Prophecy and Warfare in Early Israel: A Study of the Deborah-Barak Story

Abstract

More than a decade ago G. Ernest Wright, to whose memory I respectfully and gratefully dedicate this paper, began formulating a new model for understanding the origins of Israelite prophecy.' He depicted it as a political office developing out of the institutions of the Tribal League at the end of that period. As Israel was forced to turn to kings during the Philistine crisis, prophecy arose to safeguard the religious-political ideals and traditions of the past over against the new directions inherent in monarchy. The kings of Israel, who were gradually transforming the charismatic deliverer function of the Judges period into an hereditary office, were confronted by prophets who regarded themselves as the agents through whom the charisma of leadership was to be bestowed. The model for this prophetic self-understanding -the key figure whose activity helped to define the relationship between prophet and king-was Samuel.2 Just as Samuel anointed Saul as a ndgid to deliver the nation, but proclaimed God's rejection of him when he violated Israel's sacral traditions, so prophets (from Ahijah through Elisha) would arise a century later in North Israel to divide the kingdom, making and breaking her kings. For several generations Old Testament scholarship had held a fairly consistent view regarding the origins of prophecy in ancient Israel: though there are occasional anachronistic references to prophets in Genesis-Judges, the first authentic texts describe prophetic groups coming into contact with Saul as he becomes king.3 The chief characteristic ascribed to these groups is ecstasy, which is thought to have been transmitted into Israel some time during the 11 th century B.C.E. from Canaanite culture. The relationship between these ecstatics and the prophetic leaders emerging in No th Israel after the split of the kingdom thus becomes problematic. It had further been held that there was no