John Walton Interview and review The Lost World of the Prophets

John H. Walton Interview with Will RYan and Matt Mouzakis of Expedition 44
The Lost World of the Prophets: Old Testament Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature in Ancient Context (The Lost World Series)
John Walton is an emeritus professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College in Illinois and an editor and writer of Old Testament comparative studies and commentaries. Throughout his research, Walton has focused his attention on comparing the culture and literature of the Bible and the ancient Near East. He has published dozens of books, articles and translations, both as writer and editor, including his Lost World book series (6 books). Today we are going to be talking about his latest book The Lost World of the Prophets.
Part 1: ANE
I love how you begin each book in the series with a proposition of how to approach the text of scripture. A line we use a lot from you in our own teaching us “the Bible wasn’t written to us but it was written for us”. Please talk to us about accountability to the text, the cultural river, and how to be a faithful reader of scripture
Part 2: Institution
In part 2 of the book you deal with the institution of the prophet and prophecy. I grew up with prophecy pretty much being about predicting the future and you show that prophecy is not about future predictions. Could you explain prophecy and how it works in scripture and in the ANE?
Since we’ve talked about prophecy, what then is a prophet? In proposition 5 you state that “The classical prophets are champions of the covenant in times of crisis”. Speak to this and the role of the prophet
You have a little excursus on false prophets at the end of this section, which I really enjoyed. What is a false prophet?
Part 3: Literature
In part 3 you look at the prophets as literature. You have a few different categories of prophetic messages that help the reader understand what is going on in the text. Could you explain these categories?
In Proposition 9 you mentioned that the implied audience of the prophetic books is not necessarily the audience of the prophet. At first glance some might think “Oh does that mean it’s for me”, but I think you are talking about Israel being the audience even when the prophet is addressing the nations. Could you explain this?
Part 4: Methodological and Interpretive issues
Talk to us about fulfillment of prophecy. What does it mean for a prophecy to be fulfilled?
How does the New Testament use the OT prophecies?
Part 5: Apocalyptic
What is apocalyptic literature and how is it different from prophecy?
You state that the visions in apocalyptic literature are not the message but the occasion for the message. Please explain this
You conclude this section with looking at the olivet discourse and Revelation and show that it uses the same principals as the OT. Could you summarize that for us?