Ecstatic prophecy in the Old Testament

Authors

• Gunnel André

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67139

Keywords:

Experience (Religion) -- Christianity, Ecstasy, Altered states of consciousness, Visions in the Bible, Bible, Old Testament, Prophets in the Old Testament

Abstract

When speaking of prophets in our culture, we usually have the Old Testament classical prophets in mind. At the mention of prophetic ecstasy the immediate reaction is often, "That would be Saul and the asses or Elijah and the prophets of Baal". A sharp distinction is often made between the so-called primitive prophets and the classical prophets. Bearing in mind that the Chronicles mention chronicles, prophesies, visions and narratives of various non-classical prophets there is a certain danger that we make a distinction between different prophetic types more sharply than was done in Old Testament times. In this paper ecstasy is treated purely in its own terms.