Joel; The Prophet with the Hellenistic Vision

Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Jeremiah those names are infamous in Judaism and Christianity.  Those very names conjure up images of men calling out to crowds proclaiming warnings from God for future sieges that Judah and Israel would face.  Isaiah warns to trust in Yahweh and the Assyrians would not be a threat.  Jeremiah and his warning of the Babylonians invading the kingdom of Judah.  He then calls for repenting and coming back to Yahweh to stop the oncoming slaughter. Second Isaiah and that Prophet, whoever he be, warning the Babylonians that Cyrus the Great of Persia is coming.  Even the prophet Ezekiel and his theological explanation of why the Babylonians were able to conquer Jerusalem his attempt to answer the question; where is Yahweh?

All of these prophets proclaim messages from God that in turn will force the Hebrew people not only to go through hard times; but alter their own understanding of God and theology to explain away the events taking place.  However, there is one event that would have triggered the same response; the Hellenistic invasion of the Fertile Crescent.  Would that not need an explanation?  Where is the reasoning for this?  Where is the new theology that explains the shift change in empirical rule?  All the prophet in the Old Testament have explained away other events, so where is the book for this one?  However, there is another Prophet who foretold of destruction and times of great pearl.  A Prophet that because of the things foretold and the lack of relatable time placers his book is hard to date.  Scholars place this book being written in 9^th century BCE to as late as 100 AD.  That man and the book that bares his name is the prophet Joel, son of Pethuel .

The book of Joel tells of a time in which great famine will plague the land.  A time in which locusts will be so numerous they will black out the sun. (Joel 1:4) A day and time when fire will consume the country side and destroy the fields of harvest causing no food to harvest in the land.  (Joel1:19)   A day and time in which water is no longer in the brooks and the animals have nowhere to drink. (Joel 1:20) A day that will be so devastating that the only reason conceivable for it happening is it is the day of Yahweh.  (Joel 1:15)

With events so troubling and devastating the question has to be asked; what is the day of the Lord as described by Joel?  Is it simply a day of destruction by natural elements and creatures of destruction?  Or is it an apoctoliptic text that describes the future of the world? Or is it as Joel in the first chapter (1:6) hints at and an invasion by an army?  Could Joel be prophesying a vision of the Greeks?  It is here I will begin my analysis of Joel and set out to prove Joel is the prophet with the Hellenistic Vision.  I will set out to demonstrate that we cannot simply play this book of as a simple and mere destruction by natural elements.   I will seek to prove that the book of Joel can be dated and be dated to reflect a time in which Joel and his people will see Alexander and the Greeks invade the home land in this placing Joel in the 4^th Century BCE.  

Why dating is so important!

Whether one labels the prophets in titles of minor and major or former and later, we can all agree in a scholarly sense that the minor or later prophets have, what I have come to call a Theo-Histria understanding.  That is to say given all we know about the history of Judah and the theological implications of invasions, exiles, famine, social issues, ect.  We begin to understand through their messages what the people thought, problems in the kingdom, theological reasoning ect.  It seems to be getting easier to see why dating is so important.  And some texts are easier than other to date. We see those mentioning Kings and great events are easier to date for obvious reasons. 

At the same time Joel is becoming harder to date textually by itself.  There is no mention of Kings by name, or great events that history had recorded.  There are no mention of specific events in which one can look at and say this happened here at this time and place. In fact we know little of what Joel is speaking of, are they simply metaphors, is there a literal famine happing, or is this a warning of a coming invasion. The dating of Joel is to be quintessential for this reason. By dating Joel, which will be no easy task demonstrated by the numerous dates that have been given and no real sense of acceptance for any, we will be able to place the oracles and visions of the prophet Joel to a understanding of the theology that the prophet is conveying for the time in which he was trying to convey it.  And if we do not have any of this about Joel all we have is a book foretelling of prophecy that is in the future; and with this we have a prophet acting outside of how prophets traditionally act in this time.

What is a Prophet?

Everyone in the Ancient world had magicians, physics, spiritual advisers; but only Israel and later Judah had prophets.  It is important to ask what are prophets? What is the role of a prophetic figure; to curse, to heal, to bless, to advise, to make aware, to summon all of this in some form or fashion, or is more than just a message? Moreover, what is a prophetic ministry? Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination takes hold to these questions and help to explain just what a prophet is.   Walter Brueggemann, a Protestant Old Testament scholar and theologian walks the reader through this notion of a “royal consciousness” a phrase he uses to describe the issue of numbness in society. It is this need to understand the numbness or complacency factor in a society that Brueggemann makes a critical issue in his work. He argues in order to understand how a Monarchical figure or the people in a society act, think or even view the current situation they are placed and how prophets come about and delivers their message; one must grab hold to the idea set fourth of royal consciousness and replace it with an alternative one. He goes onto explain the need of an atmosphere in a society conducive to the prophetic figure to come about. Brueggemann goes on to speak about the three societal have to’s for a prophet to exist as well as how the prophetic figure operates in the forces around him/her in order to pierce the royal vial by evoking, nurturing, or nourishing the status quo so that the message sent from a deity can penetrate to the heart of the people and the situation.

Through this notion of piercing and breaking the complacency factor that the prophetic figure has to sever Brueggemann reveals factors such as the following to examine the ministry of an intermediary.

1) Central/peripheral intermediaries are the first genre to be explained.  Central intermediaries are ones close to the central government.  These are the ones whose stories tell of them in direct contact with the leaders. Peripheral prophets are ones outside the normal mode of governing.    However, this classification can depend upon the circumstance.  For example so prophets were central in some instances and peripheral.

2) Bringing about an alternative consciousness is the second duty of most of the prophets of the old.  All the Prophets in the Old Testament are making a point.  Whether that point be a social issue, religious, or spiritual advice the prophet is the one to make those proclamations. 

3)Energizing/criticizing techniques are used in every aspect.  Prophets will either criticize to bring the issues to light or energize.  This is to say the words will be one of encouragement or demise.

The way in which the intermediary does this is relied upon the prophet’s prophetic imagination as is pointed out time and time again in this scholarly examination into the prophets of old and a foreshadowing of today’s complacency. It is through this imagination the prophet takes you out of you zone of comfort that the kingdom has invoked and inserts an alternative consciousness of viewing the current situation at hand.

Brueggemann takes the reader through the Hebrew children coming out of Egypt with Moses and the exodus to the rise of the Solominic period in Israel. He then takes the reader through the fall of the United Kingdom of Israel all the way to the life and ministry of Christ, and how he resembles a prophet in his daily life and messages. After much examination it is clear to see that Joel is a criticizing prophet.  However we do not know if he is central of peripheral prophet.  We do not know because we do not have any themes of advice to kings being given.

The Book Of Joel

                The prophecies of the Book of Joel are divided into two parts.  The contents of the first part can be briefly summarized as the prophet at the beginning calls the attention of the elders and of all the inhabitants of the land to a coming event the like of which has never been seen, a terrible visitation by locusts which will be coincident with a famine, and which will together reduce the entire land to the bitterest misery Joel then urges the people to fast and to pray, and to mourn. In this double examination Joel observes the approach of the "day of the Lord",which is to be escorted in by a terrible affliction.  And the only thing that will help them is to repent.  Repent not to save them as in prophets before had taught, but rather to ensure Yahweh would see them through.  This says that Joel see’s the events as things that cannot be avoided.

In the second part it is first related how the people did actually bring about a gracious change in God's plans by obeying the prophet's injunctions; this is followed by God’s answer to the prayer of the people; then there is the promise of relief from famine through abundant rains and through a marvelous fruitfulness, after which the spirit of prophecy is to be poured out over all flesh, and the day of the Lord will draw near, accompanied by terrifying signs in heaven and earth. These terrors, however, are not for the Jews, who will be rescued in the day of the lord because they called on the Lord, but for their enemies. At the time of the change in the fate of Judah and Jerusalem the Lord will gather all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat there to be destroyed through the fulfillment of the divine judgment of wrath, because they have plundered the treasuries of the Lord and have sold the sons of Judah and of Jerusalem to the sons of the Grecians. God will be a refuge for His people; strangers will no longer pass through Jerusalem; the soil of Judah will become exceedingly fruitful, and a fountain will even water the valley of Shittim, whereas Egypt and Edom will be changed into a wilderness on account of the evil they have done to Judah.

Dating Joel 9^th Century

The book of Joel was originally thought to be written in with some of the early prophet, placing it in the 9^th century.  This was mostly based on its place in the canon.  This view was traditionally held until the time of Karl August Credner. (Wollf, 1977)   Credner held to this practice in some form.  His argument for placing Joel earlier than the twelve prophets was not so much to do with its place in the canon, but moreover it was based upon the content of Joel and the books following in actual time.  Credner argues that Joel came before Amos and the others.  He basis for this assumption is based upon the notion that Amos and the other eleven are basing their prophecy off of Joel’s well known proclamations.  This is to say that Joel came before them and sent a message of future destruction.  A message that Credner suggests is picked up on by prophets such as Amos and Hosea.  But this is to go against what scholars such as Bruggermann suggest about the mission of a prophet.    To say the prophet is speaking of an event to happen a century before it does is not the work of a prophet but rather the work of a psychic.  We know based on modern explorations of the texts of the prophets that they in fact do not do this.  Prophets in their original meaning of their words are predicting the near and concise events set to take place within that generation or the next, not ones so far away that the prophet could not be held accountable.  Accountability of the words of the prophet is exactly how the Hebrew people know who is and is not a real prophet. (Deut 18:22).   So not to have that accountability with in the immediate passing of that prophet simply does not make any sense and therefore cannot be what the book of Joel is at all.  I say this because if his book was considered not to be prophecy it would not be in the canon itself, and in order to be a prophet his words must have seen from God and had to have come true.  

The real evidence of Joel places it quiet considerably later than his neighbors in the biblical canon.  According to the generally accepted opinion, Joel wrote in the beginning of the reign of King Joash (836-797 B.C.), and was therefore the oldest prophet to leave a book of prophecies. This theory of an early date of composition was, above all, strongly supported by the fact that no mention is made of the Assyrians. The beginning of the reign of Joash was urged in view of the failure of the book to refer to or to name the Damascus Syrians, who, according to II Kings xii. Support of this theory stress was laid on the absence of any reference to the king, which would point to the period of the minority of Joash, while the predominance of the priestly influence led to the conclusion that Joash, at the beginning of his reign, was under the influence of the high priest Jehoiada. Another point of agreement in favor of this date was the hostility shown to the Israelites by the nations, mentioned in Joel  4, 19, which was made to refer to the rebellion of the Edomites under King Jehoram of Judah (849-842 B.C.), on which occasion the Arabs and the Philistines plundered Jerusalem.

 König places the composition of the book at a much later date, but still in the pre-exilic period; namely, in the time of King Josiah, or in the period immediately following. His reasons are these: The form of the prophecies is too finished to date from the beginning of the prophetic style of writing; indeed, the linguistic character is that of about the seventh century B.C. Moreover, the contents reflect the time of Josiah, because it was then that the great famine occurred which Jeremiah describes in a similar way to Joel. Finally, the mention of the Egyptians points to the last years of Josiah (or else those immediately following), referring to Josiah's campaign against the Egyptians. The fact that neither the Assyrians nor the Babylonians are alluded to militates against König's dating, since all the other pre-exilic prophets, from Amos to Jeremiah, recognize God's judgment, which is to fall on His people precisely in the extension of the Assyrian and, later, of the Babylonian empire.

                Taking this view I will begin to layout the argument for a 4^th century dating of Joel.  It is traditional view, along with many older Old testament scholars view, that Joel is the predecessor to most if not all the prophets; especially the ones known as the twelve.  The number one issue here is that Joel sees the event known as the exile under the rule of Nebuchadnezzer II as a past event rather than one of the future (Joel 4:1-3).  This event is one of great sorrow in the history of Judah.  With this the Babylonians do not even get mentioned as future aggressors.  All of this thus eliminating the placement of Joel anywhere before 539 BCE, the year in which Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon.  This distancing of Joel form the exile is also seen in passages where Joel refers to a temple.  This language of Temple is hold to the idea that the temple has been rebuilt.  

                To take us to a time closer to the 4^th century we look at the mention of Jerusalem’s walls.  The prophet refers to looking at the walls of Jerusalem which had been breached and destroyed by the Babylonians in there siege on Judah.  They were not rebuilt until 445 BCE under the direction of Nehemiah.  (Wolff, 1977) We know from the prophet asking us to look literally on the walls that they had been rebuilt thus placing Joel no earlier than 445BCE.  Up until this point we have evidence supporting a date for Joel somewhere in between 445 and 343 BCE.  However this still puts Joel, at best, eleven years before the invasion of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE.  This date also helps to explain why there is no mention of a King (if 9^th Century was correct) there was no King to speak of.  How do we make up for this time textually to place Joel as the Hellenistic prophet?

                Up until here we have a span of about 100 years.  However the mention in Joel of a well-organized priest hood, the walls, and the order of government and how set up everything is along with the traditions in which Ezra set up are in full swing; Joel seems to be closer to the second half of the time frame putting it somewhere in about the first half of the 4^th century.

 Again how do we make the correlation that Joel is the Prophet with the Hellenistic vision?  For this we will look to the overall message of the text.  In Joel we see great destruction being had.  Fields are burning, crops are destroyed, waters are dammed up, and a mighty people have come upon the land.  Now it goes without saying I and others are putting great emphasis on the literal words of Joel.  That is to say that we hold great stock in what he is stating and hold that to be mostly literal.  When we look at all this devastation and the fact that most of the horrific events of the Babylonians are over with and Persia is no here on the scene; it begs the question who is the immediate destructor of the land?  Babylonia has fallen, Persia’s take over is for the most part uneventful and Rome will come in as an ally and never leave; why all the warnings of destruction?  The Greeks! However to understand why these things were common practice in the time of Alexander the Great during his campaign in Persia we have it understand the war itself.

The series of conflicts between the ancient Greeks and the Persian Empire, the Greco-Persian wars, began in about 499 B.C. and lasted until 448 B.C. These times were marked by Persian incursions into the Greek mainland which were met with varied levels of resistance. Persian tyrants ruled over Greek regions during the 6th century B.C. provoking revolts by the subjugated Greek cities. In 499 B.C. the Ionians rose up against the Persians in a war that lasted till 493 B.C. The Persian invasion was finally defeated at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. The Persians, intent on expanding their empire invaded again in 486 B.C. 

The years of Persian dominance did not diminish until the Hellespont was crossed by Alexander the Great of Macedon's army of Macedonians, Greeks, Thracians, Paionians, and Illyrians. About 40,000 soldiers fought and were victorious against Persian forces at the Battle of Granicus, leading to Alexander's acceptance of the surrender of the Persian provincial capital Sardis. Alexander I successfully waged the first of many sieges, eventually forcing his opponents, the mercenary captain Memnon of Rhodes and the Persian satrap of Caria, Orontobates, to withdraw by sea at Halicarnassus. Alexander would eventually route the Persians and with the death of their ruler, Darius, declare the war of vengeance over and release his Greek and other allies from service in the league campaign. He allowed those who wished to, to re-enlist as mercenaries in his imperial army. 

The Peloponnesian War was between Athens and other states of the Peloponnesian Confederacy (Sparta, Thebes, Corinth and others) between the years 431 and 403 B.C. Athens as a strong maritime city was poised against the forces of the agricultural mainland cities. After decades of war, Athens finally capitulated to Sparta and its allies and lost its empire. 

By the time of Alexander the Great's rule in 336 B.C. Macedonia, thanks to the efforts of his father, was the supreme Greek power with dominance over the other Greek city-states. After his father's death, Alexander had to secure his hold over the region, as his youth made him vulnerable to dissent by the Greek city-states. Nonetheless, he successfully stopped revolts in the larger cities of Athens and Thebes and was able to consolidate enough power to eventually expand his empire into Persia. In 334 B.C., Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont into Persia with 35,000 Macedonians and 7,600 Greeks and began what would be a tremendous expansion of his empire. By 331 B.C. the Persian Empire was defeated, Alexander the Great having conquered lands as far as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and driven the Persian King Darius to his ultimate demise.

Alexander the great and his great campaign to take over the known world would have been the last big time for Judah to suffer.  We know from Greek accounts of the raids that all the items in Joel mentioned such as;

Fire burning the grass lands

A multitude of forces so great the black out the sun

Water being damned up

Crops destroyed

Teeth (or weapons) like lion’s teeth

All these things are to be the everyday occurrences of the Greeks when they invade.  The Greeks under Alexander were known to cut off the water supplies by damning up the rivers upstream from the land they had acquired.  They were known to burn the grasslands and destroy and take the harvest of the conquered.  The weapons in which they used were known to the time of their great raid.  The numbers of the Macedonians were great and were described by other conquered peoples as so numerous they blacked out the sun when the crossed over tall hills and great mountains. 

                With all these textual examples it becomes too clear that Joel only had one thing meant for his words; for them to be a warning of the Greeks and the destruction that would come to the land.  The words in Joel are to be heard as ones trying to prepare a people for an event so catastrophic that repenting and believing Yahweh would see you through is the only way to get through it.  In Joel’s eyes nothing could save them from this day, however, understanding that this will happen and that Yahweh will still be there sets to stage a theological statement that had never been conceived by the Hebrews.  For before this time when they (the Hebrew people) lost so did Yahweh.  Joel and his radical message help to preserve a culture, a theology, and a faith in Yahweh that will never be broken.  Joel was the last Hebrew prophet to predict the invasion of a foreign army.  He is the Prophet with the Hellenistic vision.