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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 443. Joel
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Literature
Bewer, J. A., Obadiah and Joel (International Critical Commentary) (1912), 49.
Davidson, A. B., Old Testament Prophecy (1903), 94.
Driver, S. R., Joel and Amos (Cambridge Bible) (1897), 1.
Elmslie, W. G., in Book by Book (1892), 260.
Elmslie, W. G., Expository Lectures and Sermons (1892), 74.
Farrar, F. W., The Minor Prophets, 103.
Findlay, G. G., The Books of the Prophets, i. (1895) 94.
Gaebelein, A. C., The Prophet Joel (1909).
Horton, R. F., The Minor Prophets (Century Bible), 77.
Jordan, W. G., Prophetic Ideas and Ideals (1902), 325.
Kirkpatrick, A. F., The Doctrine of the Prophets (1892), 46.
McFadyen, J. E., Introduction to the Old Testament (1905), 183.
Maurice, F. D., The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament (1852), 180.
Orelli, C. von, Old Testament Prophecy (1885), 204.
Ottley, R. L., Aspects of the Old Testament (1897), 316.
Ottley, R. L., The Hebrew Prophets (1898), 95.
Smith, G. A., The Book of the Twelve Prophets, ii. (1898) 375.
Smith, H. P., The Religion of Israel (1914), 295.
Wade, G. W., Old Testament History (1901), 27, 498.
Woods, F. H., and Powell, F. E., The Hebrew Prophets, iv. (1912) 61.
Expositor, 3rd Ser., vii. (1888) 198 (A. B. Davidson); 4th Ser., viii (1893) 208 (G. B. Gray).
And it shall be in the last days, saith God,
I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh:
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
And your young men shall see visions,
And your old men shall dream dreams.- Act_2:16-17.
It is difficult to trace the process by which it came about, but there can be no doubt that the hopes of later Judaism are of a narrower and more nationalistic cast than those of the Exilic period. In fact, as Professor Pfleiderer remarks, in some respects “the legal religion of the synagogue shows a retrogression from the lofty idealism of the prophets.” The universalist hopes of the later Isaiah fall into the background, and give way before the ambitions of Jewish particularism. The spirit of rigid exclusiveness fostered by the Levitical Law displayed itself in an attitude of hatred and contempt towards the heathen world. Cornill observes that the stage was a necessary one in Israel's development, for the life and death struggle with Hellenism was yet to come. The observance of the Law, which sharply separated Israel from the heathen world, formed a kind of defensive armour, which the polished shafts of paganism could neither break nor penetrate. Judaism was a hard shell under which the kernel of true religion was preserved and transmitted unimpaired. Nevertheless, the effect of this period on prophecy was not altogether happy.
The Book of Joel seems to represent the temper of the new Judaism. Its tone is strongly nationalistic; it regards the heathen as objects only of vengeance, not of grace; it reflects the confidence of the Jew that Israel is a righteous people and the object of a Divine favour which is sufficiently secured by the care bestowed on the Temple cultus. In fact, it has been thought, though the point is necessarily uncertain, that in the Book of Joel we pass from the older type of prophecy to the class of Apocalyptic literature, which has peculiarities and merits of its own, but cannot be fairly judged by the same standard as earlier prophetic writings. While prophecy is the mature fruit of ancient Israel's religion, apocalyptic writings are the characteristic product of Judaism. They bear witness, like the belief in the Bath Qôl, to the consciousness that Jehovah had ceased to speak immediately to His people.