Amos and Micah
By (author) Graham S. Ogden
Amos denied being a prophet for he was a Visionary one who ‘saw’ and assessed what was happening around him. Micah condemned all prophets as corrupt liars ensuring that he should not be mistaken for one.
Amos denied being a prophet for he was a Visionary one who ‘saw’ and assessed what was happening around him. Micah condemned all prophets as corrupt liars ensuring that he should not be mistaken for one. He too was a Visionary who ‘saw’ the state of affairs in that same eighth century BCE Israelite society. The fact that neither of these men is identified in the text as a prophet is vitally important for it indicates how one must read their edited works. The traditional view that these men spoke what Yahweh their God revealed to them is not applicable; both spoke about what they themselves ‘saw’ in the social and religious context within Israel at the time.</p><p>Both books Amos and Micah are reports of their insights now set within new frames. Amos is structured about discrete blocks of material with shared forms such as the opening series of numerical x x+1 forms (1.3-2.16) the calls to ‘Hear this word…’ (3.1-5.17) ‘Woe…’ forms</p><p>(5.18-6.7) and his five visions (7.1-9.6). It is a planned re-arrangement of Amos’ words (1.1) as recalled. Micah’s editor similarly has selected a number of discrete and generalized speeches attributed to Micah setting them within a chiastic structure with 4.11-13 as the central unit; it spells out his conviction that Yahweh is ‘master of the whole earth’. Indeed Micah’s very name asks the question ‘Who is like Yah(weh)?’ and 4.11-13 is his response closing in 7.18-20 with another rhetorical question ‘Who is a God like you?’ Micah sees his God as incomparable!
The commentary depends on the text’s literary and rhetorical evidence to give expression to Amos’ and Micah’s deep personal concerns within the historical and cultural setting of their time.
- By (author) Graham S. Ogden
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
