh and deep knowledge of Israel's prophetic movement. The author's profound understanding of the prophets also opens the door to new insight into the philosophy of religion.

    But in the Jewish tradition, as Abraham Joshua Heschel explains in The Prophets, these figures earn their title by witnessing the world around them with outstanding passion. Prophets are those whose "life & soul are at stake" in what they say about "the mystery of [god's] relation to man." They are "some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived," & yet they are also "the men whose image is our refuge in distress, & whose voice & vision sustain our faith." Heschel's book, one of the classic texts on the subject, contains sophisticated, straightforward discussions of each of the Hebrew prophets, the primary themes of their preaching, & comparisons of Israel's prophets to those of other religions'. Heschel avoids the two great temptations in any discussion of prophesy: overstating the supernatural quality of a prophet's epiphany ("A prophet is a person, not a microphone") & reducing prophesy to a merely human phenomenon. Instead, he describes the prophet's peculiar status as god's spokesman in a way that does justice to its complexity: "He speaks from the perspective of god as perceived from the perspective of his own situation.--Michael Joseph Gross (edited)

    What manner of man is the prophet?Amos Hosea IsaiahMicah Jeremiah Habakkuk Second IsaiahHistory ChastisementJustice

    The Dictionary features: * More than 7500 entries, with many terms not found in earlier works * Full length articles on each book of the Bible, the Apocrypha and other extra-canonical books, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic manuscripts; and on great theological concepts and doctrines of the Bible * Pronunciations, Hebrew or Greek origin, derivatives, variant spellings, identification, and occurrences * 24 pages of maps in full color