Writers of Prophecy

Prophecy is not confined to the section called “the Prophets.” It runs from the first pages of Scripture to the last — opened by Moses in Genesis and sealed by John in Revelation. Below are the writers of prophecy in the order their books stand in the Bible. The sixteen “writing prophets” whose books bear their names are rows 3–18; the rest are the other inspired writers who recorded prophecy.

* Date genuinely debated among scholars (Joel and Obadiah especially). All dates are approximate estimates and vary between conservative and critical scholars.

Canon order vs. chronological order

This table follows canon order — where the books sit in the Bible. That is not the same as chronological order, when the prophets actually spoke. Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, and Amos likely prophesied before Isaiah, though they stand later in the page order; Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are the latest, after the return from exile. The whole span, though, is bracketed by prophecy — Moses opens it, John closes it.

Before the writers — prophets who left no book

The table above lists the writers of prophecy. But prophecy was also given through men who wrote no book of their own, their words preserved by others. Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch, “the seventh from Adam” (Jude 14-15). And chief among them is Abraham, whom God Himself expressly calls a prophet:

“Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live…” — Genesis 20:7

Both lived long before any writer in the table above — Abraham some six centuries before Moses, who opens it. He wrote no scroll, yet Moses recorded his prophecies in Genesis, and the New Testament repeatedly confirms them — and nearly every one points to Christ:

• The promised Seed — Christ and the gospel. “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Paul calls this the gospel preached beforehand: God “preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8).
• Christ’s own day. Jesus testified, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56).
• The resurrection. Offering Isaac, Abraham accounted “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17-19), and received him back “in a figure” of the resurrection.
• Israel’s bondage and deliverance. God revealed that his seed would be strangers in a land not theirs, afflicted four hundred years, and come out “with great substance” (Genesis 15:13-16) — fulfilled to the letter in the Exodus.
• The single Seed is Christ. “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). Paul presses the singular: “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one… which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).

Some of these are direct predictions; others are promises and revelations the New Testament ties to Christ and the gospel. Together they show why Abraham’s prophetic significance reaches its climax in Jesus — the promised Seed through whom all the nations of the earth are blessed. (See God’s Unfolding Revelation and Messianic Prophecies.)

A curiosity in the dating: on the traditional chronology these figures fall near even millennia — Adam ~4000 BC, Enoch ~3000 BC, Abraham ~2000 BC, Christ near the year zero. Some extend that rhythm — carefully, and without ever setting a date — toward a soon-expected return of Christ. More on that rhythm →

Bible Prophecy Explorer is a free, non-commercial study resource. Scripture references are to the King James Version. This reference lists the human writers through whom the prophecies were given; the great majority of Scripture’s predictions are catalogued and examined across the site.