Echoes of the Divine: The Historical, Literary, and Theological Dimensions of Prophetism

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Theologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2025 | Viewed by 369

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Theology, Pontifical University of Comillas, 28015 Madrid, Spain
Interests: biblical prophecy and ancient Middle East; consolation and suffering in Scripture and Mesopotamia; biblical hermeneutics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Prophetism, as a religious phenomenon, has operated for millennia as a powerful link between the divine and the human, functioning almost like an umbilical cord that nurtures and guides the experience of faith. It is not merely about glimpsing the future, but also about interpreting the present in the light of a hermeneutics aimed at the transcendent—an endeavor that has required men and women of exceptional sensitivity, capable of deciphering tangible signs while at the same time perceiving that distant murmur seemingly emanating from the sacred. This capacity to look beyond the immediate horizon reveals the complexity of prophetism as a centuries-spanning phenomenon rooted in humanity’s desire to understand its place in the universe and the ultimate meaning of history.

The diversity of prophetic expressions across different cultures, especially in the ancient Near East, reflects a broad cultural and historical spectrum in which each people adopted and reformulated its own modes of divine mediation. Israel, heir to the region’s rich spiritual legacy, imprinted its own distinctive mark on both the figure of the prophet and its literary corpus, eventually shaping a tradition with well-defined and unique characteristics. This distinctive stamp not only played a decisive role in the formation of biblical thought and canon, but also influenced the subsequent New Testament tradition and numerous extrabiblical religious movements that engaged with these texts, thereby broadening the horizon of prophecy to encompass new interpretations and contexts.

Accordingly, this Special Issue invites specialists from diverse fields such as biblical exegesis, the history of religions, and Semitic philology to present research that enriches our understanding of biblical prophecy in its historical, literary, and theological dimensions. This proposal includes examinations of the origins of prophecy in Israel, its interactions with neighboring cultures, and its modes of reception during the Second Temple period, as well as its resonances in Judaism and early Christianity. Likewise, it encourages an analysis of specific aspects related to particular prophetic figures, passages, or themes, aiming to illuminate the nuances that characterize this phenomenon. Through these studies, we hope to deepen our understanding of one of the most compelling religious expressions in the Bible and its milieu, thereby underscoring the significance of prophetism as a privileged window into the dynamic relationship between humanity and divinity.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

  • Distinctive elements of biblical prophecy;
  • Particular literary genres and rhetorical strategies characteristic of prophetic texts;
  • Exegesis of passages from the biblical prophets’ literary corpus that highlight unique aspects of prophecy;
  • Analysis of terms or themes relevant to understanding the prophetic phenomenon;
  • The historical origins of prophetic activity in ancient Israel and its neighboring cultures;
  • Comparative studies of prophecy across different religious traditions;
  • Reception history and interpretive transformations in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (mgafernandez@comillas.edu) or to the Religions Editorial Office (religions@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Marta García Fernández
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • prophecy and the ancient Near East
  • prophecy as a religious phenomenon
  • prophetic hermeneutics
  • major and minor prophets
  • former or historical prophetic books
  • prophecy and Second Temple extrabiblical literature

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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12 pages, 299 KiB  
Article
Yhwh’s Unique Speaker: Jeremiah
by Georg Fischer
Religions 2025, 16(7), 897; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070897 - 13 Jul 2025
Viewed by 214
Abstract
In Jer 15:19, Yhwh calls the prophet Jeremiah “my mouth”. This unique designation highlights his importance and finds support in several other features: Jeremiah is portrayed as the promised successor to Moses (Jer 1:7, 9), opposes all other contemporary prophets (e.g., Jer 20; [...] Read more.
In Jer 15:19, Yhwh calls the prophet Jeremiah “my mouth”. This unique designation highlights his importance and finds support in several other features: Jeremiah is portrayed as the promised successor to Moses (Jer 1:7, 9), opposes all other contemporary prophets (e.g., Jer 20; 23; 26–29), and has many additional roles and activities. Furthermore, he shares traits with Yhwh’s servant from Isa 49 and 53. His ‘biography’ is extraordinary and is shown at length, unusual for the Latter Prophets, ranging from before his birth (Jer 1:5) to his disappearance in Egypt (Jer 43–44). His ‘confessions’ in Jer 11–20 testify to immense suffering and have become models for personal prayer. Like the prophet, his scroll is unique, too. No other biblical writing deals so extensively with trauma, exemplified at the downfall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, its roots, and its impact. This even leads to an uncommon structure of the scroll, ending with disaster in Jer 52, whereas all other scrolls of prophets contain hope as conclusions. Jer stands out with the analysis of guilt as cause for the catastrophe, yet it conveys also consolation, especially in Jer 29–33. In these chapters, elements for a renewed society emerge, corresponding to the name of the prophet, which signifies “Yhwh will raise up”. The real source for this change lies in the way Jer conceives the biblical God. No other writing in the Bible tells about his weeping, as a sign of helplessness vis-à-vis the continuing resistance of his people. Many prayers in the scroll, including the confessions, focus on the importance of an intimate, personal relationship with him, going beyond traditional piety in several aspects; Moshe Weinfeld has called them “spiritual metamorphosis”. The singularity of Jer applies also to its literary features. Its mixtures of poetry and prose, of divine and human speaking, of narratives about the prophet in first and third person are a challenge for every reader, as well as the ‘unordered’ chronology and retarded information. Jer excels in the use of other scrolls; the degree of intertextuality and the way of combining motifs from ‘foreign’ sources in a synthetic way are outstanding. To grasp fully its message requires familiarity with more than half of what later became the Hebrew Bible. Full article
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