From volume edited by Durand, Römer, and Burki, Comment devient-on prophète?The article shows why the biblical prophetic texts were not confined to royal libraries and why they address a people rather than a palace. It begins by treating how the biblical authors bracketed the monarchy into an epoch of Israel's long national history and sought continuity from their time (after the demise of the kingdom) in the role of prophets and other "non-kings." (It's not clear that Moses is really presented or identified as a prophet.) It then examines the history of Israel's relationship to Judah in order to reveal how biblical authors came to embrace the wider demotic purview that shapes the message of the prophets and biblical writings as a whole. Finally, it survey comparative evidence from the Aegean as well as texts related to prophecy and divination in Mesopotamia in relation to the Gewaltmonopol and Wissensmonopol that centralized states strove to achieve. The differences between prophets and divinesrs ("scholars") helps us understand why the biblical authors use prophets to express their messages.
