Robert Carroll says that Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and others were poets and were not thought of as prophets until the exile. Your thoughts?
Question:
According to Robert Carroll and Auld: Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, etc. were poets and were NOT thought of as prophets until exilic times. The collectors of their words labelled them “prophets”. The Koran also does not mention them except Jonah. What are your thoughts?
Answer:
My response is this: Why do we listen to people like Robert Carroll and Auld? This is mere rhetoric. Did Mr. Carroll or Mr.(?) Auld provide any evidence to support this claim? Claims which are not accompanied by evidence are barely worth the paper they are printed on. I am assuming that these Muslim critics did not provide any evidence for this baseless statement. You can safely dismiss them for what they are worth.
Oh, and by the way, all of the prophets were poets. From the biblical evidence and from the biblical canon, the reason that the writings of Hosea and Amos were saved is because he was considered a prophet. His writings never were and never have been included in a collection of poems such as Psalms. Again, this claim is not to be taken seriously. Just look at Hosea 3:1 “The Lord said to me, “Go…” Isaiah’s commission as a prophet is found in Isaiah 6. What is Robert Carroll talking about? Hmmm… Nonsense… Ridiculous…
You point out that the Qur’an does not mention these prophets. Again, so what? Why would a Christian care whether or not a false prophet such as Muhammad mentions Hosea or Amos? Probably he had never heard of these prophets.
John Oakes
