The Prophets: a Quick Overview | Whiteboard Bible Study

When modern folks talk about “prophets” and “prophecy,” they’re often referring to someone foretelling future events. However, in the Bible, the prophets played a much larger role.
When the Bible mentions prophets, it’s usually referencing the following:
1. Individuals who spoke on God’s behalf
2. The books of prophecy in the Old Testament
If we understand both of these uses of “prophet,” then we’ll be much better prepared to understand the Bible-both the cryptic prophetic passages and the Scriptures as a whole.
Get the full story (and a still of this whiteboard presentation) here: overviewbible.com/prophets/
And if you want to understand how each book of the prophets fits with the rest of the Bible, download The Beginner's Guide to the Bible: overviewbible.com/product/beg...
I use Logos Bible Software for research: www.logos.com/overviewbible

[@wondwossennigatu4015]

I am from Ethiopia and blessed by your teaching and overview of scriptures God bless you abundantly 🙏🙏🙏

[@nataliesohkhlet9565]

Please continue what you are doing.... May God bless you more and more.

[@privatehomeschoolchannel7592]

You are an excellent teacher. I teach as well so I appreciate your crystal clear presentation style.

[@ArmyScoutMom]

Jeffrey your overviews are absolutely invaluable! Helping us to see the big picture illuminates our understanding as we take a deep dive into the Bible. Thank you so much for your hard work and genius!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[@annefonseca3681]

Thank you so much for doing this☺️ I am just finishing up the book of Ezekiel and it’s good to get some more info to make sure I get the full meaning of these books. This is my first time reading the Old Testament and it’s been quite a ride... can’t believe I never read it seriously before. It’s so refreshing to read the New Testament and now finally understand every single reference Jesus makes about the prophets and the law.

[@OverviewBible]

I'm so glad it's helpful, Anne-I grew up reading a LOT of Old Testament, and I felt pretty weak on the New for a while. But when you get that high-level, comprehensive perspective, the details have a place to land. That's why I'm doing this. =)

[@nas6114]

Great 👍 I also recommend to read Quran you might get more things there

[@mohitkhadka9061]

God bless you and your family..

[@jacquelinewolf-xw8cs]

I love these videos. Thank you Jeffrey.

[@beacarr9652]

Thanks! I come back again and again to regroup and reboot - it is so easy to get a little lost sometimes in our daily study of scripture. Was in Jeremiah for two days, got "lost," came here, went back with more focus. Thank you again !

[@doctorSuhailAnwar]

Amazing simplicity well done

[@LoveYorskin]

Blessings To You Brother...

[@johncabrera9954]

Thank you for sharing.

[@mikem3143]

Basic, clear and good for people to know. Well done. Love your overviews. Wish you would do some more!

[@stephanieh.777]

Thank you for this overview! Great job!

[@liahrene4020]

This is so interesting Geoffrey (Jeffrey)! Thank you. I look forward to sharing it with others. May God bless your ministry ☺️

[@kalyraever4979]

I subscribed! Thanks for the treasures!

[@elverabaker5296]

Thank you, Jeffrey...God bless you and the purposes that God has ordained for you to fulfill

[@olufunkefalade]

Your videos are so so helpful. Thanks

[@KevinElamMusic]

Bro this video was so good! Thank you

[@suefuller3014]

Thank you for sharing

[@2010gargoyle]

Thank you Jeffrey for explaining the differences. Much more detail than what I had known. Be blessed always.

[@PurpleFlurple618]

Thank you for this :-)

[@Lukefromdaridge]

Thanks for sharing!

[@mohitkhadka9061]

Praise the lord.. hallelujah

[@jimkitts007]

Thank you Awesome teaching. God bless

[@k.prasannavenkateshkasturi2158]

HELPFUL BRO.

[@susandixson5830]

Thank you

[@stephaniesus.8600]

Love it, thanks so much

[@amycamara894]

Thank you.

[@ThePurpleField]

Insightful!

[@pastorlandon]

love it !!

[@mohitkhadka9061]

Very good work ..go ahead

[@LB-vy6cg]

Thank you 🙏

[@user-ky7jm3bi1t]

Roles of prophet

[@AbhishekJain-je4yx]

Thanks

[@allydidier791]

Do you have / know of any resources that will explain which books of the Bible (perhaps the history books) coincide with when the prophets were living? Explaining the 6 themes here was helpful, but I'd love to know what was happening with Israel when Isaiah was alive and more of the context around what was happening when God was speaking through him. Same with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Baruch, and the 12 minor prophets. Thank you!!

[@kevinverlinden174]

Amen

[@mohitkhadka9061]

Make more videos .. brother

[@worshiphismajesty4235]

Great Work !

[@bcfriardoyle7697]

The color you used for ‘For and Latter Prophets’ doesn’t photograph well, please try a brand new color. Love your channel, cuz I learn best with charts!

[@NohaElsayed]

Insulting prophets in the Holy Book - The Bible kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipvZaKWZqbdrY7s

[@ItCantRainForever2]

Thank you brother. I'm a visual person. Nice breakdown.

[@lalamanchizman8981]

Are you sure the books you have stated were the only book referred to as prophets ? which one of these was Jude 1:14 referring to?

[@mofojackson]

Would love to have your book but unfortunately I really only listen on audible at work as sitting down to read is hard to find time these days. Please do an audio version any make it available for the major audio carriers. I like Audible but whatever haha

[@zeelivx9008]

I LOVE YOU

[@OverviewBible]

Daww, thank you. =)

[@justintr4888]

If you take suggestions for future videos, it could be really interesting to do an overview of Elijah. It just seems odd that his part of history is only covered in a relatively small section of Kings, yet he's important enough that some people thought he was the Messiah (Matt 16:14) and he appeared with Moses on the mountain (Matt 17). Then again, maybe I'm just missing a really obvious connection somewhere.

[@OverviewBible]

Elijah would be a phenomenal character study video: a good example of a character who didn't necessarily contribute much to the narrative of the Bible (compared to, say, Samuel, Isaiah, or Jeremiah) but represented something much, much bigger than himself.

[@shannonm2005]

@@OverviewBible I’m am just now learning the Bible and learning to comprehend it, especially thanks in part to your videos. I am very interested in Elijah and Elisha and I wonder if you still plan to make a video about it? I’ll be waiting patiently.😊🤍

[@ilariapagani9651]

👍👍👍

[@anniemcdaniel4804]

Missed it. Phone call came in. Please replay.

[@elenaashford3814]

woah

[@HarryClarkson-nq5rh]

2023

[@VyacheslavTrotsak]

Классные таблички. Спасибо!

[@belindaelisa5618]

'Billy' Eduard Albert Meier (BEAM)

[@peppydoggy7632]

Wonderful 👌👌👌

[@zeelivx9008]

7:40

[@crimsonactual676]

Isn’t Chronicles also a prophetic book?

[@truthseeker7103]

Hi Jeffrey. I hope you do t mind me asking what Denomination you are? I thought I read a comment that mentioned you researched out of the Catholic Bible? Are you Catholic? Thank you 🙏🏼

[@OverviewBible]

I don't identify Catholic, but I do hope to provide resources on the deuterocanon in the future. =)

[@truthseeker7103]

@@OverviewBible I’m not sure what that is. I’m not catholic myself.

[@OverviewBible]

Protestants often refer to it as "the apocrypha." It's a collection of books included in the Catholic OT but not in the Protestant OT. (The Orthodox OT has their own deuterocanon as well.) These documents were valuable to both the Jewish and the Christian faiths for more than a millennium, but are often misunderstood (and misrepresented) by Protestants. In the future, I'd like to do a video explaining where these books came from, why they were preserved, and why Martin Luther excluded them from his Bible. Once I'm through overviewing every book in the Protestant canon (the lowest common denominator of canonical books in major Christian traditions), I'd like to do overviews of these books, too.

[@obadiahyasharahla7704]

Hey man, since you know so much, tell us what Jesus looked like, Who is the kingdom for and does the lord love, everyone?

[@alizaboby7126]

I-

[@tjhoss6729]

It's an honor and a blessing to be able to respond to your questions. Isaiah 53, the word of God reveals that Jesus was no one that we should esteem. Meaning HE did not stand out in stature. Does God love everyone? absolutely not! because God knows all things. God Chose before the foundation of the world Certain individuals to be holy and blameless. These people throughout the word of God are called the chosen the elect and the called. But to be clear God did not look into the future to see those who would choose HIM because no one would choose HIM! We Iike sheep have all fallen away From God to Adam And we are unable to do so because of our nature. Example: a Pig is strolling along a road at night and comes across a stinky rabbit Or rotten food but next to it lies a clean plate of food the Pig will not choose the clean plate of food because it is not the pigs nature and unless you repent and call upon the name of the Lord acts 17:30 you will Die dead in your sins and continue to Possess the nature of a pig, Which is somebody who loves Their pornography, somebody who loves to get drunk, somebody who loves to lie when it makes them Out to be the Temporal beneficiary, Someone to covets All their toys and their hobbies above loving God. That's the nature you Presently possess... That will only change if, when, you call out to God to Remove your heart Of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. John 3:3. With love and concern I'm asking you To consider waking up!!!!!! and realize..... a bridge cannot build itself!!! neither can a building build itselfe and so to creation cannot create itself!!!! it needs To be created and its creator is God!!!! it is scientifically impossible for nothing to create something !!!! The heavens the birds the trees the sky the puppies the kittens all declare God's glory!!!! you are left without excuse!!! so on judgment day if you are not right with GOD, GOD WILL casts your body into HELL And when HE does so, all of GOD'S angels will worship HIM for doing SO,..... Ridding your SOAL so that it will never defile the new heaven on Earth!!!! My prayer for you is for God to give you ears to hear.🙏❤ Please feel free to respond👍

[@obadiahyasharahla7704]

TJ Hoss all that said , and you did NOT answer my question.

[@tjhoss6729]

@@obadiahyasharahla7704 Zoe gun I believe I did, but the problem that You're having is Romans 1:28.

[@jayman1338]

Who was the New Testament prophets? The church was built on the Apostles and prophets so…

[@thamersa2135]

A lot of prophets in the Bible are also mentioned in the quran as well

[@thamersa2135]

We muslims believe in all prophets including Jisus and we believe that the last prophet was mohammed

[@jsarp5760]

Do you believe that Jesus will judge the world?

[@thamersa2135]

J Sarp not jisus God will , jisus is just a human like all prophets came to bring the massage of god nothing else, we all should pray to god himself not one of his creatures.

[@MasterKododo]

Thamer SA21 that’s a misconception that your community has. Christians pray to God. Yet, we ask that God hears our prayers in Jesus name. It’s no different than you praying on a mat and facing the sun in a certain direction.

[@thamersa2135]

Sir Michael brother is very different we pray on the mat yes but we call god in our pray and do sjoud if you know what is it mean : get on your knees to god .

[@christalangel1004]

Spiritual battles began from some countries.. All Christians of the world must prepare for the tribulations & persecutions that are coming WAKE UP. Were waiting for the appearance of last king of this world period of time 3y & 6m start of counting (BLASPHEMY) and the appearance of prophets of GOD one came from ends of the earth, the isles afar off, the queen of the south having signs, wonders & miracles and have the power to shut the heaven and it rained not in the days of his prophecy (PHILIPPINES)... Psalms 2:8 Isaiah 42:10-12, matthew 12:41-42.. End time PROPHET of GOD with spirit of PROPHET ELIJAH.

[@PrairiePeony]

Your site looks great and I can not wait to research what you have. But I had to make this statement. The bible is a Hebrew bible. Its not Christian, Catholic, protestant or any other bible. Its the Words of YHVH. It should be in the original chronological order ending with Chronicles and not Malachi. Hebrew bible for Hebrew people of a Hebrew culture. If gentiles are grafted in, they need to learn it the Hebrew way, not man's. It changes things. I was led to say it. May YHVH bless you and again, I can't wait to see what you have done.

[@OverviewBible]

Thank you for the kind words! I think I see your point, but I'd offer a few corrections and considerations from a literary and historical perspective: 1. You say, "The bible is a Hebrew bible. It is not Christian, etc." However, this isn't the whole story. While the Tanakh (the books Protestants call the Old Testament arranged in the Jewish traditional order) texts and was written in Hebrew, this is not the complete collection of documents called "the Bible" today. When people refer to the Bible today, it includes the New Testament, texts written in Greek by Christian leaders who came later. So to say that the Bible is Hebrew is incomplete (e.g., the texts of Luke, Galatians, and Revelation were not written in Greek, not Hebrew). 2. The Tanakh was *not* arranged in chronological order. This goes for both the chronological narrative and the order in which the individual texts were written. (For example, some Psalms predate Malachi, and the events of Hosea predate those of Jeremiah.) 3. While some do believe that the Tanakh (or the Bible, for that matter) is, in its entirety, the words of YHWH (the Israelite's god), this is not a claim that the Tanakh makes about itself. It does, however, *contain* what many believe to be the words of YHWH. 4. I agree that the Tanakh's arrangement makes it easier to see the Hebrew literary artistry at play in the final arrangement. However, the individual works that were incorporated into the Tanakh were written at different times addressing different issues. They were preserved not only for the value the Israelites believed they added to the greater library, but also for their value as standalone works. As there is no widely-accepted revelation claiming that the Tanakh arrangement was divinely prescribed, I wouldn't say that there's a moral or spiritual mandate to revert to it (even though I believe it would be helpful). I hope you enjoy exploring my work! Thanks for checking it out. =)

[@karlshaner2453]

The prophet people should know in this dispensation is Joseph Smith.

[@mandycote5662]

He’s of Satan!

[@sideeqaljanabi6544]

I think you should search into Islam , you look like intelligent person

[@OverviewBible]

I wouldn't mind being educated on the Islamic religion--it would be helpful to better understand such a dominant faith tradition in the world today. (Though I don't think one's subscription to any faith tradition is a reliable indicator of intelligence.)

[@user-vz2yp7px1q]

Надо автору рубашку одевать закрывающую руки

[@ImJustSayn.6732]

Are you a Christian? Because you seem to have yourself outside of what it is you are attempting to " teach?" In other videos too...

[@OverviewBible]

Hi, Sharon-yes, though I'm curious what you mean by "outside." For my materials, I try to make it clear that there are things that can be objectively observed and known and things that some people believe. For example, everyone believes the first five books of the Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. (You don't even need to be religious to know and believe this!) That's because this is something you can objectively observe: open any orthodox Bible at any Bookstore and that's what you'll find. However, you can't do this with, say, the story of the Exodus. The ancient Israelites (like many people today) *believed* that a man named Moses led the young nation of Israel out of Egypt by divine demonstrations of the power of Yahweh (the god of Israel). Plenty of people believe this-but they can't observe it, and there isn't much historical documentation of the event. That doesn't mean the account isn't true-but it's also not something I can prove. But it *is* observable that the ancient Israelites used the story of Moses to explain their national and religious origins, and also to explain their eventual exile to Babylon. Does this make sense? Is this what you're referring to as "outside"?

[@tannerripley]

@@OverviewBible - Appreciate the distinction (objective/believe). Have reviewed your material before, it's quality. Would like to see one on just "The Twelve." I'm writing some curriculum right now for it. RE'ing here because, like @Sharon Felix, I'm curious if you're engaging with this material at a level of academic fascination/appreciation only, or if you "believe" Scripture to be inerrant revelation from God from people like the Prophets described here. P.S. Per this video and appreciation of Logos, this resource is tremendous - www.logos.com/product/9676/the-message-of-the-prophets

[@OverviewBible]

Thanks for the kind words! I certainly strive to be helpful. =) I think I understand what you're asking, but I'm not sure I agree with the premise. Specifically, I see a lot of gradient between "This book is cool and I don't believe any of it" and "Everything in this book is *inerrant revelation* from God." (Maybe you do too, and I'm just misreading you!) Like the apostles, I believe that the clearest, most accurate, most precise revelation of Yahweh was the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus isn't shy on the value of Scripture (the Old Testament), and also on the incompleteness of it. So I don't see a need for the text of the Bible (Old or New Testament) to be 100% "error-free" by today's standards, but I do believe that it was preserved in the most faithful way that the people of the ancient world knew how.

[@tannerripley]

​ @OverviewBible, Thanks for seeking to be clear in your reply and mission (understood better here kzbin.info/www/bejne/paPCpaV4rpx0n6c). That's fair. I suspect the difference between your team and many of your viewers is whether or not God has sovereignly overseen the process of transmission of His Word through centuries (including the process you outline in your overview of Genesis) or left it to the faithful efforts of the ancients. As you mentioned, God has spoken through His Son (Heb 1:1-2), but wasn't the preservation of Scripture something Jesus himself affirmed in places like Mt 5:18 and Mrk 13:31? You mentioned the Apostle's view of Scripture-- wouldn't you see them affirming this same thing in texts on the subject 2 Tim 3:16(θεόπνευστος); 2 Pet 3:16 (Peter calling Paul's writing γραφή just like the OT)? I hope those questions are received in the genuinely curious and irenic spirit they are being typed. For clarities sake, I wonder if you'd be comfortable comparing your view of the accuracy of Scripture to something like the Jesus Seminar's methodology (ala Robert Webb), or someone more like Michael Licona, others? Thanks again.

[@OverviewBible]

Hi, Tanner! It's pretty tough to nail down these sorts of discussions online, so I appreciate your tone a great deal! You bring up some good points. There is a lot to get into here, and it's sadly beyond the scope of a simple comment thread-so please forgive me for my brevity. =) I'm not familiar enough with the ins and outs of Webb's and Licona's particular stances on inerrancy, but from what I've read, I think I'm probably a few ticks "right" of Dr. Pete Enns. My readers are pretty wide in terms of their stances on inerrancy. (One of my aims is to create resources that are just as valuable to atheist book clubs as they would be to fundamentalist evangelical Sunday schools-it's a fun challenge.) So to your point, I expect _most_ of my readers to disagree with me and each other on issues of varying importance. OK. Time to try to answer your questions. =) To me, God's sovereign inspiration and the faithful efforts of the ancients are not mutually exclusive. Divorcing the two gives rise to some serious problems-problems which seem to obscure the gospel rather than support it. For example, if God meticulously dictated Scripture, then why didn't he meticulously preserve it? The Septuagint is Exhibit A here: Paul used it, even though it wasn't the most accurate translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. (overviewbible.com/septuagint/). Why did God preordain imperfect translations to proliferate? Why did God preordain that the original copies of the New Testament would be lost to time? Why did God preordain that the three major branch of Christianity would disagree on which books Paul was referencing when he said "all Scripture" (c.f. the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Old Testament canons)? Or one of my tongue-in-cheek favorites: did God struggle to recall whether Festus spent eight or ten days with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem (Acts 25:6)? Scripture shows God using flawed people to accomplish his work over and over and over again. Is it a stretch to entertain the idea that God would allow for human error when his prophets (earnestly, faithfully, sincerely) wrote about him? What if some Christians, out of sincere loyalty to God, have somehow put words in his mouth about, well, his own words? What if we're holding the Bible to a level of inerrancy that it never claims to have? The canons of both the Old and New Testaments were made by humans, after all. Jesus affirms the value of the Law in his sermon on the Mount (which you reference in Matthew 5:18), but from there, launches into explanations of how the Law itself isn't a perfect picture of perfection. In the passage you quote in Mark, "my words" refers to Jesus' teachings-not the Old Testament. There's a range of ways one can interpret the "God-breathedness" that Paul references in his letter to Timothy, and as for the book of 2 Peter, yes, this _may_ intend to rank Paul's letters as on par with the OT, or it might be saying that Paul's letters are exposed to the same (mis)treatment as the OT. (Either way, the book of 2 Peter was the most contested in terms of authenticity in the early church for a long, long time. 300 years after Jesus died, the church wasn't really sure it was really written by Peter-Eusebius notes this in his Church Histories. So … what qualifies *2 Peter* as authoritative?) I'm not saying there were errors in the Bible's original documents. (We may never know.) But since the Bible never really references itself as a whole, the burden of proof lies on the proponents of inerrancy to argue for its inerrancy. And since the Bible never claims to be inerrant, I don't think it's wise to claim that it is.

[@waypasttheline]

You make God sound like Karl Marx....

[@OverviewBible]

[Shrug] I'm a lot more familiar with the Bible than the works of Marx. The OT's influence on Western culture means that you can find Mosaic fingerprints in many European and New World philosophies.

[@waypasttheline]

@@OverviewBible he very clearly reads the Bible with the Marxist literary criticism theory. Everything is about oppressor vs. Oppressed. The Bible doesn't state oppressing others and marginalizing people as the primary reason for Him punishing the Israelites. God's main reasoning based on what the Bible actually says is generally idolatry and sexual immorality. God did not want His covenant with Abraham to be broken and that was the focal point, not oppressor vs. Oppressed. What I meant by my first comment was that this is very clearly a leftist interpretation of the scripture which is antithetical to the Word itself. "Lean not into thine own understanding..." this video very much seems as though he's relying almost solely on his own reasoning for the interpretation of God's word, rather than looking at what God Himself states to be His motivations.

[@OverviewBible]

It seems strange to see someone claim (in public) that their own interpretation of the Bible just so happens to be exactly what God wanted to communicate, and then chide those who use different interpretive methods for "leaning on their own understanding."

[@waypasttheline]

@@OverviewBible I'm not referring to my interpretation I'm referring to literal text. Was subjugation of the surrounding nations by israel something that God really was upset about in the text or did Israel take over their land and make them slaves under Gods commands? So you reading your ideas into the text is what I am referring to. I am speaking about the literal text. Where does it talk about oppression being a main motivator for God in the prophets? Or does the text literally cite idolatry as the main one almost every time?

[@OverviewBible]

If you watched the video, then you know that I list three main complaints the prophets had against Israel, in this order: 1. Disloyalty to God (which includes idolatry) 2. Disregarding/disobeying the Torah 3. Oppression and suffering So I fail to see how you watch this and conclude that I'm elevating oppression over disloyalty to Israel's God. I'm not especially interested in arguing with a stranger who thinks he knows what I think better than I do. ;-)

[@timothythomas1626]

If you are reading from a catholic bible Get a Real Bible. That has not had Gods Laws and Times changed in it.

[@AnthonySmith-hl2pq]

I’ve read and researched the Bible as close to the original text as I was able to and it only leads to the Quran and Islam. Just watch videos on comparative religion by Dr. Zakir Naik if u want or even the life story of how he found the truth in Islam from an ex pastor Yusuf Estes

[@AnthonySmith-hl2pq]

ALHAMDULILLAH I’ve been lead to the truth in Islam. Just study hard, trust and ask ALLAH swt for guidance