JEREMIAH 1:4-5

Q: The Lord clearly distinguishes between those prophets He directly and specifically called and the numerous false, self-serving prophets of the day. There must have been other prophets who are unknown to us who were righteous and God-fearing. My question arises from The Daily Bible comment stating that one became a prophet "typically by training." Can you give details on such training? Who would have been eligible for the training? How did they receive the messages they were to speak?

Some commentators confidently state that there were schools in ancient Israel where one learned the craft of becoming a professional prophet. However, this contention is partially based on the customs known to exist in other ancient Middle Eastern cultures. The biblical evidence for such schools is very sparse, and the norm for the righteous prophets of the Bible is for them to be chosen by God directly, whether they welcomed the call or not. Therefore I can't really address the last two questions since (1) we simply do not know enough about such training and (2) conditions in the prophetic field appear to have changed considerably from 1000 to 500 BC.

It is the biblical term “sons of the prophets” (designating a band or guild of disciples of a particular God-sent prophet) that appears to lend credence to the existence of prophetic schools in Israel. This term appears in the following scriptures:

I Samuel 10:5,10 There is a roving band of prophets associated with Samuel who go into an ecstatic frenzy accompanied by music (somewhat like a Pentacostal revival meeting).

I Samuel 19:20 Samuel is said to be in charge of them.

II Kings 2:3-15 There are groups of followers accompanying Elijah in Bethel and Jericho. They apparently receive prophecies from him.

II Kings 4:1; 6:1-7 The same “sons of prophets” are now under Elisha's charge as servants.

II Kings 9:1-3 A member of the company acts as Elisha's servant and is himself called a prophet.

From these passages we can agree with The New Bible Commentary: Revised (p. 738) that the sons of prophets around 1000 BC “gathered around a great prophet to hear his instruction and to share his work.” On occasion, one of these “sons” could even be elevated to the status of prophet himself. Witness the call of Elisha (Elijah's servant) to take Elijah's place. Elisha asked Elijah for that honor, and Elisha basically left the question up to God to show Elisha a sign that his wish was granted. (II Kings 2:9-15)

We hear nothing more concerning the “sons of prophets” until the 8^th Century when Amos comes on the scene. By this point of time there was apparently a distinction between official prophets who served more or less as yes-men to the rulers and those who were unofficial prophets called directly by God. (Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets, p. 589) The first class of prophets may have arisen from schools where techniques of divination were taught. (The International Bible Commentary, p. 911; Amos, The Anchor Bible, p. 778)  Amos (see 7:14) indignantly states that he is neither a (official) prophet or the son of a prophet (member of the prophetic guild where one is taught how to prophesy as means of earning a living).

Similar groups of “schooled” prophets are apparently still present in Zechariah's time (ca. 510 BC). In Zechariah 13, he castigates these so-called prophets and their unclean spirits for their lies in the name of the LORD. They will be forced to admit that they are not really prophets at all but are only tillers of the soil. This is an interesting contrast to Amos, who really was a prophet of God but similarly protested that he was only a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees.