Slides from day 1 of my teaching on media at Bible & Culture 2015 (www.bibleandculture.org). This session considers the importance of stories for human beings and outlines seven major themes in the stories we tell, which resonate powerfully with the grand story of the Bible.

1. THE
PROPHETS

2. ?
How do you feel about the Old Testament
prophets?
What do you like about them?
What puts you off?

3. They have a queer way of
talking, like people who,
instead of proceeding in
an orderly manner,
ramble off from one thing
to the next so that you
cannot make heads or
tails of them or see what
they are getting at.
Martin Luther

4. ?
What aspects of the Old Testament prophets
makes them difficult to understand?

5. barriers to
understanding
Language Geography
HistoryCulture
Religion

6. History
47%
Prophets
27%
Wisdom
26%

7. ?
Why do we have these books? What is their
special contribution to the Bible?

8. ‘‘We also have the prophetic message as
something completely reliable, and you
will do well to pay attention to it, as to
a light shining in a dark place, until the
day dawns and the morning star rises
in your hearts. . . .

9. ‘‘Above all, you must understand that
no prophecy of Scripture came about
by the prophet’s own interpretation of
things. For prophecy never had its
origin in the human will, but prophets,
though human, spoke from God as
they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit.
2 Peter 1:19–21

10. ‘‘Whether he is discussing the past,
present or future, the prophet is
seeking to make God the most
genuine reality that men can know and
experience.
A.B. Mickelson
‘Interpreting the Bible’, p. 287

11. the
prophets’
focus
God
extreme
grace & wrath
Humanity
extreme
disobedience
Calamity
apparently
unlimited
judgement
Prosperity
unlimited
peace and joy

12. foretelling

13. forthtelling

14. ‘‘
Prophecy is essentially a ministry of
disclosure, a stripping bare. Israel’s great
prophets do not merely lift the veil of
the future in order to destroy false
expect-ations; at the same time, they
expose the conduct of their
contemporaries. . . . Prophets tear the
masks away and show the true face of
the people behind them.
Hans Walter Wolff,‘Confrontations’

15. The Word
of YHWH

16. Calling people
back to the
covenant
Covenant
enforcement
mediators
(Fee and Stuart)
© Sputnik

17. Warning of
judgment
© Bitzcelt, used under a Creative Commons licence

18. Promising
restoration
© Sputnik

19. Identifying Israel’s
sin
Announcing
judgment
Declaring God’s
love for Israel
Announcing
blessing

20. ‘‘The ‘prophet in scripture takes on the
role of gracious mediator. He stands
between God and the people to
deliver the word of the Lord. . . .The
person of the prophet substitutes for
the presence of Almighty God himself.’
O.P. Robertson,
‘The Christ of the Prophets’, p. 10

21. Fulfilment
New
Testament
Promise
Old
Testament

22. DANIEL

23. WritingsKetuvim
ProphetsNevi’imProphetsHistory
Wisdom
History
LawPentateuch InstructionTorah
History
ProphetsProphets
Wisdom
OldTestament Tanak
Prophets

24. TorahLaw
KetuvimWritings
Former Prophets
Tanak
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy
Joshua, Judges, Samuel,
Kings
Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth,
Song of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes, Lamentations,
Esther, Daniel, Ezra–
Nehemiah, Chronicles
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Book of the TwelveLatter Prophets

25. Dating Daniel

26. book implies
6th century BC origin

27. ‘‘On the whole, the Qumran discoveries
provide powerful evidence of the
antiquity of the textual tradition of the
[Masoretic Text].
J.J. Collins

28. Understanding Daniel

29. danger of moralism

30. ‘‘It is dangerous to read the Old
Testament in the light of the New
before first reading the Old Testament
in its original context. But it is equally
incorrect for a Christian to neglect to
read the Old in the fuller light of the
New Testament.
Tremper Longman III
NIV Application Commentary: Daniel

31. Context
Genre
Structure
Content

32. Context

33. Warnings from Moses
e.g. Leviticus 26:27-39

34. Warnings from the
prophets
e.g. Isaiah 3:1–9; 39:1–8

35. 931 BC Israel
Israel
Judah

36. Assyria

37. Shalmaneser III

38. Assyrian Empire
around 823 BC

39. Black Obelisk of
Shalmaneser
© British Museum. Used by permission

40. Tiglath-pileser III ((743–726)
© Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, used under a Creative Commons licence

41. ShalmaneserV
(726–722)

42. 722 BC
Judah

43. Sargon II
(721–705)

44. © British Museum. Used by permission
Sennacherib
(704–681)

45. Assyrian Empire
around 700 BC

46. Esarhaddon
(680–669)
©

51. © British Museum. Used by permission

52. Assurbanipal
(668–627)
© British Museum. Used by permission

53. © Wayne Robinson, used under a Creative Commons licence

55. Assyrian Empire
around 640 BC

56. Babylon

57. Nebuchadnezzar II (634-562 )
© British Museum. Used by permission

58. Babylonian Empire
around 600 BC

59. 612 BC Nineveh falls to Babylon
610 BC Babylonians take Haran
609 BC Josiah killed; Egyptians install
Jehoiakim as king
605 BC Baylonians triumph at Carchemish;
Judah under Babylonian control
601 BC Jehoiakim rebelled
597 BC King Jehoiachin exiled; Mattaniah
made king (as Zedekiah)
586 BC Fall of Jerusalem; Zedekiah exiled

60. Babylonian Chronicle
This segment covers
605-594 BC
• Battle of Carcemish
• Accession of
Nebuchadnezzar
• Appointment of
Zedekiah
• Judean exile
© British Museum. Used by permission

61. © Antonio TwizShiz Edward, used under a Creative Commons licence

62. Babylon

63. Babylon
© Antonio TwizShiz Edward, used under a Creative Commons licence

64. Babylon
© Antonio TwizShiz Edward, used under a Creative Commons licence

65. © Khalil Karim, used under a Creative Commons licence

66. Ishtar Gate

67. ‘‘Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord ’s
hand; she made the whole earth drunk.
Jeremiah 51:7, NIV

68. Exile

69. Displaced people
© UNHCR:ACNUR Américas, used under a Creative Commons licence

70. © IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation: Turkey, used under a Creative Commons licence

71. Cut off from home
© IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation:Turkey, used under a Creative Commons licence

72. ‘‘Exile was not simply displacement
from the land, but it was the
experience of the end of creation, the
exhaustion of salvation history, the
demise of king, temple, city, land and all
those supports which gave structure
and meaning to life.
Walter Breuggemann,
‘Weariness, Exile and Chaos’

73. Surrounded by pagan religion
©

74. ©

75. ©

76. ‘‘[Babylon] covered an area of some
850 hectares, contained, we are told,
1,179 temples of various sizes, and
while its normal population is
estimated at about 100,000, it could
have sheltered a quarter of a million
people, if not more.
Georges Roux
Ancient Iraq 3rd edition (Penguin, 1992)

77. Themes

78. difficulties for
God’s people

79. faithfulness

80. survival

81. God’s sovereignty

82. ‘‘Only God is truly sovereign, and He
will establish His eternal kingdom. . . .
[This theme] provides coherence for
the entire book of Daniel.
Les Bruce

83. values

84. law

85. truth

86. time

87. Genre

88. narratives: chapters 1–6

89. ‘court tales’

90. • The king faces a problem he cannot solve
• The king’s sages fail to resolve it
• The hero is called in and succeeds
• The hero is rewarded

91. redemptive-historical
narrative

92. prophetic visions: chs. 7–12

93. apocalyptic literature

94. ‘‘Even though there is a dramatic
contrast in genre between the two
halves of the book, . . . the overall
message of the book is uniform: In
spite of present appearances, God is in
control.
Tremper Longman III

95. www.tonywatkins.uk