The Prophets: Who They Were, What They Are

by Norman Podhoretz

Book Overview

A radical reinterpretation of the biblical prophets by one of America's most provocative critics reveals the eternal beauty of their language and the enduring resonance of their message. Long before... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743219279
• ISBN13: 9780743219273
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous!

A remarkable literary achievement on the book of books. It is quite amazing how Norman Podhoretz guides you through the, for me, Old Testament, and makes you be at home in the prophets lives. Yet that is also because they live now: we should return to them at every sign of idolatry in the contemporary world. A formidable adventure by an overwhelming writer.

Making biblical scholarship accessible to the public

With this book, Normal Podhoretz attempts to provide a survey of all the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It is a monumental undertaking. One that he handles admirably. Some question his credentials. He does have at least a BHL. It strikes me that this book must have been a retirement project and a labor of love. He summarizes every prophetic book in the canon. He treats them in chronological order according to consensus academic scholarship. He presents a review of the relevant academic scholarship, particularly as it relates to historical setting, on the books since the mid 19th century. He notes the biases in the scholarship, and presents his own interpretation. The general thesis of this book is: "They're all wrong!" What a reader takes away from reading this book is that there is not absolute authority on what the prophetic books mean. Podhoretz addresses two primary streams of intrepretion: o The Christological interpretation o What he calls the "Liberological" interpretation His own position is one that both are mistaken and that the primary concern in the prophetic material is one of idolatry. His primary beef is not with the Christological interpretation, but with the "Liberological" one, which posits an evolution in prophetic writings on two axes. The first is that there is a trend away from cultic concerns toward social justice. The second is that there is a trend from the particularlistic (concerned with Israel) to the universal (salvation of all mankind). He argues his point by citing the relevant passages in each book that contravene the position. By putting the prophets in the context of warriors against idolatry and putting Israel/Judah in historical context, he seems to indicate that the prophets were all right-wing reactionaries to some degree or other.

A Rare Contribution to Public Understanding of the Bible

I'm giving Podhoretz' book five stars not because I agree with everything he says, but because he has made a rare contribution here in writing a book with is scholarly enough to be of use to those who want to understand the Hebrew Bible, yet with a style that makes it accessible to the general public. Most widely read books on the Bible are written for people who assume a certain paradigm, either conservative or liberal, and they mainly reinforce the beliefs of the reader without discussing alternatives to underlying premises. Not so Podhoretz. Although he is in a sense a "believer," he states firmly in the beginning that he is not a fundamentalist, and this is clear in his methodology. For example, Podhoretz accepts that some sections of some biblical books were not written by their purported authors, especially in regard to Isaiah, but takes the approach that if Isaiah was written by three or more authors over three centuries, we should still look at what they have to say. He also rejects the idea that prophets are foretellers, and notes several instances where he believes they got prophecies wrong. Podhortez' main thesis is that the prophets were warriors of the word, struggling against paganism, and that the prophetic period came to an end because they won - paganism was no longer widely accepted among Israelites, so prophets were not needed. In terms of modern application, Podhoretz argues that just as idolatry was a form of self-worship, man worshipping the products of his own hand, the prophets are relevant to us today becuase so much of our society is built around forms of self-worship. Podhoretz' secondary thesis is more academic - he again and again attempts to refute the idea that the prophets abandoned the ritual emphaisis of the Mosaic law. This is sort of an anti-evolutionary argument; he argues that the prophets did not change the substance of their message so much as their emphasis. As circumstances changed and the Israelites became more infatuated with foreign gods, the prophets focused more on that threat, emphsizing that ritual observance was of no value to God without purity of heart.

An excellent book

I have been reading the writings of Norman Podhoretz for about twenty years and find him consistently rewarding. This book, which seems meant for the general reading public, is no different. Though I do not have the technical expertise to evaluate his elucidation of the prophets, this book provided a perspective that was very helpful to me. It will give my reading of the books of the Old Testament a remewed focus of interest. His concluding chapter is particularly well written, well reasoned and enlightening, even prophetic. He might have spoken louder.

Compelling

I have read Norman Podhoretz for about twenty years and always find his writing rewarding. This book was no different. Though I cannot judge the technical accuracy of his interpretation of the prophets, it helped me put the Old Testament into a much more living perspective, and I found his conclusion chapter so well written and so enlightening, even prophetic.