Israelite Prophets Date Chart

Dennis Bratcher

The United Monarchy

Dates (BC) Prophets of United Israel
1020-1000 Samuel

975-960 Nathan

The Divided Kingdoms

Israel Judah
Dates (BC) Dates (BC)
(Northern) (Southern)
870-850 Elijah

850-800 Elisha

750-745 Amos [Jonah] [740-730]

750-745 Hosea

Isaiah of
742-700
Jerusalem

Micah 722-701

Zephaniah 628-622

Jeremiah 626-586

Nahum 612

Habakkuk 605

Ezekiel 593-573

Obadiah c. 586/5

Isaiah 40-55 540

Haggai 520-515

Zechariah 520-515

Isaiah 56-66 515-500

Joel 500-350?

Malachi 500-450

Jonah 450-400
 This chart includes only the major prophetic figures of the Old Testament
period. The period following 750 BC, beginning with Hosea and Amos, is
often referred to as the classical period of prophecy and those prophets
as writing prophets. Both names are somewhat inaccurate. There is not
nearly as radical a break between prophets before the beginning of the
"classical" period and those after as the name might imply. Also, not all of
the prophets were necessarily writers. In some cases the books are a
combination of the prophet's words along with later stories about the
prophet as well as much later application of the prophetic message to new
historical contexts. Amos is a good example of such a composite book. On
the other hand, some prophetic books, such as Ezekiel, are relatively
coherent indicating a great deal of unity of composition. Yet in other cases,
such as the Book of Jonah, the prophet whose name appears as the title of a
book had little to do with the authorship of the book, since it is a
writing about the prophet, his life, and message.

The dates reflect the active ministry of the prophets as determined from
datable portions of the biblical accounts. Except for the Isaiah traditions,
there is no attempt here to sort out the different time periods that are
reflected in the prophetic books themselves (see The Unity and
Authorship of Isaiah). For example, it is clear that the collection of
sermons and stories from Amos underwent editing (redaction) in the
Southern Kingdom after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, some 150
years after the ministry of Amos in the Northern Kingdom (Amos 9:11-15).

This simply reminds us that there is a difference between the immediate

historical context of prophetic figures of the Old Testament and the historical
context of the books that bear their name. The books are the products of
the community of faith sometimes over many centuries as they collected,
reflected upon, and used the messages brought by the prophets themselves
(for a graphic of the different time frames of biblical material, see The
Three Triads of Biblical Interpretation and the accompanying
article,Guidelines for Interpreting Biblical Narrative). The books often
bear clear evidence of this dynamic use of the prophetic traditions over a
period of time, which also speaks of the ongoing vitality of the writings as
God's living word to the people.
Daniel is not included here because the book is not normally considered a
prophetic book, but rather part of The Writings, the reflective and
devotional literature of Israel. There is little historical evidence to date the
book of Joel, and it could fall anywhere between 500 BC to as late as 300
BC. The historical setting of Jonah is the Assyrian era of the 8th century
BC, but many scholars place the actual writing of the book in the middle fifth
century BC, shortly after Nehemiah's reforms. This suggests that the book
uses much older traditions from the Assyrian era as a means to address a
different set of problems in the post-exilic community.