The Mantle of Elijah

Book excerpt: This book provides an introduction to current trends in the study of the biblical prophets. It surveys the growing volume of work that has been on the redactional analysis of individual books and represents the first attempt to bring together these different strands of redaction criticism and to evaluate the effect they have had on our appreciation of the prophetical books as a distinct genre. The opening chapter deals with the methodology of redaction criticism as applicable to the prophetical books. The author then looks at the redactional history of each of the individual books in turn. The closing chapters consider the implications this approach has for our appreciation of these books and the aims of the writers who created them. In particular, the author draws attention to the literary nature of the image of The Prophet conveyed in the books about prophets.