Were the Old Testament prophets married?

score:3

Accepted answer

Were the Old Testament Prophets Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel married?

The short answer is yes and no.

As for the Prophet Elijah, the answer is we simply do not know.

The Scriptures do not mention one way or another if the Prophet Elijah was married or not.

The Prophet Isaiah was certainly married.

Isaiah was the 8th-century BCE Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.

Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the prophet", but the exact relationship between the Book of Isaiah and any such historical Isaiah is complicated. The traditional view is that all 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by one man, Isaiah, possibly in two periods between 740 BC and c. 686 BC, separated by approximately 15 years, and includes dramatic prophetic declarations of Cyrus the Great in the Bible, acting to restore the nation of Israel from Babylonian captivity. Another widely held view is that parts of the first half of the book (chapters 1–39) originated with the historical prophet, interspersed with prose commentaries written in the time of King Josiah a hundred years later, and that the remainder of the book dates from immediately before and immediately after the end of the exile in Babylon, almost two centuries after the time of the historical prophet.

The first verse of the Book of Isaiah states that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah (Isaiah 1:1). Uzziah's reign was 52 years in the middle of the 8th century BC, and Isaiah must have begun his ministry a few years before Uzziah's death, probably in the 740s BC. Isaiah lived until the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign (who died 698 BC). He may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus Isaiah may have prophesied for as long as 64 years.

According to some modern interpretations, Isaiah's wife was called "the prophetess" (Isaiah 8:3), either because she was endowed with the prophetic gift, like Deborah (Judges 4:4) and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14–20), or simply because she was the "wife of the prophet". They had three sons, naming the eldest Shear-jashub, meaning "A remnant shall return" (Isaiah 7:3), the next Immanuel, meaning "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14), and the youngest, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, meaning, "Spoil quickly, plunder speedily" (Isaiah 8:3).

The Prophet Jeremiah was forbidden to marry.

Jeremiah Forbidden to Marry

16 The Lord gave me another message. He said, 2 “Do not get married or have children in this place. 3 For this is what the Lord says about the children born here in this city and about their mothers and fathers: 4 They will die from terrible diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like manure. They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals.”

The Prophet Ezekiel was equally married.

What is known of Ezekiel is derived solely from the book that bears his name. He was among the Jews exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 b.c., and there among the exiles he received his call to become a prophet (see 1:1–3). He was married (see 24:15–18), lived in a house of his own (see 3:24; 8:1) and along with his fellow exiles, though confined to Babylonia, had a relatively free existence there.

He was of a priestly family (see NIV text note on 1:3) and therefore was eligible to serve as a priest. As a priest-prophet called to minister to the exiles (separated from the temple of the Lord with its symbolism, sacrifices, priestly ministrations and worship rituals), his message had much to do with the temple (see especially chs. 8–11; 40–48) and its ceremonies.

Ezekiel was obviously a man of broad knowledge, not only of his own national traditions but also of international affairs and history. His acquaintance with general matters of culture, from shipbuilding to literature, is equally amazing. He was gifted with a powerful intellect and was capable of grasping large issues and of dealing with them in grand and compelling images. His style is often detached, but in places it is passionate and earthy (see chs. 16; 23).

More than any other prophet (more even than Hosea and Jeremiah) he was directed to involve himself personally in the divine word by acting it out in prophetic symbolism. - Ezekiel

Upvote:0

Jeremiah was forbidden to marry in Israel. It clearly says not to marry in this place. It has no mention of you cannot marry. It clearly states that he is forbidden to marry in a specific place, which we can clearly assert as Israel. So Jeremiah serving the king of Babylon, and the king of Babylon Acknowledged that he was a prophet that served his political interests, says prophecies that said Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and such. Meaning the king did not hold him captive. After those facts Jeremiah could have been married to a Babylonian woman.

More post

Search Posts

Related post