TO THE ORION PANEL ON PROPHECY Dierk van den Berg's comment is very interesting. Also Barbara Leger's. However, I consider that prophecy, as it appears in the Tanakh diverts a bit from our common understood term.
According to what I have found, prophecy seems more a kind of "decree" from the wise men (prophets of Israel) that those following the Law were to "enforce", rather than a true vision of the future that was actually going to be self fulfiled. When Essenes rejected macabbees and went to Qumram after their expectant return around 160BCE they appear to be "enforcing" Isaiah's "command" in the Community Rule: "They shall be separated from the midst of the gatherings of the men of wrongs to go to the wilderness to prepare there the way of the Lord, as it is written: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a high way for God. This is the study of the Law, as he commanded them through Moses to do all that has been revealed from age to age, and, by his Holy Spirit, as the prophets revealed". Part of these words would be echoed in Christian literature throught John the Baptist two centuries later, which shows a common practice within Jewish. I have found frequent instances of the Jewish people pressing themselves and their context for some prophecy to be fulfiled with a seemingly constant bottom line: "...and they (did this and that) ...so the prophecy may be fulfiled". This seems to me an usual deliberate attempt to make events FIT into the prophecies; a peculiar nature of prophecy within Law radicals (Essenes, Hashidim) in particular, and Jewish in general. I appreciate useful Dierk van den Berg's and Legers' sharp input. Reynaldo Martinez __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 For private reply, e-mail to Reinaldo Martinez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
