Prophetic schools

Prophetic Schools

A number of candidates find the issue of prophetic schools peculiar in the study of Divinity particularly the Old Testament. Hence, the following points are relevant for one to clearly understand this interesting topical issue.

Some scholars argue that Samuel was perhaps a father of a prophetic guild.
When he anointed Saul and told him to go and meet a band of prophets he was in fact referring Saul to the disciples that gathered around him, his "sons". ( 1 Samuel 10:1ff)
Immediately when Saul joined the ecstatic band of prophets the contagious spirit fell on him as one newly called and he too became ecstatic and began to prophesy.
However, a good example of a prophetic guild was the group headed by Elijah with Elijah as the Father and Elisha as the senior "son of the prophet" who eventually succeeded Elijah.
At least we are told that Elijah must have had sons of the prophet around him even though textual evidence points to the fact that they resided in Jericho which was not Elijah's place of residence (2 Kings 2:15ff).
We even are told that the guild was 50 strong perhaps excluding Elisha the senior son of the prophet (2 Kings 2:16).
We also learn that the sons of the prophet had families or at least wives and it seems the prophetic guild or at least the father of the school, was responsible for their welfare (2 Kings 4:1ff).
When Elijah was about to go to heaven he surrendered his cloak and a portion of his spirit to Elisha (even though Elisha demanded a double portion).
We witness here a typical succession process in a prophetic guild (2 kings 2).
The senior "son of the prophet" would have worked very closely to the father of the prophetic guild and would be quite prepared to lead the guild (Cf. 2 Kings 3:11b).
However, with Samuel it is not explicitly stated who were his sons or how many they were.    
With Elijah and Elisha, especially with the latter, the phenomenon became clearly defined and more pronounced. We get explicit details regarding the sons of the prophets and what were their activities.
Right from the onset we are told that Elisha ministered with Gehazi who must have been the senior son of the prophet.
The other sons of the prophet are not known by their names but from what we observe from the textual references above they were quite many numbering up to about fifty or more.
They must have owned land or some property at least (2 Kings 6:1-2). They specialized in performing miracles through the father of the guild and the sons would watch while learning the secrets of performing miracles.
We do not have evidence of sons of the prophet performing miracles while the father of the guild was still in their midst suggesting that this must have been the task of the father of the guild.  
Therefore, there is a sense in which we can say the prophetic guild was quite an organised social group with known numbers, a system of social welfare and maintenance and a clearly identifiable hierarchy.

More points can be added

▪Activity for Learners

Is the phenomenon of prophetic guilds identifiable in the Zimbabwe context? Give examples.

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