How many prophets are in the Bible?
Scripture never gives a total, and the honest answer depends on what you are counting: books, or people. Sixteen prophetic books sit in the Old Testament, but behind them stand named prophets who wrote nothing, whole companies of them, women among them, and prophets again in the early church.
What a prophet actually is
The word itself widens the count, because a prophet is not defined by predicting the future.
W. W. FeredayThe prophets of God did not necessarily predict future events: some did so, notably Isaiah, whose Spirit-given predictions are exceptionally rich and full; but many others such as Elijah dealt only with existing conditions among the people... We first meet the word prophet in Genesis 20:7. It is applied to Abraham! In the teaching of the New Testament two witnesses from before the flood — Abel and Enoch — are called prophets (Luke 11:50-51; Jude 14), but it is nevertheless true that the first man specifically called a prophet in the Old Testament is Abraham.
The positive definition is simpler than most people expect:
W. W. FeredayThe prophet was God's spokesman to the people; he was rather a "forthteller" than a "foreteller." This exactly explains the words of the woman of Samaria to the Lord Jesus: "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet" (John 4:19).
The sixteen books
If you count books rather than men, the number is fixed and the arrangement is deliberate.
Walter ScottThe sixteen prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi (Lamentations included in Jeremiah) are, in our English Bibles, arranged mainly in chronological order... The last historical book of the Old Testament is Nehemiah, while the last prophetic book is Malachi. So from Genesis to Nehemiah you have sixteen books, the sum of Old Testament history; and from Isaiah to Malachi you have sixteen books, the sum of Old Testament prophecy.
The old labels "major" and "minor" measure length, not worth:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe term "minor prophets" was used by the church in early days. Augustine states: "The prophet Isaiah is not in the books of the twelve prophets who are therefore called minor, because their discourses are brief in comparison with those who are called 'greater' because they composed considerable volumes."
Commentators differ on where Daniel belongs: some place him with the twelve smaller books, while the Jewish arrangement described by other writers left Daniel out of "the latter prophets" altogether.
Prophets who left no book
Some of the most famous prophets never wrote a line of Scripture, and the shift from speaking to writing came late.
Henri L. RossierIt is true that Elijah and Elisha, those great prophets, were sent only to Israel, but their ministry was a very special one... The first prophets of Judah speak; their successors write their prophecies. Under Rehoboam, the prophet Shemaiah; under Abijah the prophet Iddo; under Asa other prophets are not yet writing. Only from the reign of Uzziah onward do the major and minor prophets appear with their writings.
Whole companies of them
Beyond individuals, Scripture shows prophets in groups, sometimes by the hundred.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThese are referred to in the Old Testament, and at times they were numerous. They are spoken of as being at Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal... When Elijah was about to be taken up, these prophets apparently had a revelation about it, and they sent fifty men "to look" from a distance... The hundred prophets whom Obadiah hid from the persecution of Jezebel may have been of the same group (1 Kings 18:4). Where these prophets were gathered from, and what their functions were, is not recorded.
Women who prophesied
The list is not made up of men only, and it runs into the New Testament.
Frank WallaceJosiah, wanting to know the mind of the Lord, went to Huldah the prophetess and she very definitely gave the mind of the Lord... We also find in Isaiah 8 the prophetess, the wife of the prophet... Then we have Deborah the prophetess, and I think these are the four in the Old Testament who show the prophetess character. There is another one, Noadiah, in the book of Nehemiah (6:14) — she is linked with Tobiah and Sanballat, the enemies of the truth of God.
Anna in Luke 2:36 and Philip's four daughters in Acts 21:9 continue the same line.
Where the line closes
One man stands at the hinge between the old order and the new.
C. H. MackintoshJohn the Baptist was, according to the testimony of his blessed Master, the greatest "among those born of women"... He was not only a prophet, but the greatest of prophets — the forerunner of the Messiah, the herald of the King, the great preacher of righteousness.
Prophets appear again in the church, then their foundational work finishes:
T. B. BainesProphets, like apostles, were entrusted with the mystery, and laid the foundation of the Church. Some, like Agabus, foretold future events, but this was not their chief characteristic. The most striking feature was the address to the conscience... but when God's Word was completed, all that He meant prophetically to reveal was already brought out, and the foundation part of the prophetic gift necessarily disappeared.
Summary
- Definition first. A prophet is God's spokesman, not primarily a predictor — so the count starts with Abel, Enoch and Abraham, long before any book was written.
- Sixteen books. Isaiah to Malachi gives sixteen prophetic books, balancing the sixteen books of history from Genesis to Nehemiah.
- Size, not rank. "Major" and "minor" describe the length of the writings, nothing more.
- More men than books. Elijah, Elisha, Shemaiah and Iddo spoke without writing; whole companies of prophets existed, including the hundred Obadiah hid.
- A line that ends. Prophets ran through Deborah, Huldah, Anna and Agabus to John the Baptist, the greatest; once the foundation was laid and Scripture completed, that role was finished.