For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Pet 1:21 (KJV)
Some time ago an email correspondent wrote to me, “I believe most of the OT was rewritten under inspiration and I don’t see that God only raised up specific prophets to give His word—the Pentateuch was evidently edited in places, those redactions are still inspired, so those who did them were in that sense prophets”.
Is this view consistent with 2 Pet 1:21? The correspondent, who had read modern Bible scholarship, was aware of the view that OT books are the result of authors and editors, and sometimes, many editorial layers are identified in a book by scholars. Would such hypothetical editors be “holy men” or is the view of the apostle Peter different to that of the correspondent?
The hand of copyists and/or editors (in addition to that of an original author) can be identified in the OT text at well known points. These are not many, but they are not the basis for the scholarly view which is rather based on a differential analysis of the text of a book.
Some OT books have no authorship superscriptions, and so we can be more flexible and hypothetical in our appraisal of, say, the authorship of Kings and Chronicles. However, the observation in 2 Peter is clearly applied at least to the books that have ascribed authors such as Isaiah or Jeremiah—i.e. The Prophets. In respect of these books, Second Temple writers do not know about the existence of multiple editors. So, is our correspondent right to follow the modern critical approach in hypothesizing about editors for “most of the OT”? S/he allows that the OT books are inspired, but is this the right way to harmonize the doctrine of inspiration with Biblical Criticism?
The challenge that 2 Pet 1:21 lays down is this: if editors existed for the prophetic books and if they had the substantial role that OT scholars give them, why do Second Temple writers know nothing of them? Why does Peter instead regard prophecy as coming from an individual who had the status of a holy man?
Or again, we might cite,
Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Pet 1:10-11 (KJV)
Peter here states his view about prophets in a different way. He recognizes a group of individuals who saw things and wrote them down and then studied and prayed about the things that they had prophesied. They had the Spirit of Christ. He doesn’t have much of a place here for the concept of an editor or a redactor of the prophetic books. Such hypothetical individuals are not said to have the Spirit of Christ.
1st Peter: Some New Testament Allusions