Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the meaning and significance of prophecy in the Abrahamic religions. Prophets, those with the ability to convey divinely-inspired revelation, are significant figures in the Hebrew Bible and later became important not just to Judaism but also to Christianity and Islam. Although these three religions share many of the same prophets, their interpretation of the nature of prophecy often differs.
With:
Mona Siddiqui Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh
Justin Meggitt University Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion and the Origins of Christianity at the University of Cambridge
Jonathan Stökl Post-Doctoral Researcher at Leiden University.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:47.0 | Hello the prophets are some of the most important and intriguing figures in the |
| 0:51.6 | Hebrew Bible. |
| 0:52.6 | Usually but not always man, their role was to receive the word of God |
| 0:56.2 | and pass it on to their fellow human beings and interpret it. |
| 0:59.2 | Some offered practical advice to kings, others warned against immoral behavior, and a few offered apocalyptic |
| 1:04.8 | visions of future disaster. |
| 1:07.2 | Prophecy is a central feature of Hebrew scripture and later came to play an important role |
| 1:10.6 | in Christianity and Islam as well. Early Christian writers saw the arrival of |
| 1:14.7 | Christ as the fulfillment of many prophecies in the Old Testament, while for Muslims Mohammed |
| 1:19.4 | was the last and greatest of all the prophets. Although Judaism, Christianity and Islam |
| 1:24.0 | recognized many of the same prophets, these three Abrahamic religions each |
| 1:28.1 | conceived the role, each conceives the role and nature of prophecy in |
| 1:32.1 | slightly different ways. |
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