50 Fun Facts About Prophets

What does 'minor' mean in 'Minor Prophets', Augustine's label for Hosea, Nahum and ten other books?

Their length is all 'minor' means: Augustine of Hippo called the twelve shorter prophetic books prophetae minores beside the four long ones. Nahum runs to three chapters; Isaiah runs to sixty-six.

Which prophet's line 'let justice roll down like waters' did Martin Luther King Jr. echo in 'I Have a Dream'?

Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, gave King the line: Amos 5:24 reads 'let justice roll down like waters', and the 1963 speech made it 'until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream'.

Which phrase from Isaiah 2:4 is carved on a granite wall facing the United Nations headquarters in New York?

Swords into plowshares is cut into the Isaiah Wall of Ralph Bunche Park, across First Avenue from the UN, and the line runs on: 'nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more'.

Which animals mauled forty-two youths who jeered at Elisha as 'baldhead' on the road in 2 Kings 2?

Bears, two she-bears from the forest, tore the youths of Bethel after Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord; it is one of the most argued-over passages in the Bible.

What did Nebuchadnezzar eat like an ox during the seven 'times' of madness that Daniel foretold?

Grass 'like an ox' was the king's diet after Daniel read his dream of a felled tree, and Daniel 4 says his reason returned only when he lifted his eyes to heaven and praised the Most High.

What is set out for the prophet Elijah at a Passover seder, where the door is opened for him to enter?

A cup of wine, a fifth beyond the seder's four, stands for Elijah; tradition holds he visits every Jewish home that night as a foretaste of his return to herald the Messiah, so the door is opened for him.

On which Jewish holy day is the whole Book of Jonah read aloud in synagogue as the afternoon haftarah?

Yom Kippur afternoon brings Jonah to synagogue because a whole pagan city repented and was forgiven, the day's own theme; Jonah is also the only one of the twelve minor prophets named in the Quran.

In Surah an-Naml, which bird brings Sulayman news of a southern queen whose court worships the sun?

The hoopoe reports to Sulayman that Bilqis, queen of Saba, and her court bow to the sun; the same surah is named 'The Ant' for the colony whose talk Sulayman could understand.

In Surah Hud, who refuses to board Nuh's ark, vowing to take refuge on a mountain, and drowns?

His son, called Yam in later tradition, drowned with those who denied Nuh's warning, a loss the Quran tells and Genesis, where all three of Noah's sons board, does not.

In Surah Al Imran, Isa shapes a bird from what, then breathes into it so that it lives by God's leave?

Clay is the stuff of the bird Isa fashions in Quran 3:49, one of the miracles the Quran grants Jesus along with speaking from the cradle in his mother's defence.

Which prophet told David his 'house' would be a dynasty, as he would not be the one to build the temple?

Nathan first told David to go ahead, then returned with the oracle of 2 Samuel 7: the king who lived in cedar while the Ark sat in a tent would get a dynasty instead, and Nathan later anointed Solomon with Zadok the priest.

Which prophet names Bethlehem, 'little among the thousands of Judah', as the birthplace of a future ruler?

Micah of Moresheth, a contemporary of Isaiah, wrote the verse Matthew's Gospel quotes when Herod's scribes are asked where the Messiah is to be born.

Which six-winged beings cry 'Holy, holy, holy' around the throne in Isaiah's temple vision?

Seraphim appear as heavenly beings only here in the Hebrew Bible: each has six wings, two covering the face, two the feet, two for flight, and one touches a burning coal to Isaiah's lips to purge his guilt.

Peter's Pentecost sermon quotes which prophet's promise that God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh?

Joel's promise that 'your sons and your daughters shall prophesy' follows his lament over a locust plague and drought; Peter opens with it to explain the disciples' speaking in tongues to the Jerusalem crowd.

Which prophetic book, a single chapter of 21 verses against Edom, is the shortest in the Hebrew Bible?

Obadiah's 440 Hebrew words are a judgment on Edom, Judah's neighbour to the south-east, paired with a promise of Israel's restoration; nothing is known of the prophet beyond his name.

In Nebuchadnezzar's dream statue, which Daniel read as four successive kingdoms, the head was of which metal?

Gold for the head, then silver, bronze and iron: Daniel tells the king 'you are the head of gold', and a stone cut without hands shatters the whole figure.

Which archangel does Daniel 12 call 'the great prince who protects your people', the guardian of Israel?

Michael is named in Daniel 10 too, fighting the 'prince of Persia' beside the angel who speaks to Daniel; Jewish tradition made him the guardian angel of Israel.

John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees who came out to his baptism a 'brood of' what?

Vipers, in Matthew 3:7, are what John sees in the religious elite coming out to the wilderness, and he tells them to 'bear fruit worthy of repentance' rather than trust their ancestry.

Which prophet's image of a king 'lowly, and riding upon a donkey' do the Gospels quote on Palm Sunday?

Zechariah 9:9 is the verse Matthew 21:5 cites as Jesus rides into Jerusalem; the book's later chapters gave the Gospel writers several other images of Jesus's final days.

Which name does the Quran give John the Baptist, the son granted to the aged Zakariya in Surah Maryam?

Yahya ibn Zakariya is John, whom the Quran honours as a prophet given wisdom while still a boy; Surah Maryam tells his birth to aged parents before it turns to Maryam and Isa.

The Hebrew Bible binds the twelve minor prophets, Hosea, Nahum, Haggai and the rest, as how many books?

One scroll, 'The Twelve' (Trei Asar), holds them all and closes the Prophets section, which is one reason a Tanakh counts fewer books than a Protestant Old Testament though the text is the same.

Who is the first person Genesis calls a prophet, when God warns King Abimelech of Gerar in a dream?

Abraham is called a navi in Genesis 20:7, where Abimelech, who has taken Abraham's wife into his household, is told 'he is a prophet, and he will pray for you'; Islam honours him as Khalilullah, the friend of God.

Which epithet of Muhammad, meaning 'the Chosen One', is also a common given name across the Muslim world?

Mustafa, al-Mustafa in Arabic, 'the Chosen' or 'the Appointed', sits among dozens of honorifics; the name Muhammad itself means 'praiseworthy' and appears four times in the Quran.

Toward which port did Jonah sail from Joppa, in the opposite direction from the city he had been sent to?

Tarshish lay the wrong way entirely from Jonah's assignment; the storm, the casting of lots and the great fish followed, and the book never says whether the prophet learned his lesson.

Which prophet does the Quran call Dhul-Nun, 'the one of the fish', in Surah al-Anbiya?

Yunus is Jonah, and the tenth surah of the Quran carries his name; a twin title, 'companion of the fish', returns in 68:48, where Muhammad is urged to patience by his example.

Elijah the Tishbite, who announced a drought to King Ahab, came from which region east of the Jordan?

Gilead, the hill country across the Jordan, is where 1 Kings 17 places Tishbe, and Elijah steps from it into the story with no ancestry or introduction, unlike almost every other prophet.

Isaiah dates his vision of the Lord enthroned in the temple to the death-year of which king of Judah?

Uzziah's death, in the mid-eighth century BCE, dates the call in which Isaiah cries that he is 'a man of unclean lips', then answers 'Whom shall I send?' with 'Here am I. Send me!'

What is the fire commanded to be, in Surah al-Anbiya, when Ibrahim's idol-worshipping people cast him in?

Cool and safe — 'O fire! Be coolness and safety for Ibrahim' — is the command in Quran 21:69, and tradition adds that the flames burned only his chains; Nimrod is named as the king who ordered the burning.

What borrowed tool did Elisha make float on the Jordan after it flew off while the prophets felled trees?

An axe head, iron and borrowed, sank and Elisha threw a stick in where it fell and 'made the iron float', a small domestic miracle set between the great ones of 2 Kings 6.

What happened to a dead man tossed into Elisha's tomb by mourners fleeing Moabite raiders in 2 Kings 13?

He revived and stood up on his feet the moment he touched Elisha's bones, a miracle worked by a prophet already dead, and the last of the many credited to Elisha.

As Isaiah foretold, which Assyrian king's siege of Jerusalem ended with 185,000 of his men dead in a night?

Sennacherib's siege is recorded as aborted on both sides: 2 Kings 19 says the angel of the Lord struck his camp by night, and the king broke off and went home to Assyria.

What branch did Jeremiah see in his first vision, a Hebrew pun on God 'watching' to fulfil his word?

Almond is shaqed in Hebrew and 'watching' is shoqed: the first tree to blossom in the Judean spring became Jeremiah's sign that God was awake to his word, paired with a boiling pot tilting from the north.

Whose death did God forbid Ezekiel to mourn, as a sign to the exiles, in Ezekiel 24?

His wife, 'the delight of your eyes', died the evening after the word came, and Ezekiel was told to keep his turban on and shed no tears, as Jerusalem's temple would fall with no time to grieve.

Which name, meaning 'not my people', did Hosea give his third child as a verdict on Israel?

Lo-Ammi followed a sister, Lo-Ruhamah, 'not pitied', and a brother, Jezreel, named for a massacre; Hosea's children were walking sermons, and the book later reverses both names into 'my people' and 'pitied'.

Which prophetess did King Josiah's officials consult when a book of the law turned up during temple repairs?

Huldah, married to the keeper of the wardrobe, lived in Jerusalem's New Quarter; she authenticated the scroll, foretold disaster for Judah, and promised Josiah he would be buried in peace first.

Thamud sealed their doom in the Quran by hamstringing which animal sent to the prophet Salih as a sign?

A she-camel, to be left to graze and to drink by turns with the tribe, was the Thamud's test; they cut her down, Salih gave them three days, and the city was destroyed.

To which people, 'Companions of the Wood' who cheated in weights and measures, was Shu'ayb sent?

Midian, where Moses also took refuge, is Madyan in the Quran; Shu'ayb told its traders to 'give just measure and weight, do not defraud people of their property'.

Surah 54 opens with which heavenly body split in two, a sign tradition ties to Meccan demands for a miracle?

The moon, split and then rejoined, is the miracle many Muslim commentators read literally in Quran 54:1-2, the surah called al-Qamar; it is one of the few signs tradition credits to Muhammad beyond the Quran itself.

In Surah as-Saff, Jesus foretells a messenger who will come after him bearing which name?

Ahmad, 'more praiseworthy', appears once in the Quran, at 61:6, where Isa tells the Children of Israel of one to come 'whose name shall be Ahmad'; many Muslims read it as the Paraclete promised in John's Gospel.

Which Cushite court official pulled Jeremiah out of a muddy cistern with ropes and old rags during the siege?

Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian in King Zedekiah's service, got thirty men to haul the prophet up before he starved in the mud, and Jeremiah 39 promises him he will survive the fall of the city for it.

Which rival prophet snapped the yoke Jeremiah wore as a sign of Babylon's rule, and died within the year?

Hananiah promised the exiles home within two years and snapped the yoke off Jeremiah's neck; Jeremiah replied that God would replace wood with iron, and that Hananiah would be dead that year, which he was, in the seventh month.

Daniel's vision of the ram and the goat is set by the Ulai canal in Susa, citadel of which province?

Elam, in what is now western Iran, held Susa, later a Persian royal city; Gabriel explains the vision as Media-Persia overrun by Greece, whose 'great horn' is broken at the height of its power.

Which servant of Elisha was struck with leprosy after chasing a cured Syrian commander for silver?

Gehazi lied that his master had sent him for the gifts Elisha had refused, and the commander's leprosy clung to him 'and to your descendants forever'; he reappears later telling the king of Elisha's wonders.

Which prophet in Acts bound his own hands and feet with Paul's belt to act out the apostle's coming arrest?

Agabus had already foretold a famine under Claudius in Acts 11; at Caesarea he took Paul's belt and declared that its owner would be bound in Jerusalem 'and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles'.

Which people were destroyed by a violent wind for rejecting the prophet Hud, whose name titles Surah 11?

'Ad, in the Quran's telling, built Iram 'of the pillars' and were levelled by a storm that left 'nothing visible except their ruins'; a site found in 1991 was hailed, not conclusively, as Iram.

In the 'Hadith of Gabriel', a stranger in white asks Muhammad to define Islam, iman and which third term?

Ihsan, answered as worshipping God 'as if you are seeing Him, for though you don't see Him, He sees you', completes a three-tier picture of religion; Umar narrates that the questioner was Gabriel come to teach.

In 'Bel and the Dragon', which prophet is flown by an angel from Judea to feed Daniel in Babylon?

Habakkuk, carrying stew to the reapers, is told to take it to Daniel instead and protests that he has never seen Babylon, so the angel lifts him there; the tale is a Greek addition to Daniel kept in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.

Which baptising faith of southern Iraq and Iran holds John the Baptist as its greatest and final prophet?

Mandaeism, practised along the Tigris, Euphrates and Karun, ranks John above every prophet since Adam and does not count Moses or Jesus among its prophets at all.

At which shrine, home of the ark, was the boy Samuel lying down under Eli's care when the Lord first called him?

Shiloh, where 'the Lord continued to appear' to Samuel, housed the ark until the Philistines captured it in Eli's old age; the boy ran to Eli three times before the old priest realised who was calling.

Which Quranic prophet, 'raised to a high place' in Surah Maryam, is identified by Islamic tradition with Enoch?

Idris is unanimously matched with the Enoch whom Genesis says 'walked with God' and was taken, and the commentator Ibn Ishaq adds that he was the first man to write with a pen.