anything to remind us of a connexion with the nébvim in the old sense.
6. With the néb?im of the latter class, as these belong to the time of Elijah and Elisha, we have still to occupy our attention here. Their affinity with the nébvim of the time of Saul consists, above all, in the circumstance that, like the latter, they make their appearance in whole groups— nay, in guilds. This is implied by the very de- signation so frequently applied to them — béné han-nébv?im (lit. ‘sons of the prophets’). This does not mean ‘ pupils or disciples of the prophets,’ but ‘those who belong to the prophetic order’ * (or, at times, evidently to prophetic guilds; so, é.g., in 2 K 23. 5.7.15 41. 38 61), and in so far they are the same as the simple nébi’im (1 K 18% 20% 298-13. 22f-)) An individual is called nab? (1K 2018. 22.88) or ‘one of the béné han-néb?im’ (v.*). The existence of a guild is pointed to also in 20%. This passage can be understood to mean only that the prophet there spoken of put the covering above his eyes to conceal a tattooing or some other char- acteristic mark + by which the nébi’ém in general were recognized as belonging to the service of Jahweh.
There are a number of passages which indicate that groups of these néb?’tm lived together: so at Bethel (2 K 2%) and at Jericho (v.°; 4°8 ‘in Gilgal’). Such a settlement is pointed to plainly by the story about an enlargement of a building (61*). That Elisha lived with them is nowhere said ; even 4° implies no more than that once, when on a visit to Gilgal, he set about providing a meal for them. But it is very noteworthy that we twice (4°° and 61) meet with an expression which supplies us with unexpected information regarding the nature of these guilds: ‘they sit before Elisha.’ This means not simply that they group themselves around him or rejoice in his company, but that (after the manner of the NT expression ‘to sit at the feet of some one’) they sit before him as disciples before the master or pupils before the teacher. It is true that even here the current term ‘schools of the prophets’ is justified only to a very limited extent. For, in the first place, accord- ing to 4! there are amongst the béné han-néb?im even married men; and, secondly, they already exercise to a large extent (see below) a public activity. Nor do we read anywhere of any found- ing of these ‘schools’ by Elijah or Elisha. Still it appears to admit of no doubt that in 4*8 and 6! we have to do with occasional instruction of the members by Elisha, or with didactic conversations with them; nay, even the idea of their occupying themselves with religious literature is not a far- fetched one, although there is no direct allusion toit. That the relation between them and Elisha was that of disciples to a master, is favoured by the affection and reverence so evidently shown by the néb?’ém in addressing him as ‘man of God.’
It might appear from the majority of the Elisha- narratives as if the néb@?im, with him at their head, led a life wholly retired and devoted to the worship of Jahweh; but there are other passages which testify to a public activity, and that—in harmony with the main postulate of genuine prophetism—at the impulse of the spirit of Jahweh. In 1 K 20% one of the béné han-néb?im asks his companion, by the direction of Jahweh, to wound him ; and, when he refuses, he tells him that for disobedience to the command of Jahweh he shall be torn by a lion. His message to Ahab, again, he announces as a word from Jahweh (v.*), and so already in vy.!-*8 [where this prophet is even called a ‘man of God’). And in 22° the spirit
* Cf. above, p. 643, regarding an analogous expression, béné ha-élohim.
+ So Kraetzschmar, Prophet wnd Seher im alten Israel, p. 9.
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of Jahweh is expressly spoken of in connexion with the néb?im. The same Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, who in 1 K 22" supports his promise to Ahab by the symbol of iron horns, asks (v.™) Micaiah in anger: ‘In what way is the spirit of Jahweh passed from me to speak with thee?’ He cannot believe that he has now become the victim of a lying spirit when he knew himself formerly to be inspired by the true spirit of Jahweh. So also in 2 K 2*> the question of the béné han-nébvim to Elisha is to be understood as meaning that they too have had it revealed to them by the spirit that the translation of Elijah is impending.
Like the true Jahweh prophets, these neb?im sometimes answer inquiries (1 K 22°"); at other times, acting on their own initiative, they pro- claim the word of Jahweh in the public interest (20158 28. 398.) Jn this connexion we are struck with their great numbers. ‘Obadiah rescues 100 of them from the fury of Jezebel; some 400 are assembled by Ahab (22%); more than 50 live to- gether at Gilgal (2 K 27-46), These numbers are surely evidence of the intensity of the excitement and the zeal for the God of Israel when His worship appeared to be endangered by Baai (to whom, in 1 K 18, so many as 450 néb7'im are attributed).