Friday, December 30, 2011

Keeping the Prophets Straight

I have a difficult time keeping the prophets and their respective kings straight.  Perhaps I'm more concerned about this than I need to be, but I do like to know where people "fit" into the big picture.  I notice that many of us do this in our daily lives -- we meet someone new and try to figure them out by learning where they went to school, where they live, who they know, etc.  I suppose my concern and curiosity with regards to the prophets and their overall "place" is somewhat similar.  In any event, I've done a bit of investigating and appended an earlier chart of the kings of Judah and Israel with an extra column containing the associated prophet(s).  The ones with names in italics are those who don't have a separate book in the Old Testament.  And note that among the web-based resources I got this information from there is a lot of discrepancies.  In particular, Obadiah for some researchers is much earlier in the timeline, around the time of King Ahab.  A greater number of resources placed him towards the end of this timeline and so I've placed him there.  Here's the updated chart:

Israel


Reign (estimate)
Leader
Prophet(s)
1050-1010
Saul
Samuel
1010-970
David
Samuel, Nathan
970-930
Solomon

Kingdom divided into Israel and Judah
Israel

Judah
Reign (estimate)
Leader
Prophet(s)
Reign (estimate)
Leader
931–910
Jeroboam
Ahijah
931–914
Rehoboam

914–912
Abijah
910-909
Nadab

911–871
Asa
909–886
Baasah
Jehu
886-885
Elah

885
Zimri

885–874
Omri
Micaiah
871–848
Jehoshaphat
874–853
Ahab
Elijah
853–852
Ahaziah
Elisha
852–841
Jehoram

848–841
Jehoram
841–814(3)
Jehu

841


Ahaziah



841–835
Athaliah (queen)
814(3)–797
Jehoahaz

835–796
Joash
797–782
Jehoash
Joel, Jonah
796–767
Amaziah
782–747
Jeroboam II
Amos, Isaiah
767–739
Uzziah
747
Zechariah

747
Shallum

747–742
Menahem
Micah
739–734
Jotham
742–740
Pekahiah

740–731
Pekah

734–728
Ahaz
731–722
Hoshea

Fall of Samaria
to the Assyrians (722)




728–699
Hezekiah



699–643
Manasseh


Nahum
642–640
Amon


Zephaniah
640–609
Josiah



609
Jehoahaz


Habakkuk
609–598
Jehoiakim



598–597
Jehoiachin


Ezekial, Daniel, Obadiah, Malachi
597–587
Zedekiah

Fall of Jerusalem
to the Babylonians (587)


If you'd like to do some of your own investigating, here's a list of a few web-based sources:


Again, I cannot and will not vouch for the entire content of these sites, but they (and many others!) do provide information that can be interesting/helpful/challenging as we read and study our Bibles.

No comments:

Post a Comment