Do you know how many prophets are in the bible? If you still do not have an answer to this question, do not worry, you have come to the right place since in this post we will take care of clarifying each and every one of your doubts. Just do not stop reading the post that you will like.
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How many prophets are there in the bible?
To begin, we are going to describe that the word prophet refers to a person of religious belief who is in charge of being the intermediary between humanity in general and the divine representation. Based on what the facts tell us, it can be said that a prophet is a person, who maintains a close personal relationship with God and from his hand receives the mission of professing and making known or communicating among other people the revelations and actions of God and, as a consequence, speaks on his behalf to human beings.
The prophet, as a messenger of the word of God before his people, possesses certain qualities that characterize him as the intercessor of humanity with our Heavenly Father. The prophets with their charismatic way of leading the people and communicating the word of God in every corner, it can be said that each prophet receives the gift to carry out his mission.
The prophet definition is used mainly to describe the person who is in charge of predicting the events that will occur in the future respectively, and these people manage to predict these events or events through signs or based on some supernatural revelation that may come to them.
It may be the case that the prophets are compared or confused with a seer, however, we have to keep in mind the qualities and characteristics of each one to be able to differentiate them, since the prophets as mentioned are in charge of professing the word of God.
It is important to note that the word prophet derives from the Greek propētēs (προφήτης) and that it means or has the meaning of a messenger, spokesman, or political incident.
In the use of this word we must bear in mind that it is closely related to the monotheistic belief of the Hebrews through, the word nabi נְבִי, a term that was gradually introduced and used by the Jewish, Christian and Muslim cults.
From what is known the prophets are classified into two; minor and major prophets.
The most outstanding within the bible, were 4 primarily since within the bible they wrote many pages, these 4 prophets are:
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Ezequiel
- Daniel
The minor prophets are in total 12, and they, for their part wrote a few pages of the bible.
The prophets, in general, lived between 500 and 750 BC
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Classification of the Prophets in the bible
The classification of the prophets is formed by means of the message that each one of them came to transmit, and to whom they imparted this message of our Lord Jesus Christ. It should be noted that the most important prophets to predict for Israel were; Amos and Hosea.
In this way, it can also be mentioned that two other prophets were sent to Nineveh, in order to take their message to all the inhabitants of this town and get the message that God sent to each of his children who lived in that place. These prophets were known as Jonah and Nahum.
For his part, Daniel, one of the major prophets, was sent to Babylon with the mission of professing and carrying the message of God to the inhabitants of this City.
And in the same way, Ezekiel, another of the major prophets, was also sent to Babylon, but he with the mission of professing the Word to the people who were prisoners in this City.
It can also be mentioned that God sent a large number of prophets to the Jewish nations in order for them to carry his message to all Jews.
In total there are 9 prophets who were sent to those nations with a great mission, these prophets are; Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
In this way, it can be mentioned that the prophets found in the bible and those who were in charge of taking the word of God and his message to every corner, there are a total of 16.
If your plans are to start with the study It is important to know each of the prophets that make up the Bible, since each of them is an essential part of the expansion of faith in God.
Now we are going to describe each of the prophets according to their classification:
Minor Prophets in the bible
There were 12 minor prophets corresponding to the Old Testament, which were attributed books in the Bible called with their same names, which will be described below:
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi.
Hosea:
He was a prophet of the old testament, which belonged to the group called himself the twelve minor prophets, Hosea was born 800 BC and respectively it is known that he died 725 BC.
Within the books this prophet is the first that we can observe, his name means Yahweh saves.
Respectively this prophet is credited with being the author of the old testament book Hosea, in his book he denounces the infidelity of the People with Yahweh and also within the book highlights the tender love of God that he has for each of his children.
The mission of this prophet was to carry by Israel all the message of God in spite of the rampant sin in which these people lived.
Joel:
It is the second of the minor prophets, his name means Jehovah is God. He is the author of the book of Joel that is within the old testament for what is known this book was written respectively between 835 and 800 a. C, the purpose of the writing of this book was undermined by the invasion of the locusts which destroyed absolutely everything in their path like; gardens, vineyards, grain fields, and trees.
The mission of this prophet was to carry the word of God throughout all Israel, God specifically sent this prophet to show all these people about their future and particularly “The Day of the Eternal.”
Amos:
This prophet was well known for being a shepherd and producer of figs, Born in the Kingdom of Judas in 750 BC This prophet is attributed as the author of the book that bears his name, his name means “Burden” or “Carrier ”.
Obadiah:
His name means servant, servant, or worshiper of Yahweh, he is the author of the book that bears his name, it is the shortest of the entire Old Testament, it has only approximately 21 verses.
Jonah:
His name means “dove”, in Latin Ionas, it belongs to the prophets of Yahveh, corresponding to the Old Testament.
It is said that he is the fifth of the minor prophets of the Nevi’im, and the scriptures reveal that he is the son of Amitai. He managed to reestablish “the boundary between Israel, from the entrance of Hamat to the Dead Sea.”
Micah:
This was a peasant prophet exactly from the end of the 8th century BC. C., originally from a village in the plain of Sefela Moreshet, which is located near Jerusalem.
He was the writer of the book of the Bible that bears his same name.
Nahum:
he was one of the minor prophets, a native of Galilee. He is known for the writing of the book that bears his same name, one of the many books belonging to the Old Testament. He is the seventh in the list of the prophets according to the traditional list. In his own book, it is said that he was an “elkoshita“.
Habakkuk:
This belongs to the name of a Hebrew prophet and likewise the book of the Bible that also bears the same name and that according to studies was written around the year 612 BC.
Zephaniah:
belongs among the list of the minor prophets of the Old Testament to the ninth, according to the scriptures he is the son of Kusí, of the tribe of Simeon. Its prophesying began in the reign of Josiah of Judah (c. 624 BC), possibly before the king reformed the disorders of his nation Haggai.
Zechariah:
is one of the prophets mentioned in the Bible, being the eleventh, and in turn in the Koran.
In the Bible, it corresponds to a priest of the family of Aaron (Luke, 1: 67-79) and the father of John the Baptist. Husband of Elizabeth, who was related to Mary (Luke 1:36), the mother of Jesus.
Malachi:
name that means my angel, my messenger, or my envoy. It belongs to one of the books of the Old Testament in the Bible and of the Tanakh (Jewish religion), which was written by the same prophet bearing his name, is the last of the prophets on the list of minors.
Major Prophets in the bible
As already mentioned previously within the text, they are the ones who were in charge of writing most of the bible, we are going to know a little more about them:
Isaiah:
His name means Yahveh is salvation; he is the first of the major prophets. The mission of this prophet was to carry the message of our Lord during the crisis that arose from the expansion of the Syrian Empire.
Isaiah was born in the town of Jerusalem within 765 BC, which is why this prophet is supposedly assassinated by King Manasseh in 695 BC.
Jeremiah:
His name means “prophet” to whom he brings messages from God, he is the second of the major prophets. From what is known this prophet was the son of a priest, born in Anathoth 655 BC
Jeremiah’s mission was to prophesy and carry a message of repentance for the entire kingdom of Judas, but primarily for the so-called kings of the time.
Ezekiel:
The name of this prophet means God is my strength, he is credited with writing the authorship of the book that bears his name, he was the son of a priest from Jerusalem.
The mission entrusted to this prophet was to totally eradicate bad habits, idolatry, and any erroneous idea that may exist about the soon return to Jerusalem.
Daniel:
His name means God is my judge or justice of God, he is the fourth of the major prophets, he is the author of the book that bears his name within the Old Testament, his main mission was to bring the message of God to each of the inhabitants of the city of Babylon respectively in full destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
This prophet is credited with being the first to bring Jews to Babylon.
Mission and message of the prophets in the Bible
Regarding the previous description of each of the prophets, we can now talk about the mission and the messages that each one of them wanted to convey in the Old Testament Bible scriptures.
- They sought to defend the nations from idolatry and all evil.
- When this mission was lost, they sought the announcement that the nation would be destroyed.
- But in the same way, they prophesied that it would not be completely destroyed; because a remnant would be saved.
- From only the remnant that could be left, an authority would come that would spread throughout the earth and would bring Jehovah to all nations.
- This authority would be found represented by a man who would one day rise up in the family of David. The prophets would call him “the Branch.” The family of David, being at one time the strongest in the world, in the days of the prophets was cut off and lowered until only managing to rule a small kingdom, already on the verge of disappearing because it was a family of kings without a kingdom, there was no to succumb. It is where from the throne of the family an offspring would be born that would be in a special sense “the Branch”.
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