Prophet Against Prophet: the Role of the Micaiah Narrative (1 Kings 22) in the Development of Early Prophetic Tradition

Throughout the history of the Israelite kingdoms there were prophets who prophesied nothing but favorable consequences for the actions of their political leaders. Opposing them were prophets who drew a distinction between the will of Yahweh for his people and the opportunistic aims of the monarchs. In the Micaiah narratives of I Kings 22 are seen two early stages in the development of this ideological conflict. Simon John De Vries examines thoroughly these early stages in order to find and understand the root causes of the conflict that led finally to national ruin. / Professor De Vries approaches the material with a comprehensive methodology that applies textual criticism, literary and form criticism, and tradition history or redaction criticism. Another distinctive feature of the study is that it categorizes all the prophet legends in the Former Prophets collection according to subgenres, thereby more clearly seeing the place and function of I Kings 22 in its context.