Conclusion

The northern author appeared at a crucial turning point in the world of Hebrew Biblical prophecy. The ancient prophecy that had flourished under the influence of miracle workers such as Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, and in which group prophecy and ecstasy were common, began to decline. It was pushed aside by the classic written prophecy starting around the middle of the eighth century BCE. This type of prophecy was centered around a single prophet who was not necessarily surrounded by a group of followers and students.. The appearance of the literary prophets was, as mentioned, part of the transition from an entirely oral culture to a culture in which writing was beginning to take a central role. The northern author and his works were part of this turning point. However, this author is distinct from the literary prophets in his genre of literature. The literary prophets expressed themselves in poetic style. The northern author abandoned poetics and took up a prose. As mentioned, it was the revolutionary northern author who first established the figure of Moses as a legislator who mediated between God and Israel and placed him at the heart of the Hebrew Biblical composition, and Jewish tradition in general. It is he who took the ancient poems and adapted and reedited the separate elements of those poems. In doing so he created, for the first time, a picture of the event at Mt. Horeb or Sinai, an event that begins with a public revelation to the whole nation and continues with the transmission of a book of laws to Moses in a unique and private manner. Placing Moses the Prophet at the center of the story of revelation at Horeb-Sinai changed the character of Hebrew Biblical religion. Before the activity of the northern author, Israelite religion did not rely upon the figure of the prophet-legislator. In the earlier stages of its evolution, as is reflected in poems created before the eighth century BCE, Biblical Hebrew religion was not a “prophetic religion”. The early prophets such as Samuel or Elijah, did not have an established religious role. They worked as preservers and supporters of the Israelite faith at times of crisis but did not have the status of founders of the faith or religion. It is only after the works of the northern author and the other Torah authors who followed in his footsteps, that the new portrait of the Israelite faith and Judaism come into being. It is from there that it grew as a prophetic religion reliant on the figure of Moses and his decisive role as the mediator of Divine revelation to the nation of Israel.