1. The present state of the discussion.
Fifty years ago Bernhard Duhm, in the introduction of his book Israels Propheten, wrote: “Prophecy has its history. It is not a timeless revelation of a supernatural truth. Again, its task is not to ‘prophesy’ events of a distant future in order to allow a simple faith to enjoy the consistent agreement of promise and fulfillment. The prophets are God's messengers. They are charged to proclaim to their contemporaries firstly God's decisions and, furthermore, his demands. Whereas divination in various forms occurs among all nations, the prophets with whom we are dealing here are a distinct Israelite phenomenon.”