Fortress Introduction to the Prophets

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2006 by Heskett, Randall

Fortress Introduction to the Prophets. By Rodney R. Hutton. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2004. 115 pp. $16.00 (paper).

Rodney R. Hutton provides a concise introduction, which offers insights into the nature of Israelite prophecy. He suggests that prophecy is not fundamentally about the future but about past and present as well. He calls attention to the "fundamentalists" who co-opt bits and pieces of biblical prophecy as evidence for current events in the twenty-first century. He also treats the socio-scientific dimensions of prophecy.

In his writing about various biblical books, Hutton deals explicitly with culture, context, formation, and historical setting. He makes a helpful differentiation between Amos, Hosea, and Micah (pp. 11-28,45-52). He also offers a useful and concise comparison of Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habakkuk (pp. 53-60). Hutton especially treats the Assyrian period and its relationship to pre-exilic prophets. In this very short book, Hutton provides two chapters of reflection on Isaiah (pp. 29-44) and a lengthy five-chapter review of Jeremiah that focuses on its exilic levels of tradition history and its relationship to Josiah's reform with special attention given to Deuteronomistic editing (pp. 61-109). He provides an excellent description of the historical backgrounds for these biblical books while also describing "inner-canonical interpretation" among biblical books.

In response to older-modern theories that prophecy predated Torah, Hutton tries to describe the prophets relationship to Torah as a concept that was very critical to Judaism. He laments that in the modern era, we have lost understanding of how the prophets were "guardians of Torah" (p. 7), and we "have cut the prophets loose from their tether to Torah." I applaud him for this. Nevertheless, Hutton totally misses the later Scripture-conscious editing, for example in Isa. 1:10 and 8:19-20, where the later redactors have reinterpreted the prophet s "teaching" to be heard in the post-exilic era as testimony to Torah. In the same manner, Hutton overlooks how Malachi concludes the book of the twelve, admonishing the reader in YHWH's voice to "Remember the Torah of my servant Moses" (Mal. 3:22 [MT]; 4:4 [NRSV]). He also fails to see how later, post-exilic editors could have reinterpreted non-messianic oracles as messianic promise after the monarchy had ceased to exist and how the promises to David in 2 Samuel 7 took on eschatological meaning at the same time Scripture-conscious editing called attention to Torah.

In his efforts to describe "inner-canon interpretation," Hutton does not treat the passages that various biblical books share in common. For example, Isaiah shares texts with Micah (Isa. 2:1-5; Mic. 4:1-5) and Kings (Isa. 36-39; 2 Kings 18-20), and Jeremiah shares almost duplicate material with Kings (Jer. 52; 2 Kings 24:18-25:30). This certainly has great bearing on "inner-canon interpretation." In many respects, Hutton claims to do what Childs and Sheppard have already done. Nevertheless, he not only falls short of this task but also fails to include them in his bibliography.

In sum, this book is insightful, well written, and has provided some good descriptions of various prophetic books. This work seems not to achieve what it attempts to do with regard to showing how Torah and prophets relate explicitly. What it does best is to lay out the similarities and differences among various prophets.

RANDALL HESKETT

Trinity College, University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario