The Hebrew prophets
Men with no office denounce kings, priests and the rich in the name of justice.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 260 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
From the eighth century BCE, figures including Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah and later Jeremiah and Ezekiel deliver oracles attacking the ruling order — not for neglecting ritual but for oppressing the poor, and insisting that sacrifice without justice is worthless. The genre is unusual: religious authority claimed against the institutions of religion. Its language shapes later Jewish, Christian and Islamic ethics and remains a standard idiom of political protest.