Prophetic and apocalyptic literature

The chapter aims to give a comprehensive view of the current state of research on prophetic and apocalyptic literature in the Hebrew Bible. The first part focuses on the understanding of prophecy as a religious-historical phenomenon that must form the basis for any prophetic research. The second part deals with prophets and their books, starting with the new insights from textual history and ancient text production. The discussion continues to be characterized by a divide between diachronic and synchronic approaches, which, however, has moved away from the question about authorship. Rather, the new dividing line separates the traditional historical-critical perspective from less historical or non-historical literary methodologies. The third part focuses on new approaches such as feminist and gender studies and the discourses on trauma and resilience. The fourth part will briefly introduce the current state of research on apocalyptic literature and the book of Daniel, while the outlook outlines perspectives for future research.