Many people are surprised to learn that there are fifty-seven prophets and prophetesses in the Old Testament. The remarkable prophets and prophetesses of the Old Testament delivered messages of hope to the righteous and dread to the wayward children of God — and their stories are of immeasurable worth today as we face the many social, philosophical, and personal challenges of our own modern times.
E. Keith Howick was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended the University of Utah where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science and Juris Doctor in law. He also taught and did PhD studies at Pennsylvania State University.
Keith has taught religion classes on all levels: in his ward, in seminary, in institute classes at the University of Utah and Montana State University and in the religion department at the Brigham Young University. He has also taught courses in American political government and conducted graduate seminars in public law at Pennsylvania State University.
I recently read E. Keith Howick.s Prophets of the Old Testament. I was surprised to learn that there are at least 57 of them discussed or mentioned in the Old Testament annals. It gave me a sense of history to study their often difficult lives. It helped me to see that they, too, struggled with the challenges of this life.
Kaye Reese, St. George, UT
The Mormon Church, while not observing a liturgical year as such, does follow a certain cycle of study in its Sunday School and other classes. The time to study the Old Testament has once again arrived. With it comes yet another collection of aids to Old Testament study. It's hardly possible for the average member to keep up with all the reading. The latest issue of The Ensign arrived today, and, sure enough, there is an article about studying the Old Testament.
Much of what is published is just more repetition of what has been said again and again. On occasion, we find some really good additions to the canon of understanding, in particular "Jehovah of the Old Testament" published by Deseret Book and reviewed here.
The current volume contains bite-sized vignettes describing the many prophets mentioned in the Old Testament. The meanings of their names, their places of birth and their genealogies are described briefly and with little comment. A summary of the content of each of their books (where books are linked to prophets) is included.
The book is divided into seven sections: The Prophet-Patriarchs, United Israel, Divided Israel — the Northern Kingdom, Divided Israel — the Southern Kingdom, the Babylonian Captivity, After the Captivity, and The False Prophets. This structure allows the reader to follow the stories of the prophets in roughly the same order as they appear in the Bible, and in history.
Howick sticks pretty close to LDS orthodoxy in his views, including a rejection of the idea of multiple authorship for the book of Isaiah (although one of the appendices is a map showing possible routes of the exodus, with none of them crossing the Red Sea — I've often mused how some are able to read the King James Version of the exodus and not want to substitute "Sea of Reeds" for Red Sea, given the evidence).
The value of a book like this is in its ability to focus quickly and dispassionately on the lives and works of the men and women who populate the pages of the Old Testament. So many of their names are familiar; others don't even ring a bell. Having brief intros to all of these players adds a dimension to Old Testament study that will many will find helpful.
These are not in-depth studies. Neither are they comprehensive and detailed. But they are easily digested morsels of Old Testament knowledge that will certainly enrich the upcoming year's treatment of the Old Testament. And, unlike other offerings, it is affordable.
Howick has performed a service to the larger LDS community by reducing an almost indigestible slew of information and history into snack sized bites of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Value of the Old TestamentThe Old Testament is not just an historical document that recounts the problems and lives of an ancient people; it provides a roadmap for those living in the present and those yet to be born. The prophets prophesied of things that would occur not only in their lifetime, but in the immediate and far distant future as well.
Prophets A PlentyPeople are surprised to hear that there are fifty-three prophets and three prophetesses in the Old Testament, as well as hundreds of prophets that existed in "schools" that the author labels, "The School of the Prophets" (fifty-seven prophets in all). (3) This is an easy-to-read book about the prophets. lives: when they lived, which kings they chastised, the unusual things God required of them, and many of the interesting stories about them. (a) The prophet Elisha performed a miracle from the grave! (b) Jeremiah was one of at least three prophets that the Lord used as "show and tell" prophets . prophets who were required to do something unusual as an example of what the Lord would do to the people because of their unrighteousness. For example, he wore a wooden yoke to show the Jews that they would be in bondage to King Nebuchadnezzar. The false prophet Hananiah broke the yoke and predicted that the bondage would not be bad. Because of the people.s adherence to this false prophet, Jeremiah said the bondage would be as an iron yoke. (c) An unnamed prophet from Bethel lied to an unnamed prophet from Jerusalem. As a result, the prophet from Jerusalem committed a sin and was punished by being killed by a lion. But that.s not where this odd story ends....
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